The Story of the Typewriter, 1873-1923 — John Shaqi
The Story of the Typewriter, 1873-1923Herkimer County Historical Society
History
The Story of the Typewriter, 1873-1923
Herkimer County Historical Society
Typewriters -- History
The mention of telegraphy brings another name into this story, that
of no less a personage than Thomas A. Edison. It has been said of
this universal inventive genius that he has figured in some way in
connection with nearly every development in the field of mechanical
progress during the last half century; so it is not surprising to
find his name written into the story of the typewriter. Early in
the seventies Edison had a shop in Newark, N. J., and he tells how
Sholes came there to consult with him concerning his invention;
a natural thing for Sholes to do, for even in those early days the
fame of "The Wizard" was nation-wide. Edison was able to give Sholes
some very valuable assistance. Later on, Edison helped D. W. Craig,
a former general manager of the Associated Press, in the development
of a machine, built on typewriter principles, designed to facilitate
the transmission of telegrams. Edison also did some typewriter
inventing on his own account. His patent of December 10, 1872, is
for an electrically operated traveling wheel device, which was the
forerunner of the stock-ticker printing machine in use today.
Of the twenty-five to thirty experimental models, built by Sholes
and Glidden during the years from 1867 to 1873, only a few are now
in existence. But though many links in this chain are missing, it
is fortunate that the two most important ones are still preserved,
the first and the last. The first model constructed by Sholes,
Soulé and Glidden, now in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington
(Patent of June 23, 1868), shows a machine so crude that it would
hardly be recognized as a typewriter. A second model, also in the
Smithsonian Institution (Patent of July 14, 1868), is of equal
interest because it has been identified by Weller as identical with
the first machine sent to him by Sholes for practical testing. This
machine shows a great advance over the other. Both machines, however,
have the up-strike pivoted type bar, a feature which afterwards became
standard for many years in typewriter construction. The last model of
the long series was the one shown to the Remingtons in 1873, when the
contract was made for the manufacture of the typewriter. This model,
now in the historical collection at the home office of the Remington
Typewriter Company in New York, although a crude affair, judged by
present-day standards, contains many of the fundamental features of
the modern type-bar machines.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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