,,the ,,story ,,of ,,the ,,typewriter #ahgc-aibc ,,published ,,in ,,commemoration ,,of ,,the ,,fiftieth ,,anniversary ,,of ,,the ,,invention ,,of ,,the ,,writing ,,machine ,,by ,,the ,herkimer ,county ,historical ,society ,,herkimer1 ,,new ,,york #aibc ,,contents ,,page ,foreword1 by the ,president of the ,herkimer ,county ,historical ,society #g ,chapter ,i4 ,fifty ,years ,old #i ,chapter ,,ii4 ,early ,efforts #ag ,chapter ,,iii4 ,the ,first ,practical ,typewriter #cj ,chapter ,,iv4 ,seeking a ,market #fc ,chapter ,v4 ,launched on the ,commercial ,world #hd ,chapter ,,vi4 ,high ,spots in ,typewriter ,progress #ii ,chapter ,,vii4 ,widening the ,field #aae ,chapter ,,viii4 ,how ,women ,achieved ,economic ,emancipation ,through the ,writing ,machine #acd ,,foreword ,local pride in achievement is not only pardonable1 but1 when that achievement marks a real contribution to human progress1 it may even be laudable4 ,it is with no apology1 therefore1 that the ,herkimer ,county ,historical ,society presents to the public the story of the typewriter1 which we of ,herkimer ,county1 ,new ,york1 have seen unfold4 ,half a century ago1 in the little ,mohawk ,valley village of ,ilion1 was begun the manufacture of a machine which1 in that comparatively brief period1 has revolutionized intercommunication1 contributed mightily to the expansion of modern business1 and1 what is of even greater significance1 has proved the chief factor in the economic emancipation of women4 ,realizing the importance of this service1 the writer had the honor of suggesting to the ,society and to the citizens of ,herkimer ,county that its fiftieth anniversary be adequately observed4 ,one step in this observance has taken the form of publishing this little volume4 ,the data from which it was prepared has been gathered by the ,society from a great variety of sources1 including one man who has been identified with the history of the typewriter from its earliest days4 ,it shows conclusively that ,ilion will go down in history as the center from which1 in the main1 has flowed this great contribution to civilization's progress4 ,the ,society takes this occasion to extend an invitation to the general public to send to it any additional historical data which may serve to make our archives upon the subject more complete4 ,we would be glad to be informed1 for instance1 of the names of any individuals now living1 not mentioned in this volume1 who have been identified in any important way with the development of the typewriting machine and its extension throughout the world during the last half century2 the location and ownership of any typewriting machine which is over forty-five years old2 the name and address of anyone who has been a continuous user of a typewriter for at least forty years2 the location and ownership of any machine upon which any very important manuscript or public document was written4 ,in a word1 we would like to make the ,herkimer ,county ,historical ,society's archives the repository where future historians may find complete and reliable information upon the invention which was ,christopher ,latham ,sholes' gift to the world4 ,john ,w4 ,vrooman1 ,president1 ,herkimer ,county ,historical ,society4 ,herkimer1 ,n4 ,y41 ,april #g1 #aibc4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,fifty ,,years ,,old ,the manufacture of the first practical writing machines began at ,ilion1 ,herkimer ,county1 ,new ,york1 in the autumn of #ahgc4 ,this anniversary year #aibc is a fitting time to review the remarkable history of this great invention1 and every phase of the incalculable service which it has rendered to the modern world4 ,fifty years old6 ,what will be the thoughts of the average reader when he is reminded of the actual age of the writing machine8 ,the typewriter has made itself such an essential factor in modern life1 it has become so necessary to all human activities1 that the present-day world could hardly be conceived without it4 ,it is hard to name any other article of commerce which has played a more commanding role in the shaping of human destiny4 ,it has freed the world from pen slavery and1 in doing so1 it has saved a volume of time and labor which is simply incalculable4 ,its time-saving service has facilitated and rendered possible the enormous growth of modern business4 ,the idea which it embodied has directly inspired many subsequent inventions in the same field1 all of which have helped to lighten the burden of the world's numberless tasks4 ,in its broad influence on human society1 the typewriter has been equally revolutionary1 for it was the writing machine which first opened to women the doors of business life4 ,it has radically changed our modern system of education in many of its most important phases4 ,it has helped to knit the whole world closer together4 ,its influence has been felt in the shaping of language and even of human thought4 ,the most amazing fact of all is that these stupendous changes are so recent that they belong to our own times4 ,one need not be very old to recollect when the typewriter first began to be a factor in business life4 ,the man in his fifties distinctly remembers it all4 ,there are even some now living who were identified with the first typewriter when its manufacture began fifty years ago in the little ,mohawk ,valley town of ,ilion1 ,new ,york4 ,such results1 all within so short a period1 indicate the speed with which our old world has traveled during the past generation--a striking contrast to the leisurely pace of former ages4 ,the story of the typewriter is really the latest phase of another and greater story--that of writing itself4 ,anyone1 however1 who attempted to write this greater story would soon discover that he had undertaken to write the whole history of civilization4 ,the advance of man from primitive savagery to his present stage of efficiency and enlightenment has been a slow process1 but each stage of this process through the ages has been marked1 as if by milestones1 by some improvement in his means and capacity for recording his thoughts in visible and understandable form4 ,the earliest attempts at word picturing by savages1 the ,cuneiform inscriptions of ,babylonia1 the hieroglyphics of ,ancient ,egypt1 the clay tablets and stone monuments of antiquity1 the papyrus of ,egypt1 the wax tablets and stylus of the ,romans1 the parchment manuscripts of the ,middle ,ages1 the development of the art of paper manufacture1 the invention of the art of printing1 and even the comparatively modern invention of steel pens1 are all successive steps in this evolution4 ,looking back from our vantage ground of today over this record it is easy for us to see the writing machine as the outcome4 ,the art of recording thought was always destined to remain imperfect until some means had been found to do it1 which1 in the very speed of the process1 would be adequate for all human requirements4 ,even the ancients felt this need2 of this fact the history of shorthand is sufficient proof4 ,but never1 until the nineteenth century1 did men's thoughts turn seriously to machinery as a possible solution4 ,the invention of printing has been described as the most important single advance in the history of civilization1 