Inventor of Typewriter- Christopher Latham Sholes (1815-1891)
Christopher Latham Sholes is the inventor of the Typewriter. He was born on February 14, 1819 in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania. When he was teenager he moved to Danville, Pennsylvania. He learnt the printer’s trade while working as an apprentice to a printer. In 1837, he relocated to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to join his two brothers, Henry and Charles. He went to Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1845, and became the editor of the Wisconsin Enquirer for a short time. After that, he spent all his time and tried various positions of newspaper. He was then tired of addressing newspapers to subscribers with pen and ink, so he invented several machines, which could be helpful for newspaper, such as the machine that would do the task using preset type and a treadle, and a machine that consecutively numbered railway tickets and bank notes.
From 1820s, there were already some engineers who invented various machines that could be defined as typewriter, but they were slower than handwriting, used dial rather than the keys and didn’t go into commercial use until 1868. A design called cast plate, which would be adjusted to bring the desired letter into position and a hammer would force paper against the plate, inspired him to re-invent typewriter. It took only a week to determine the basic premise of his typing machine. A single letter of type, carved onto a short metal bar could be made to strike upward against a glass plate. The first model came out with the help of a draftsman called Glidden and a civil engineer called Samuel Soule. It only typed the letter "W", but its basic design would become the trio's first typing machine. They made a workable prototype, which was built by the fall of 1867.
The invention of typewriter contributed to the blooming of capitalism and inspired the development of industrial, mechanical, computer and electronic engineering. It was a boon to the mankind. In addition to this he also invented the QWERTY keyboard format for the typewrite and now it is the standard keyboard for all the modern computers and also for the later typewriter. This name was given to the keyboard because of its first 6 keys were QWERTY.

Why did the alphabetical ordering change? To overcome a mechanical problem. When the typist went too quickly the typebars would collide, jamming the mechanism. The solution was to change the locations of the keys: letters such as i and e that were often typed in succession were placed on opposite sides of the machine so that their bars would not collide. (Donald, 145) By 1872, the model had been perfected, although it could only printed capital letters. Shortly after this time, he sold the copyright to the Remington Arms Company for $12,000, and the machine was first marketed as the “Sholes & Glidden Type Writer” in 1873. During the years of inventing, Sholes tried different materials and method to keep improves the typewriter, even after he sold the copyright. At the book called The Early History of the Typewriter by Charles Edward Weller, the letter of Sholes wrote to Charles shows that his great changes about the typewriter. As Charles said on the book, “our inventor has not lost all of his inspiration, as his previous letter would indicate, and still further improvements are being made.” (“Machine improved in 1870”) In 1878, the advanced machine, “Remington No. 2”, which created a shift key and solved the problem of printing both lower and upper case letters. As in the time of Industrial Revolution, the typewriter spread so fast that many countries started using it that created a large market need. Sholes had definitely written an important chapter in the history of 19 century. But a good invention will never stop being developed. Many derivatives of a good invention may even change a lot on both shape wise and function wise after the passage of time. But their shadow will always reflect the core of the origin. That’s the essence of an invention. By about 1910, because there was various manufacture of typewriter, followed the typewriter of Sholes, it had reached a standard design, like the keyboard layout of typewriters is QWERTY, the platen of typewriter was mounted on a carriage that moved horizontal, and key was attached to a typebar that had the corresponding letter inked on paper. Charlie Gere said that, “Invented in the late nineteenth century, as a response to the burgeoning information needs of business, the typewriter standardizes and mechanizes the production of language, reducing the elements out of which it is composed to abstracted signs. “(23) In the late 1930s, because of the widely use of typewriter, Turing use the typewriter in his conceptual machine, which is important for the development of modern computer. In the book Digital Culture written by Charlie Gere state the imagination:

