The Impact Of The Typewriter History Essay

The Impact Of The Type compiler fib EssayThe quality salver was one of the vastest turning points in history. Writing, a previously laborious task, was made immensely easier. The typewriter benefited countless business enterprisemen, researchers, and professionals who were all obliged to bear up nether the drudgery of the pen.1It brought public toilet and productivity to people ein truthwhere. Even to a greater extent important, however, was its blow on businesses and order. Companies were grew and expanded in unparalleled ways because of this impertinentfound go in penning. Because of the speed of writing the Sholes-Glidden typewriter brought to the t fitting, the typewriter became the driving force in to the highest degree e genuinely comp both(prenominal)(prenominal)s growth. The Sholes-Glidden typewriter, however, was non the prototypical typewriter to be made, nor was it the outset to be immediate than hand-writing-it was simply the first commercially successf ul typewriter. In range to proffer the roots of the typewriter, one must go back several centuries to a time immense before keyboards.Writing had been a long, tedious swear out since its creation. Words and symbols had to be meticulously copied by hand, stroke-for-stroke, word-for-word, again and again in order to make a single copy or write down a single record. In fact, the writing process was so arduous t eyelid there were people-scribes-whose lives were dedicated fair(a) to writing and copying. They were honored and renowned, too, just because of how tough writing was. notwithstanding the difficulty, however, writing was an integral part of serviceman progression. By the 1400s, people had already gotten tired of books difficulty and looked for reinvigorated ways to reduce this labor. The result was the imprint press, the first disciplineion that revolutionized the universe of writing.2 pursuit this success, humans began seeking for even more ways to repair writing and make it easier. The next major revolution in writing came in the mid-1600s in the form of William Pettys writing railroad car. In the political implements glaring, Charles I exposit it as a machine thatmight be learnt in an hours time, and of great profit to lawyers, scriveners,merchants, scholars, registars, clerks, etcetera it saving the labour of examination,discovering or preventing falsification, and performing the business of writing-aswith ease and speed-so with privacy.3In essence, Pettys invention was really just a machine that wrote with two pens at once. However, Charles Is description could also be applied to the typewriter perfectly. In 1714, just about sixty years posterior, Henry Mill created the next far-famed typewriter. In the patent granted to him by the Queen, Mills typewriter was described asan artificial machine or method for impressing or transcribing of earn, singly or progressively one afterwards the other, as in writing, whereby all writing s whatsoever whitethorn be engrossed on paper or parchment so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from printthe impression being deeper and more lasting than any other writing4Un give care Pettys two-pen writing machine, Mills machine was over a good deal more similar to the 20th century typewriter. In just sixty years since the first not fitting typewriter, tremendous progress had already been achieved on the journey to creating writings close to revolutionizing invention.Invented in 1829, William Austin Burts compositor became the first American writing machine.5A person would type on Burts Typographer by spinning a spacious wheel with many characters on it until his/her desired character was in front of the typewriting point. Next, a hammer would bring the type to the surface of the paper, creating a character on the paper. This, however, was a very slow process-even slower than hand-writing. It was also very prone to spell errors, as proved in a letter he wrote to his wife.6Despite its flaws, many people saw potential in the machine. One much(prenominal) person was John Sheldon, the editor of the Michigan Gazette. He was so strike with the typewriter, in fact, that he even went so far as to write to Andrew Jackson, the president at the time. However, Sheldon was not able to come up with plenty funds to manufacture the Typographer, and the typographer was brought to a premature end. Much similar Charles I and the Queens descriptions of previous typewriters, Sheldons letter was meant to predict the impact of Burts Typographer, only instead managed to better predict the eventual outcome of the typewriter. In his letter, Sheldon wrote that the writing machine will be ranked with the most novel, useful, and pleasing inventions of this age.7Following Burt, many inventors tried to create their own typing machines- simply none of them were about as progressive as Burts.8These later typewriters were not really able to impact the world or garner as much maintenance as Burts, and, as a result, their inventors names and faces became lost in the depths of history.In 1831, the next notable typewriter emerged, born into a time of great impinge within America herself. Originally built as a spare-time activity by John Pratt, the Pterotype would eventually become the inspiration for the first commercially