and it seems to us of today exactly the kind of invention which should have suggested the idea of a writing machine4 ,but fate decreed otherwise1 and more than four centuries were destined to elapse after ,gutenberg had begun to use movable types before the advent of the typewriter4 ,it is interesting to note1 however1 that when the typewriter finally did appear1 its influence on the printing art was almost immediate1 many improvements in typesetting devices having been directly suggested and inspired by the writing machine4 ,we have spoken of shorthand1 an art so intimately allied with typewriting that they are known today as the twin arts4 ,the story of the typewriter cannot be adequately told if this other art is left out of the picture4 ,unlike the writing machine1 the beginnings of shorthand date back to antiquity4 ,some have believed that ,xenophon wrote stenographic notes of the lectures of ,socrates1 but it is at least established that the learned slave ,marcus ,tullius ,tiro1 freed by ,cicero and made his secretary1 developed a system which soon came into widespread use4 ,few high school boys and girls today1 who struggle with the orations of ,cicero1 know that it was the art of ,tiro which preserved these classics for us4 ,the ,notae ,tironianae 7notes of ,tiro7 consisted of some #e1jjj signs for words1 and it is doubtful if stenography would today be so popular a profession had one to burden his memory with an equal list4 ,but the ancients were more patient than we1 and1 once mastered1 these notes proved swift and practical4 ,busy ,rome found much use for its stenographers4 ,atticus1 a famous ,roman book lover1 trained a great force of slaves in the art for the sole purpose of transcribing1 and thus become a real publisher ages before the days of printing4 ,five manuscript readers were allotted to each one hundred stenographers1 and these took down the spoken words4 ,and the cost to the thrifty ,atticus was one pound of grain and a small allowance of wine per slave4 ,even ,rome's greatest men1 the ,emperor ,titus among them1 did not scorn to master ,tiro's notes4 ,in a later age the sermons of the church fathers1 the great ,origen1 ,chrysostom1 ,st4 ,augustine and others1 were noted down in shorthand2 so also in the fifteenth century were the sermons of ,savonarola4 ,roger ,williams wrote shorthand2 so did ,samuel ,pepys1 the author of the famous diary4 ,among later celebrities who mastered the art was ,charles ,dickens1 who1 in his early days1 used the ,gurney system in reporting speeches in the ,house of ,commons4 ,ultimately1 however1 the modern principle of phonography came into possession of the field4 ,this system1 evolved through the labors of ,isaac ,pitman and others1 used characters to represent the spoken sound of words instead of their spellings1 and was such an obvious improvement that1 in its various forms1 it has become practically universal4 ,here we encounter a singular fact4 ,after a history covering ages1 the great improvement in shorthand1 which finally perfected the art1 was delayed by destiny until the very eve of the invention of the typewriter4 ,its coming1 just at this time1 seems1 in the light of later events1 almost prophetic4 ,for it is obvious that shorthand1 even as perfected by phonography1 would have been restricted1 without the typewriter1 to a limited field of usefulness4 ,as a time saver1 shorthand is clearly a half measure1 and1 so long as the art of transcribing notes in long hand could be done only at pen-writing speed1 the swiftest shorthand writer could render only a partial time-saving service4 ,in the days before typewriting1 it would have required more than one stenographic secretary to free the busy executive from the bondage of the pen4 ,he would have needed a complete retinue of them1 to whom he would dictate in rotation1 which is exactly what the great ,julius ,caesar is said to have done4 ,but the ,caesars of history are few1 and equally few are the notables of the past1 in any field of effort1 who had the means or the inspiration to provide themselves with a whole battery of stenographers4 ,in this fact we find one outstanding distinction of the typewriter as a labor saver--it perfected the process which shorthand had begun--it completely emancipated the executive4 ,when we talk of labor saving we usually think in terms of manual labor4 ,but when the typewriter freed the executive from pen slavery it did more than save mere hand labor4 ,it saved and conserved the very highest quality of brain labor4 ,true1 the busy man of affairs works as hard today as he ever did1 but the typewriter has made his labor more productive4 ,it has relieved him of the old pen drudgery1 so that the greater part of his time may now be devoted to creative tasks4 ,it is common to speak of the higher efficiency of the present-day business man1 as though men themselves had grown bigger in our own times4 ,perhaps they have4 ,but let us not fail to credit a part of this growth to the emancipation achieved through the stenographer and the writing machine4 ,the typewriter1 like every great advance in human progress1 came in the fullness of its own time4 ,looking back over the past1 we can now see why it came when it did1 and why it could not have come before4 ,in the days when commerce was smaller1 when writing tasks were fewer1 when the ability to write or even to read was limited1 when life itself was simpler1 the world could get along after its own fashion without the writing machine4 ,as education grew1 as business grew1 as the means for transportation grew1 as all human activities grew1 so the need grew1 and it grew much faster than any real consciousness of the need1 which seems always to be the way with our poor humanity4 ,it is this fact which explains the struggle and frequently the tragedy in the early history of so many great inventions4 ,they do not come in response to a demand1 but in recognition of a need1 and this recognition1 in its early phases1 is usually confined to the few4 ,these few are the real pioneers of progress1 and it is through their labors and struggles1 often unappreciated and unrewarded1 that humanity advances in all the civilized and useful arts4 ,it was even so with the writing machine6 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,early ,,efforts ,the first recorded attempt to invent a typewriter is found in the records of the ,british ,patent ,office4 ,these show that on the #gth of ,january1 #agad1 or more than two centuries ago1 a patent was granted by ,her ,majesty1 ,queen ,anne1 to ,henry ,mill1 an ,english engineer4 ,the historical importance of the first typewriter patent makes this document of such interest that we quote the opening sentences1 as follows3 ,anne1 by the grace of ,god1 c41 to all to whom these presents shall come1 greeting4 ,whereas our trusty and wellbeloved subiect1 ,henry ,mill1 hath1 by his humble peticon1 represented vnto vs1 that he has1 by his great study1 paines1 and expence1 lately invented and brought to perfection ,an artificial machine or method for the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one after another1 as in writing1 whereby all writings whatsoever may be engrossed in paper or parchment