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He based this idea on the typewriter, which can be configured to write in either upper or lower case. The difference was that Turing's machine could be configured in an infinite number of states. He also imagined his machine having a writing head, like a typewriter key, which could write and erase marks on an infinite tape. The tape would contain spaces that were either marked or blank. The writing head could move up and down the tape in either direction. (22)
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The imagination of Turing about typewriter could be defined as the prototype of modern keyboard. The writing head became cursor that shows on the screen of computer nowadays and the function that erase, up and down was completed by delete and arrow key. Therefore, it could be marked that the writing head of conceptual machine and Sholes’s typewriter contributes the keyboard layout for now. However, Charlie Gere believed that using the typewriter is an expedient way for Turing, “On one level Turing’s use of the typewriter was merely expedient: it was a readily available tool that Turing himself used, albeit erratically.”(23) Although typewriter had shortage, it still inspired Turing’s conceptual machine that invoke the development of typewriter, and influenced the invention of electronic typewriter and even modern keyboard of computer. Because Turing’s imaginary device invocation and blooming of capitalism, typewriter become one of the most important and useful invention of 19 century and the QWERTY keyboard layout is adopted on computer all over the world, but some minor variation exists due to different composition of different languages. Sholes’s idea of mechanize the operation of our language did not just create keyboard. It also started a brainstorm and revolution of free our hands. More and more “smart devices” started to show their prototype. In 1937-1938, Voder, a machine contemplated here would take dictation, was invented, which achieved the function that sound recognizing and connecting microphone with typewriter. The working way of Voder explained by Vannevar Bush in his book As We May Think is that: True, the machine is sometimes controlled by a keyboard, and thought of a sort enters in reading the figures and poking the corresponding keys, but even this is avoidable. Machines have been made which will read typed figures by photocells and then depress the corresponding keys; these are combinations of photocells for scanning the type, electric circuits for sorting the consequent variations, and relay circuits for interpreting the result into the action of solenoids to pull the keys down. (41) It is no doubt that Voder is a prototype of voice recognition and the imagine machine. Although the voice recognition is getting the voice from microphone and changing it into data and processing it by computer without keyboard (typewriter), Voder still be remarkable that indicates a new input way for engineers and artists to explore. In addition, Memex, “a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.”(45) Based on the Voder, using a speech controlled typewriter to make users’ selection for storage. The concept of the Memex influenced the development of early hypertext systems, and information system. As the imagination of Memex, the keyboard replaced the typewriter for input equipment that helps user to select and storage information. In another words, the appears of typewriter broad the view of artists and engineers so that Turing’s conceptual machine, Voder, and Memex could be build and developed to be used now.
By around 1960, man-computer symbiosis became useful for helping military using computers in more effective ways. At that time, “By and large, in generally available computers, however, there is almost no provision for any more effective, immediate man-machine communication than can be achieved with an electronic typewriter. “(Licklider, 79)
Although Licklider indicated the automatic speech production and recognition, the typewriter still was the most mature and wide-used input equipment of computer, until the invention of keyboard.
To summarize, Christopher Latham Sholes’s invention of typewriter and QWERTY keyboard layout contributes to the blooming of Capitalism, industrial, mechanical, and computer engineering. Due to the inspiration of typewriter, some artists and engineers came up kinds of creative imagination which becoming the prototype of important part of computer and even digital media.

These are some links related to the Typewriter. Computer v/s Typing - Its the typewriter vs computer which specifies the advantages and disadvantages of each machine. It also suggest the innovation in the technology as the time passes. The drawbacks of the typewriter are overcome with the innovation of computer but still it cannot produce the print out of the written copy immediately like typewriter if it is not connected to the printer. The history of typewriter - “There is no commercialism in this proposition. The typewriter of 1867 stands in a class by itself. It is unique, in that it had no competitor, with no dream of colossal wealth in the mind of the inventor, whose sole aim and effort was the construction of a machine that would lighten the labor of the toiler and inure to the benefit and happiness of mankind.” This shows the actual purpose of this invention. It was for the benefit of the mankind which was the sole aim of its construction and it is also mentioned that this idea will not a dollar out of the Treasury of the National Association. Design Reading book- “Among all the mechanical inventions for which the age is noted none, perhaps, has more rapidly come into general use than the typewriter… The time is coming when it will almost, or quite as much, supersede the steel pen as that has the good, pray goose quill.”

Works Cited Adler, Michael H., The Writing Machine, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1973. Beeching, Wilfred A., Century of the Typewriter, St. Martin's Press, 1974. Bliven, Bruce Jr., The Wonderful Writing Machine, Random House, 1954. Bush, Vannevar. As We May Think. Print. Current, Richard N., The Typewriter, University of Illinois Press, 1954. Gere, Charlie. "The Beginnings of Digital Culture." Digital Culture. London: Reaktion, 2002.Print. Licklider, J. C. R., and R. W. Taylor. "Man-Computer Symbiosis." In Memoriam, J.C.R.Licklider, 1915-1990. Palo Alto, Calif.: Digital, Systems Research Center, 1990. Print. Biography of Christopher L. Sholes. History Articles, 2008. Print. Norman, Donald A. "THE TYPEWRITER: A CASE HISTORY IN THE EVOLUTION OF DESIGN." The Design of Everyday Things. Emotional Design, 2002. Print. Weller, Charles Edward. "Machine Improved in 1870." The Early History of the Typewriter,. La Porte, Ind.: Chase & Shepard, Printers, 1918. Print.