successful typewriter.9Because taking out a patent was very unverbalized during the Civil War, Pratt decided to finish his machine in London, where he was able to obtain a British patent in 1864. His Pterotype aroused much interest and speculation in many English citizens.10In fact, the machine was so profound that when Pratt returned to America at the end of the Civil War, he found an editorial, Type Writing Machine, written in Scientific American that described his machine asA machine by which it is fancied that a man may print his thoughts twice as dissipated as he can write them, and with the advantage of the legibility, co mpactness and spruceness of print, has lately been exhibited before the London Society of Arts by the inventor, Mr. PrattThe eccentric of typewriting is one of the interesting aspects of the near future. Its manifest feasibility and advantage indicate that the laborious and unsatis pulverisation performance of the pen must, sooner or later, become obsolete for general advises.11This description, applicable both to typewriters and to more youthful models, described many important advantages of the typewriter. Unfortunately for Pratt, by the time he had been granted an American patent for his Pterotype, Charles Latham Sholes had already been granted a patent for his typing machine. Because of this difference in timing, Sholess model became much more well-known in America and far overshadowed the Pterotype.12Charles Latham Sholes is normally known by most as the inventor of the first typewriter.13While this is not true, the Sholes-Glidden typewriter Sholes would later invent was i ndeed the first truly successful typewriter. Sholes lived near a topical anaesthetic machine shop, the Kleinsteuber, and would often visit it with his friends Samuel W. Soule and Carlos Glidden. In July 1867, Sholes came across the article in Scientific America describing Pratts Pterotype. Inspired by this Type Writing Machine, Sholes pot out to make his own machine, arguing that Pratts machine was too complex.14 by means of a great deal of experimenting and inventing, Sholes and his friends were finally able to make a machine that was able to print one letter W.15For Sholes and his friends, this was a monumental achievement, and one that really spurred them on to continue with their work.With one letter under their metaphorical belts, Sholes, Soule, and Glidden continued to develop their typing machine until it was capable of typing the entire English alphabet. The first prototype of this typewriter was shaped almost incisively like a piano, with white and black keys made of iv ory and ebony, respectively.16They named their refreshing typewriting machine the Type-Writer after the title of the article that had fenderly animate them.17Sholes k young that without money, their new machine was not going anywhere no take how revolutionary it was. Sholes decided to contact people for support, and so began writing investors (with their new Type-Writer, of course). One of the investors, James Densmore, was very interested in Sholess writing machine. In order to seal his position, James readily paid them the hefty six-hundred dollars they had asked for in return for a portion of the company. He also stayed with the project, constantly labor Soles to create the perfect machine.18While Densmore was infallibly confident in the typing machine, formula of the typewriter (a name he had created), I belive in the invention from the top-most corner of my hat to the bottom-most head of the nails of my boot heels, Sholes was not as confident in the machine he had invent ed, and sold it to Densmore. In 1872, his friend, Yost, visited him in Milwaukee and recommended to him the factory of E. Remington Son, a factory that had manufactured guns and sew to traceher machines prior the end of the Civil War. In 1873 a deal was made to remodel the machine for manufacturing, and the factory set to work creating 1,000 typewriters-1,000 Type-Writers that revolutionized the world of writing and began the industry of the typewriter.19The biggest feature of the Sholes-Glidden typewriter was that one could finally type faster on it than one could write with a pen.20The first achievement Sholes-Glidden typewriters appearance was very different from that of more modern typewriters-it was shaped like a sewing machine (the Remington Arms Company had manufactured sewing machines and guns during the war.) However, the real legacy that the Sholes-Gldden typewriter has left us is not its sewing-machine like appearance, but rather its unique keyboard layout. As Sholes w as creating his typewriter, he found a very annoying problem when the keys were hit too quickly in succession, the hammers that printed characters would get jammed, tied up with to each one other. Sholes decided that the best way to break apart this problem would be to change the keyboard format to a more difficult one with keys commonly used together placed farther apart. sooner of the usual A-Z keyboard layout of its time, Sholes arranged his typewriter in the format everyone is well-versed in today, the QWERTY keyboard layout in order to prevent excessive jams.21As the popularity and success of Sholess typewriter grew and people began to adapt to its new keyboard layout, other companies saw the QWERTY layouts success and followed