so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print2 that the said machine or method may be of great vse in settlements and publick recors1 the impression being deeper and more lasting than any other writing1 and not to be erased or counterfeited without manifest discovery2 and having1 therefore1 humbly prayed vs to grant him our ,royall ,letters ,patents for the sole vse of his said ,invention for the term of fourteen yeares1 etc4 ,the quaint wording of this description has a pleasant flavor of the old days4 ,moreover1 as a description of the typewriter1 it sounds promising1 but unfortunately this is all we know of the invention of ,henry ,mill4 ,he was an engineer of prominence in his day1 but even engineers sometimes dream1 and this perhaps was not much more4 ,no model1 drawing or description of the machine is known to exist1 there is no record to show that they ever did exist1 and the secret1 if there was one1 died with the inventor4 ,but ,henry ,mill1 unknown to himself1 accomplished one thing4 ,in a single sentence he wrote himself down in history as the first man who is known to have conceived the great idea4 ,throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century only one other attempt is recorded4 ,this was a machine1 said to have been invented in the year #aghd1 for embossing printed characters for the blind4 ,of this machine nothing is now known2 nevertheless this early association of the typewriter with the blind is a point worth noting4 ,we shall presently see how prominently the blind have figured in typewriter history2 how much they have received from the writing machine and how much they have given in return4 ,the first ,american patent on a typewriter was granted in #ahbi to ,william ,austin ,burt of ,detroit1 afterwards better known as the inventor of the solar compass4 ,the only model of this machine was destroyed by a fire at the ,washington ,patent ,office in #ahcf4 ,many years later1 however1 the ,patent ,office1 working from a parchment copy of the original patent and other papers in the possession of ,burt's family1 was able to produce a replica of this machine1 which was exhibited at the ,world's ,columbian ,exposition in #ahic4 ,burt's typewriter1 as revealed in this patent1 carried the type1 not on individual bars1 but on the segment of a circle1 which makes it the ancestor of the present-day1 type-wheel machines4 ,although ,burt's machine was never manufactured he at least succeeded in getting it talked about4 ,a letter from a correspondent1 published in the ,new ,york ,commercial ,advertiser of ,may1 #ahbi1 calls it a simple1 cheap and pretty machine for printing letters1 and the editorial comment speaks highly of its possibilities1 should it be found to fully answer the description given of it4 ,both editor and correspondent confess themselves stumped in finding an appropriate name for the new invention1 a point on which ,burt had solicited advice4 ,burt's ,family ,letter ,press was one of the bright ideas suggested4 ,it seems that the honor of naming the typewriter was being reserved by destiny for the inventor of the first practical machine4 ,the next recorded effort was in #ahcc1 when a ,french patent was granted to ,xavier ,projean of ,marseilles for a device which he describes as a ,ktypographic machine or pen4 ,this machine consisted of an assembly of type bars arranged in a circle1 each type striking downward upon a common center4 ,all present day typewriters are divided1 according to their operating principle1 into two classes1 the rotating segment or type-wheel machines1 and the type-bar machines1 and it is curious that each of these principles should have been embodied in the two earliest known devices1 ,burt's machine of #ahbi and ,projean's of #ahcc4 ,but ,projean's machine1 like ,burt's1 contained nothing more than the germ of an idea4 ,projean's claim for his own invention1 that it would print almost as fast as one could write with an ordinary pen1 is sufficient evidence that it was too slow to possess any practical utility4 ,a few years after ,projean's effort we find a new influence at work4 ,the electric telegraph had been invented1 and the effort of inventors to produce a telegraphic printing mechanism gave an impetus to the idea of a writing machine4 ,in #ahdj the ,british ,patent ,office records the application of ,alexander ,bain and ,thomas ,wright on a writing machine for use in connection with the telegraph4 ,these men were afterwards better known as the inventors of a telegraphic printer4 ,as a typewriter1 ,bain's device was of no value and scarcely deserves serious mention4 ,a more important step in the progress of the art was taken by ,charles ,thurber of ,worcester1 ,mass41 to whom a patent was granted in #ahdc1 followed by another in #ahde4 ,the ,thurber machine of #ahdc contains one notable advance2 the letter spacing was effected by the longitudinal motion of a platen1 a principle which is a feature of all modern machines4 ,this machine did excellent work1 but the printing mechanism was too slow for practical use and none were manufactured4 ,a model of ,thurber's machine is now in the ,smithsonian ,institution at ,washington1 and a later model1 showing important improvements1 is preserved by the ,worcester ,society of ,antiquarians4 ,thurber's other model of #ahde was not a typewriter at all1 but a writing machine in the strictest sense4 ,it was designed to perform the motions of the hand in writing1 and was intended for the use of the blind4 ,this attempt was a failure1 but it illustrates again how prominently the needs of the blind figured in the efforts of the early inventors4 ,the same is true of the next recorded effort1 which was the invention of a blind man1 ,pierre ,foucault1 a teacher in the ,paris ,institution for the ,blind4 ,foucault's machine1 which was patented in ,france in #ahdi1 printed embossed letters for the blind very successfully4 ,this machine attracted great attention and was awarded a gold medal at the ,world's ,fair at ,london1 in #ahea4 ,several of them were constructed and remained in service for a long time in institutions for the blind in different parts of ,europe4 ,but the machine never came into very general use4 ,the scene now re-crosses the ,atlantic1 where it is destined to remain until the appearance of the first practical typewriter4 ,oliver ,t4 ,eddy of ,baltimore took out a patent in the year #ahej4 ,this machine1 in the inventor's own words1 was designed to furnish the means of substituting printed letters and signs for written ones in the transaction of every day business4 ,eddy's life record is one of the tragedies of early typewriter invention4 ,he devoted many years of labor to his machine1 and is said to have died in poverty after a futile appeal to the ,government for assistance4 ,the ,eddy machine was highly ingenious and did good work1 but was too cumbersome and intricate for practical use4 ,as we enter the fifties the attempts at typewriter invention become more numerous4 ,j4 ,b4 ,fairbanks received a patent in #ahej1 and ,j4 ,m4 ,jones1 of ,clyde1 ,n4 ,y41 in #aheb1 the latter machine marking some progress in the direction of a practical typewriter4 ,next in order comes ,a4 ,ely ,beach of ,new ,york1 for many years an editor of the ,scientific ,american4 ,his machine1 for which a patent was issued in #ahef1 marked a decided advance over anything that had yet appeared4 ,it consisted of a series of type levers1 arranged in the form1 afterwards familiar1 of a circular basket1 all of which printed at a common center1 much in the same manner as a modern typewriter4 ,this machine1 like so many others of this early period1 was designed for the benefit of the blind1 and printed raised letters which they could read by touch4 ,the ,beach machine did good work1 but was slow in operation1 and it had another very serious limitation--it wrote only on a narrow ribbon of paper4 ,the machine attracted great attention when exhibited in ,new ,york1 but it never emerged from the experimental stage4 ,in #aheg ,dr4 ,samuel ,w4 ,francis1 a wealthy physician of ,new ,york1 took out a patent on a typewriter1 the keys of which resembled those of a piano1 and the types1 which were arranged in a circle1 printed at a common center4 ,it was said of the ,francis machine that it printed with a speed exceeding that of the pen1 a degree of praise not accorded to any of its predecessors4 ,but it was too bulky and costly for a commercial venture and no attempt was ever made to place it on the market4 ,among other men of this period who worked on the great problem were ,r4 ,s4 ,thomas of ,wilmington1 ,n4 ,c41 who1 in #ahed1 took out a patent on a machine called the ,typograph2 ,j4 ,h4 ,cooper of ,philadelphia1 in #ahef1 who resorted to the type-wheel principle of construction2 ,henry ,harger in #aheh2 ,f4 ,a4 de,may of ,new ,york in #ahfc2 ,benjamin ,livermore of ,hartland1 ,vermont1 in #ahfc2 ,abner ,peeler of ,webster ,city1 ,iowa1 in #ahff2 ,thomas ,hall in #ahfg2 and ,john ,pratt of ,centre1 ,alabama1 who in #ahff produced a device called the ,pterotype 7winged type71 of which we shall have more to say in the course of this story4 ,and this about completes the list of attempts which preceded the invention of the first practical writing machine4 ,the reader has doubtless sensed a certain monotony in this review of the early typewriter inventions4 ,it did good work1 but it was too slow1 is the formula which fits nearly all of them2 certainly all of them that were able to write at all4 ,the superior legibility of type over script is an undoubted advantage of the writing machine1 but it is not the leading one1 and the transition in the cost of a writing implement from a penny pen to a machine costing upwards of one hundred dollars could never have come to pass on the basis of superior legibility alone4 ,the great1 outstanding merit of the writing machine is its time-saving service4 ,this is the capacity that was needed in order to justify its existence1 and the typewriter did not enter the practical stage until a machine had been invented which far surpassed in speed the utmost possibilities of the pen4 ,the real point of interest about these early efforts is the significant way in which their number increased as the time drew near for the solution of the problem4 ,these attempts1 during the twenty years before #ahfg1 the year when the inventors of the first successful machine began their labors1 far exceeded in number the sum of all previous efforts4 ,every year the need was growing1 every year more men were becoming conscious of this need1 and more men with an inventive turn were giving thought to the matter4 ,the hour for the typewriter had struck4 ,and when1 in the course of time1 the appointed hour strikes1 it seems written in the book of human destiny that it shall produce ,,the ,,man4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,the ,,first ,,practical ,,typewriter ,the time--the winter of the year #ahff-fg4 ,the place--a little machine shop in the outskirts of the city of ,milwaukee4 ,the scene--three men1 all middle aged1 thoughtful and studious1 each one hard at work on a pet invention of his own1 without a thought in the mind of any one of them of the great achievement which was destined to come out of this chance association4 ,thus was the stage set for the invention of the first practical typewriter1 though nearly seven years were yet to elapse before its actual production began in the little town of ,ilion1 ,new ,york4 ,one of these three men1 ,carlos ,glidden1 the son of a successful ironmonger of ,ohio1 was engaged in developing a mechanical spader to take the place of a plow4 ,the other two1 ,samuel ,w4 ,soul and ,christopher ,latham ,sholes1 both printers by trade1 were engaged in developing a machine for numbering serially the pages of blank books and the like4 ,of these men1 the central figure in the association subsequently formed was ,christopher ,latham ,sholes1 a name which must always occupy the place of highest honor in any history of the writing machine4 ,sholes was born in ,columbia ,county1 ,penn41 on ,february #ad1 #ahai4 ,he came of the oldest ,new ,england stock and his ancestors had served with distinction in the ,war of the ,revolution4 ,his grandfather on the maternal side was a lineal descendant of ,john and ,priscilla ,alden1 so the spirit of the pioneer was a part of his inheritance4 ,it is also of deep significance that ,sholes was a printer and publisher by trade1 the most closely allied mechanical arts to typewriting that the world then knew4 ,as a publisher1 ,sholes knew1 from the necessities of his own occupation1 the vital help that a writing machine would offer4 ,and it certainly accords with the fitness of things that1 after the lapse of four centuries1 the art of ,gutenberg should have furnished1 in one of its disciples1 the inventor of the typewriter4 ,at the age of fourteen young ,sholes was apprenticed to the editor of the ,intelligencer of ,danville1 ,pa41 to learn the printing trade1 but four years later he joined his brother1 ,charles ,c4 ,sholes1 well known in the early politics of ,wisconsin1 then living in ,green ,bay4 ,a frail constitution1 with a tendency to consumption1 of which disease he finally died1 seems to have influenced his early removal to what was then a wild region at the edge of the great pine forest4 ,in the following year1 when only nineteen years old1 he took charge of the ,house ,journal of the ,wisconsin ,territorial ,legislature1 which he carried to ,philadelphia to be printed2 a long and difficult journey at that time4 ,in #ahci we find him at ,madison1 where he became editor of the ,wisconsin ,inquirer1 owned by his brother ,charles4 ,in the following year he went to ,kenosha1 where he edited the ,southport ,telegraph1 afterwards the ,kenosha ,telegraph1 and four years later was appointed postmaster of the town4 ,sholes's activities as a journalist finally took him into ,wisconsin politics1 a career for which1 in character and temperament1 he was very poorly fitted4 ,nevertheless1 he served two terms as state senator1 in #ahdh and #ahdi from ,racine ,county1 and in #ahef and #aheg from ,kenosha ,county4 ,in #aheb and #ahec he represented ,kenosha in the assembly4 ,while a member of the council he was a witness of the homicide of one of the members by another1 a tragedy made familiar to the world by ,charles ,dickens in ,american ,notes4 ,the account given by ,dickens