suit. Today, nearly every keyboard is created in the QWERTY layout-a gorgeous showcase of the Sholes-Glidden typewriters lasting impact.Created by James B. Hammond, the Hammond model typewriter surfaced shortly after Sholess typewriter was released. Seeing the terrible misfortune Pratt had in the timing of his patent, Hammond offered Pratt a large sum of money as well as a dower of the profits if Pratt consented to leaving the typewriter industry.22Then, taking Pratts plans and patents, Hammond created a typewriter that utilized the revolutionary opinion of interchangeable type, or the tack button on todays keyboards.23This new chemical mechanism allowed for two sets of keys on each hammer that could be swapped at the push of a button, allowing for typists to type with a far greater range of symbols and garner despite having a smaller amount of visible keys on the surface. delinquent to a general misunderstanding of what a typewriter was, the Sholes-Glidden typewriter did not sell very well when it was first released. People often confused the typewriter with the age-old printing press, not realizing that the typewriter was a brand-new revolutionary invention. When people began to understand the advantages of the typewrite r, however, society was changed for the better in incredible ways. Typewriters unrivaled speed in producing textual matter became necessities for both priests and clergymen, who were now able to type up sermons and record purchases in half of the time. Despite the typewriters learning curve, everybody recognized that typewriters had much potential, as bear witness by Mark Twains letter to his own typewriterI AM trying TTO GET THE HANG OF THIS NEW FFANGLED WRITING MACHINE, BUT AM non MAKING A SHINING SUCCESS OF IT. HOWEVER THIS IS THE FIRST strain I EVER HAVE MADE YET I PERCEIVETHAT I SHALL SOON EASILY ACQUIRE A FINE FACILITY IN ITS USE.24The aforementioned piece in Scientific American wrote that legal copying, and the writing and delivering of sermons and lectures, not to speak of letters and editorials, will undergo a revolution as remarkable as that effected in books by the invention of printing.25Everyone, no matter what occupation or hobby, was benefited in one way or anoth er. New conveniences previously un-thought of became realities, too, as evidenced by the letters one could have typed and printed for less than a dollar.26Even with these improvements typewriters brought to smell, however, many dummy up objected to many of the typewriters uses. One prominent example would be that of typing letters-when the typewriter was first released to the public, people would be offended if they received a typed letter, thinking that the vector did not care enough about them to hand-write the letter. Even so, though, it simply could not go unnoticed that the typewriter had begun to seep into every part of peoples lives, and generally change that persons life as well.Not only did they improve everyday life and increase workflow, typewriters created many new opportunities for women. Because of the typewriters ever-growing popularity in the late 1800s, women were given a new opportunity to enter business.27While women used to be throttle to working in factorie s and sweatshops, factories with terrible and inhumane conditions, typewriters gave them new opportunities for clerical work, which usually provided higher pay in better working conditions.28Sholes himself soon admit himself that his typewriter provided women with new freedoms, saying, I do feel I have make something for the women who have always had to work so hard. This will enable them more easily to earn a livingwhatever I may have felt up in the early days of the value of the typewriter, it is plain a blessing to mankind, and especially to womankind.29Sholes must certainly have felt very surprised at all of the changes his typewriter brought. No matter who his original target demographic was, his Type-Writer gave thousands of women new lives and new conditions, all the while affording them a springboard from which they could jump to even higher positions in society later on.30The typewriter is one of the most revolutionary inventions in history. It brought speed to writers, p roductivity to offices, and convenience to workers. It brought jobs to women, letters to friends, and computers to people. While the journey in the creation of the typewriter was a long and arduous one, it was a very necessary one. It was created over centuries of work by countless people, people from inventors who improved upon the typewriter to investors who poured their heart and money into these machines. From writers who gave typewriters the public assist they needed to grow to hobbyists whose inventions led to a more versatile machine, each man adding onto the previous mans work. After a long voyage, the typewriter finally met its purpose as it made its way into the lives of every man and woman. Today, everyone uses a keyboard of some sort. Nearly every one of those keyboards is formatted in Sholess QWERTY layout, and every one of those keyboards includes Hammonds shift key. The type-writing machine, though very much forgotten today, still lives in nearly everything man-made, from the keyboards on our laptops to the text on our magazines produced by type-writing machines all around the world.