was taken from ,sholes's own paper1 the ,southport ,telegraph4 ,in #ahfj ,sholes removed to ,milwaukee1 where he had an active and varied career1 first as postmaster1 and later as commissioner of public works and collector of customs4 ,he was also for a long time editor of the ,milwaukee ,daily ,sentinel and the ,milwaukee ,news4 ,it was in #ahff1 while serving as collector of customs for the ,port of ,milwaukee1 that the invention of the typewriter enters the story4 ,on the personal side much more could be written concerning ,sholes1 for he was a man of very unusual and attractive character4 ,some might have called him an eccentric1 but his eccentricities were of a kind which endeared him to everyone4 ,he is described as one of the most unselfish1 kind-hearted and companionable men that ever lived4 ,he was also a man of extreme personal modesty1 and of almost excessive tenderness of conscience1 viewed from the usual business standpoint4 ,he was always more than just to others and less than just to himself4 ,some phases of his character were a puzzle4 ,as an editor he made it a rule to copy into his own paper all the adverse criticisms that were passed upon him by his political adversaries1 and some of them were very bitter and unjust1 and he would always omit all complimentary notice of himself and his work4 ,gentle and lovable1 cultured and brilliant1 modest and unselfish1 these were the outstanding characteristics of ,christopher ,latham ,sholes4 ,he was not the kind of man ever to make much money4 ,in the days before the typewriter he had1 by a fortunate chance1 acquired wealth1 but he did not keep it4 ,the typewriter gave him another opportunity1 but he let it pass4 ,from first to last he was singularly indifferent to worldly fortune4 ,one day1 in his later years1 he remarked to a friend that he had been trying all his life to escape becoming a millionaire and he thought he had succeeded admirably4 ,he was always a visionary1 and one of his visions was of a human ,utopia which should witness the abolition of greed and poverty and the dawn of universal love4 ,call him a dreamer if you will1 but one day he dreamed a dream which he proceeded to translate into a wonderful reality1 which has placed the whole world in his everlasting debt4 ,the typewriter was not the first evidence of ,sholes's inventive genius4 ,years before he had been the first to conceive of the method of addressing newspapers by printing the names of subscribers on the margin4 ,his more recent work on the machine for paging blank books brings us to the beginning of the typewriter story4 ,but all else is now obscured by the memory of his crowning achievement1 the invention of the writing machine4 ,what was the influence which caused these three men1 ,sholes1 ,soul and ,glidden1 to drop the inventions on which they had been working and to pool their interests in a new and far greater undertaking8 ,according to one story1 the idea arose out of a chance remark of ,glidden's1 who had become interested in ,sholes's paging machine and one day said1 ,why cannot such a machine be made that will write letters and words and not figures only8 ,nothing further was said or done at the time1 but in the summer of the following year 7#ahfg7 a copy of the ,scientific ,american1 which quoted an article from a ,london technical journal1 fell into the hands of ,glidden4 ,it described a machine called the ,pterotype1 invented by ,john ,pratt1 which was designed to do just what ,glidden had suggested4 ,this invention had inspired an editorial in the same issue of the paper which pointed out the great benefit to mankind which such a machine would confer1 as well as the fortune that awaited the successful inventor4 ,glidden immediately brought this article to the attention of ,sholes1 and it appealed so strongly to his imagination that he decided to see what could be done4 ,general ,william ,g4 ,le,due1 whose own interest in the invention of a typewriter dated back to #ahej1 and who subsequently was the first man to introduce the machine into the ,government service at ,washington1 tells how1 in #ahfg1 he visited ,milwaukee and found ,sholes1 together with ,glidden1 at work on the book-paging machine1 and suggested to them the idea of a typewriter4 ,these two accounts are in no sense contradictory4 ,when an idea is in the air1 it is natural to find more than one influence at work4 ,at any rate1 we soon find ,sholes working whole-heartedly on the new idea1 assisted by ,glidden and ,soul1 both of whom had been invited to join in the enterprise4 ,none of these men1 so far as we know1 had any knowledge at the time of any previous attempts to invent a typewriter1 with the single exception of ,john ,pratt's ,pterotype already mentioned4 ,in the building of the new machine they were1 at the outset1 wholly dependent on their own creative efforts4 ,all of them were amply endowed with inventive talent1 but not one of the three was a mechanical engineer by profession1 or even a mechanic by trade1 and they needed the help of the skilled mechanics at ,kleinsteuber's machine shop in the carrying out of their ideas4 ,of these mechanics1 ,matthias ,schwalbach is the man who figures most prominently in this story4 ,schwalbach had already helped ,sholes in developing his paging machine1 and1 when the efforts of the three inventors were transferred to the typewriter1 he entered into the new work with interest and enthusiasm4 ,as the work went on ,schwalbach began to do more than merely carry out the ideas of ,sholes2 he developed some ideas of his own which were of the greatest help to the inventors4 ,the work went steadily onward and by autumn of the year #ahfg the first machine had been made1 although no patent was taken out until ,june of the year following4 ,this first machine had innumerable defects and was a crude affair in every way4 ,but it wrote accurately and rapidly1 and that was the main point4 ,moreover1 as a self-advertiser1 it soon scored a notable triumph4 ,a number of letters were written with it and sent to friends1 among these one to ,james ,densmore1 then of ,meadville1 ,pa4 ,densmore was immediately interested4 ,like ,sholes and ,soul1 he had been both editor and printer1 and could well realize the importance of such a machine4 ,densmore was a practical man of affairs1 with imagination1 foresight1 energy and courage unbounded4 ,instantly he saw the possibilities of the new invention and shortly afterwards he purchased1 by the payment of all expenses already incurred1 an interest in the new machine before he had so much as seen it4 ,densmore did not actually see the typewriter until ,march of the following year 7#ahfh74 ,he then pronounced it good for nothing save to show that the idea was feasible1 and pointed out many defects that would need to be remedied before it would be available for practical uses4 ,shortly afterwards ,soul dropped out of the enterprise1 leaving it to ,sholes1 ,glidden and ,densmore4 ,the relationship which then began between ,sholes and ,densmore was a strange meeting of opposites1 for two men more unlike could hardly be imagined4 ,densmore is described as bold1 aggressive and arrogant4 ,if ,sholes was a dreamer and an idealist1 ,densmore in some respects was a plain crank4 ,he was a vegetarian of the militant type1 and did not hesitate to remonstrate with meat eaters1 even total strangers in public restaurants4 ,his own diet consisted mainly of raw apples1 a reminder of the raw turnips of ,colonel ,sellers4 ,he was always impervious to the shafts of ridicule and insensible to slights4 ,indomitable and resolute1 in the pursuit of any object he could not be discouraged or repulsed4 ,but ,densmore1 in his own rough way1 was usually kind to the gentle ,sholes1 and it may be set down to his credit that more than once1 during the years of inventive struggle from #ahfg to #ahgc1 when difficulties thickened and ,sholes1 if left to his own devices1 would have become discouraged1 ,densmore's unquenchable faith was the salvation of the infant enterprise4 ,the relationship between ,densmore and ,sholes reminds us in some respects of the similar relationship in the eighteenth century between ,boulton and ,james ,watt4 ,during these years ,densmore consistently played the part of ,boulton to ,sholes1 who1 under his urging1 continued to build model after model1 until twenty-five or thirty had been made4 ,each one of these marked some improvement over the last1 but in the hands of practical users each one showed some defect and broke down under the strain of actual use4 ,it was not until early in the year #ahgc that the machine was deemed sufficiently perfected for actual manufacture4 ,in the meantime other men had entered the typewriter story4 ,one of these was ,james ,ogilvie ,clephane of ,washington1 ,d4 ,c41 who1 years after1 became closely identified with ,ottmer ,mergenthaler1 the inventor of the ,linotype4 ,it was thus the unusual distinction of ,clephane to place his name in intimate association with two of the greatest inventions of our times4 ,clephane's role in the case of the typewriter was that of practical tester4 ,as an official shorthand reporter1 he had a complete and instant appreciation of the boon that the new machine would confer on his own profession1 and he faithfully and gladly tried out one model after another sent to him by the inventors4 ,he was severe in his criticisms of the defects of these models1 as they revealed themselves in actual service1 so much so that ,sholes frequently became disheartened4 ,but it was all in a good cause1 and ,densmore kept assuring ,sholes that such tests were just what were needed to reveal the weak points4 ,thus by slow degrees the original conceptions of the inventors were modified by their growing knowledge of practical requirements4 ,mr4 ,charles ,e4 ,weller1 during this period of typewriter development1 played a role similar to that of ,clephane4 ,mr4 ,weller1 now a resident of ,la ,porte1 ,ind41 is the only present-day survivor of the many friends of ,sholes1 and his invaluable little book1 ,the ,early ,history of the ,typewriter is the most intimate picture of the character and struggles of the inventor that we now possess4 ,weller was in personal contact with ,sholes almost from the beginning4 ,in ,july1 #ahfg1 when resident in ,milwaukee working as a telegraph operator and student of shorthand1 he tells how ,sholes came into the telegraph office one day to secure a sheet of carbon paper1 a rare article in those days4 ,weller knew ,sholes as an inventive genius1 and his curiosity was immediately aroused4 ,sholes told him that if he would call at his office he would be glad to show him something interesting1 and ,sholes kept his word4 ,what ,weller saw was a crude experimental affair rigged up with a single key1 like a telegraph transmitter1 which printed through the carbon paper a single letter wwwww4 ,but it printed this letter in sequence as fast as the key could be operated4 ,if you will bear in mind1 says ,weller1 that at that time we had never known of printing by any other method than the slow process of setting the types and getting an impression therefrom by means of a press1 you may imagine our surprise at the facility with which this one letter of the alphabet could be printed by the manipulation of the key4 ,sholes then explained how he was developing this idea into a machine which would print in similar manner any and all letters of the alphabet--in other words a complete writing machine4 ,weller1 shortly after1 removed to ,st4 ,louis1 to take up the profession of shorthand reporter4 ,on leaving1 ,sholes promised to send him1 for practical testing1 the first completed model and in ,january1 #ahfh1 the machine arrived4 ,sholes1 in the meantime1 had chosen his own name for this machine1 which he called a type-writer4 ,and thus to the inventor himself fell the honor of christening his own creation with the name which has always been universal among ,english speaking users4 ,the proper naming of the typewriter had been quite as long and difficult a job as the evolution of the practical machine itself4 ,those who came before ,sholes failed in this1 quite as much as in their inventive efforts4 ,henry ,mill did not even attempt to name his invention4 ,burt called his a ,typographer4 ,thurber called his first machine a ,patent ,printer2 his second a ,mechanical ,chirographer4 ,eddy1 like ,mill1 made no effort to find a name4 ,jones called his invention a ,mechanical ,typographer2 ,beach called his an improvement in ,printing ,instruments for the ,blind2 ,francis called his an improvement in ,printing ,machines2 ,harger called his an ,improved ,mechanical ,typographer2 ,de,may also described his machine as an ,improved ,mechanical ,typographer or ,printing ,apparatus4 ,livermore1 following the same lead1 called his an ,improved ,hand ,printing ,device or ,mechanical ,typographer4 ,peeler stated that he had invented a new and valuable ,machine for ,writing and ,printing4 ,hall did a little better when he described his invention as a ,machine for ,writing with ,type or ,printing on ,paper or ,other ,substance4 ,of all those who began before ,sholes1 the only one who showed any originality in picking a name was ,john ,pratt with his ,pterotype1 a word the meaning of which few people knew4 ,it remained for ,sholes himself1 in his simple1 direct way1 to hit upon a name which no one has ever been able to improve upon4 ,during the next few years1 ,weller tested out the machine that ,sholes had sent him1 and also later models1 in connection with his work as shorthand reporter4 ,the letters he received from ,sholes during these years1 addressed to ,charlie and ,friend ,charlie1 every one of them typed by ,sholes himself on his own machine1 are striking word pictures of the writer in all his changing moods4 ,in one we read1 ,the machine is done1 and ,i want some more worlds to conquer4 ,life would be most flat1 stale and unprofitable without something to invent4 ,again only two months later1 ,i have made another most important change in the machine1 etc4 ,six months later1 ,i have now a machine which is an entirely new thing4 ,i have been running this about two months1 and in all that time it has not developed a single difficulty4 ,in fact any such thing as trouble or bother has ceased to enter into the calculation4 ,this sounds good and it sounds final1 but listen to the last letter of the series1 written two years later1 on ,april #cj1 #ahgc4 ,the machine is no such thing as it was when you last saw it4 ,in fact you would not recognize it4 ,sholes is always through and yet never through4 ,but this time1 as far as ,sholes is concerned1 the word was indeed final1 for when this last letter was written the historic contract which placed the manufacture and further development of his machine in the hands of ,e4 ,remington ,sons1 the famous gunmakers1 had already been made4 ,all of this happened more than half a century ago1 and now1 after all these years1 ,friend ,charlie begins to figure again in this story4 ,throughout his long life1 ,mr4 ,weller's devotion to the memory of ,sholes has been unbounded1 and recently1 despite advanced years1 he has become the leading spirit in a movement instituted by the ,national ,shorthand ,reporters' ,association to erect a monument to mark the last resting place of ,sholes in ,forest ,home ,cemetery1 ,milwaukee1 which will be worthy of his name and fame as one of the world's great inventors4 ,it is earnestly to be hoped that the efforts of ,the ,c4 ,latham ,sholes ,monument ,commission to raise the necessary funds will soon be successful1 in order that the erection of this monument may commemorate this anniversary year of the writing machine4 ,while ,weller and ,clephane1 late in the sixties1 were demonstrating the utility of the new machine in connection with shorthand reporting1 another man was doing similar pioneer work in an entirely different field4 ,this man was ,e4 ,payson ,porter1 an honored name in the history of telegraphy1 and long known as the dean of ,american telegraphers4 ,porter first saw one of the ,sholes models in #ahfh1 at which time he was employed as an operator in the ,chicago office of the ,western ,union ,telegraph ,company1 and he astonished the inventor by the rapidity with which he manipulated the keys at first sight4 ,his skill was due to the fact that he had formerly worked a ,house telegraph printer4 ,sholes1 of course1 was delighted4 ,he promised ,porter the finest machine he could make1 upon condition that he could receive on the typewriter as fast as any telegrapher could send a message4 ,in due time the machine arrived in ,chicago1 and ,porter thus describes the demonstration which followed4 ,a sounder and key were placed upon the table and ,general ,stager was the first to manipulate the same for me to copy1 which ,i did readily4 ,colonel ,lynch then attempted to 'rush' me1 and failing to do so1 an 'expert' sender was sent for from the operating room4 ,a thorough trial of my ability to 'keep up' resulted so satisfactorily that the typewriter was taken into the operating room4 ,this demonstration was made in the year #ahfi1 and ,porter's description of it gives the whole gist of typewriting in its relation to telegraphy4 ,it lies simply in the superior speed of the mill1 as telegraphers call the typewriter1 over handwriting1 in receiving over the wire1 and it is just this difference in speed which in the past forty years has revolutionized the telegrapher's profession4 ,the partnership between telegraphy and the mill is as firmly established today as that other partnership between the typewriter and shorthand1 and it is worth noting that1 in each case1 the reality of this partnership was demonstrated at least five years before the first typewriter was actually placed on the market4 ,the mention of telegraphy brings another name into this story1 that of no less a personage than ,thomas ,a4 ,edison4 ,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 century2 so it is not surprising to find his name written into the story of the typewriter4 ,early in the seventies ,edison had a shop in ,newark1 ,n4 ,j41 and he tells how ,sholes came there to consult with him concerning his invention2 a natural thing for ,sholes to do1 for even in those early days the fame of ,the ,wizard was nation-wide4 ,edison was able to give ,sholes some very valuable assistance4 ,later on1 ,edison helped ,d4 ,w4 ,craig1 a former general manager of the ,associated ,press1 in the development of a machine1 built on typewriter principles1 designed to facilitate the transmission of telegrams4 ,edison also did some typewriter inventing on his own account4 ,his patent of ,december #aj1 #ahgb1 is for an electrically operated traveling wheel device1 which was the forerunner of the stock-ticker printing machine in use today4 ,of the twenty-five to thirty experimental models1 built by ,sholes and ,glidden during the years from #ahfg to #ahgc1 only a few are now in existence4 ,but though many links in this chain are missing1 it is fortunate that the two most important ones are still preserved1 the first and the last4 ,the first model constructed by ,sholes1 ,soul and ,glidden1 now in the ,smithsonian ,institution at ,washington 7,patent of ,june #bc1 #ahfh71 shows a machine so crude that it would hardly be recognized as a typewriter4 ,a second model1 also in the ,smithsonian ,institution 7,patent of ,july #ad1 #ahfh71 is of equal interest because it has been identified by ,weller as identical with the first machine sent to him by ,sholes for practical testing4 ,this machine shows a great advance over the other4 ,both machines1 however1 have the up-strike pivoted type bar1 a feature which afterwards became standard for many years in typewriter construction4 ,the last model of the long series was the one shown to the ,remingtons in #ahgc1 when the contract was made for the manufacture of the typewriter4 ,this model1 now in the historical collection at the home office of the ,remington ,typewriter ,company in ,new ,york1 although a crude affair1 judged by present-day standards1 contains many of the fundamental features of the modern type-bar machines4 ,the quality of the writing done by these early models is better known today than the machines themselves1 for this writing has been preserved to us in ,sholes's own letters4 ,from the day when ,sholes completed his first model1 he seems to have discarded the pen entirely4 ,from that time all his personal letters are typewritten1 the signature included1 which would be considered extreme1 even by the present-day business man4 ,as for the quality of the typing in these letters1 let it speak for itself4 ,the letter shown on page #ea1 the original of which is in the ,remington ,historical ,collection1 was written by ,sholes from ,milwaukee on ,june #i1 #ahgb4 ,the typing in this letter is interesting because it shows capital letters only1 to which all the ,sholes models were restricted4 ,but even more interesting is the contents of the letter itself1 for in it we find ,sholes in one of his not infrequent fits of deep despondency4 ,we shall be in a position1 he says1 to furnish good machines provided any person is in a position to want them after they are furnished4 ,you know that my apprehension is that the thing may take for a while1 and for a while there may be an active demand for them1 but that1 like any other novelty1 it will have its brief day and be thrown aside4 ,of course ,i earnestly hope that such will not prove to be the case1 and ,densmore laughs at the idea when ,i suggest it1 but ,i should like to be sure that it would be otherwise4 ,think of it6 ,the typewriter a mere passing novelty6 ,and think of such an idea entering the head of the inventor of the machine6 ,how much better he was building than he knew6 ,as we look back on this period of typewriter history we hardly know which to admire more1 ,sholes's inventive genius or ,densmore's sustaining faith4 ,of equal interest is a photograph from the same historical collection1 dating from the same year1 #ahgb4 ,it shows the daughter of ,sholes operating another one of his experimental models4 ,what motive1 we wonder1 ever induced ,miss ,sholes to take such an interest in the machine1 to learn to operate it1 and to have her photograph taken seated before it8 ,probably it was only a daughter's natural interest in her father's invention4 ,it is difficult to believe that ,miss ,sholes foresaw the wonderful future of the machine in connection with woman's work4 ,yet1 as an accidental prophecy1 this photograph of the first woman who ever operated a typewriter should be of interest to every one of the vast army of women who today owe their living to the writing machine4 ,the time now draws near for the opening of the second chapter of typewriter history1 the entrance into the story of the great house of ,e4 ,remington ,sons4 ,in casting about for a suitable manufacturer for the new invention1 the minds of the inventors turned naturally to the noted gunmakers who had already made the name ,remington famous4 ,the origin and the rise of the house of ,remington carries us back many years into the past4 ,the story goes that in #ahaf a young boy named ,eliphalet ,remington1 who was working with his father at their forge in the beautiful ,ilion ,gorge in the ,mohawk ,valley1 asked his father for money to buy a rifle and was refused4 ,nothing daunted1 the boy ,eliphalet welded a gun barrel from scraps of iron collected around the forge1 walked fourteen miles to ,utica to have it rifled1 and finally had a weapon that was the envy of his neighbors4 ,soon he was making and selling other guns1 and step by step the old forge grew into the great gun factory which in ,civil ,war times did so much to equip the northern armies in the great struggle4 ,in time the firm made big contracts to supply arms to foreign governments2 they also added other lines of manufacture1 including sewing machines and agricultural implements4 ,in #ahgc1 when the typewriter begins to figure in the ,remington story1 the first ,eliphalet1 the boy gunmaker of #ahaf1 had already been twelve years in his grave1 and the business was in charge of his three sons1 ,philo1 ,samuel and ,eliphalet1 ,jr4 ,at the time of the signing of the typewriter contract1 ,samuel was absent in ,europe4 ,the president and active head of the business was the elder brother1 ,philo1 and it was ,philo ,remington who was destined to father the new machine with his name and devote his utmost efforts and resources to its manufacture and sale4 ,it was late in the month of ,february1 #ahgc1 that ,densmore came to the ,remington ,works at ,ilion1 bringing with him the precious model that was the culmination of six years of effort and struggle4 ,sholes1 it appears1 did not accompany ,densmore on this journey1 which perhaps was just as well1 for he was far too modest a man to make a good pleader of his own cause4 ,but ,densmore did not go alone4 ,he was accompanied by ,g4 ,w4 ,n4 ,yost1 with whom ,densmore had formerly been associated in the oil transportation business in ,pennsylvania4 ,the story of how ,densmore came to invite ,yost to join him is curious4 ,it seems that he wanted the assistance of ,yost's well known fluency1 in persuading the ,remingtons4 ,evidently ,densmore must have felt keenly the fatefulness of his errand1 for this is the only case on record where he failed to show the most complete confidence in himself4 ,george ,washington ,newton ,yost--to give him the full benefit of his sonorous name--was a salesman par excellence4 ,he had proved it in the oil business4 ,he was destined to prove it again in after years1 when he sold more typewriters through his own personal powers of persuasion than any other man in the early days of the business4 ,had ,yost possessed equal ability as an organizer and sales director he might have written his name into this story as the man who made the typewriter a commercial success1 for fortune gave him every opportunity4 ,fate1 however1 had reserved this achievement for other men4 ,it is now fifty years since the signing of the history-making contract between the owners of the typewriter and the ,remingtons1 and all but one of the actors in these scenes have long since gone to their rest4 ,it is fortunate1 however1 that there is one man now living who was present and an active participator in the conferences which resulted in the signing of the contract1 and his memory of them is as vivid as though they were the events of yesterday4 ,this man is ,henry ,harper ,benedict1 who afterwards became one of the founders of the commercial success of the writing machine4 ,mr4 ,benedict1 like others whose names figure prominently in this story1 was a native ,herkimer ,county boy4 ,in #ahfi1 after taking a degree at ,hamilton ,college1 he accepted a position with ,e4 ,remington ,sons1 with whom he remained for thirteen years in a confidential capacity1 becoming in time a director on the board of the corporation and treasurer of the ,remington ,sewing ,machine ,company4 ,the story of the typewriter contract1 and the events leading up to it1 is thus told in ,mr4 ,benedict's own words4 ,mr4 ,philo ,remington's office and mine communicated4 ,one day ,i saw on the mantelpiece in his office an envelope addressed to him in something that looked like print4 ,i asked him what it was4 ,he said1 ',read it4' ,it proved to be a letter from one ,james ,densmore 7unknown to us all7 setting forth at considerable length the facts in connection with the invention of a machine to take the place of the pen1 that is1 to write by manipulation of keys4 ,he told who were the inventors1 and said that after many years of effort they had finally produced a working model1 and they wanted to find someone to undertake the manufacture of the machine4 ,he wished to bring the model to ,ilion to see whether the ,remingtons would care to take it up4 ,i said to ,mr4 ,remington1 ',have you done anything about this8' ,he said1 ',no1 what do you think we had better do8' ',why1' ,i said1 'of course we want to see the machine2 it is a wonderful invention if it's anything1 and we should not neglect the opportunity offered us to examine it4' ,the result was that the model was brought to ,ilion early in #ahgc by ,mr4 ,james ,densmore and another man1 whom ,mr4 ,densmore introduced as ,mr4 ,yost4 ,densmore1 as we soon saw1 was not much of a talker1 and he had brought ,yost to serve1 as he himself expressed it1 as ',aaron to his ,moses4' ,he did well1 for ,yost was one of the most persuasive talkers ,i ever listened to1 and his tongue never tired4 ,densmore and ,yost opened up the model1 and exhibited it to us in a room at the ,osgood ,house1 then known as ,small's ,hotel4 ,there were present at the meeting1 ,mr4 ,philo ,remington1 ,mr4 ,jefferson ,m4 ,clough1 ,superintendent of the ,remington ,works1 ,mr4 ,william ,k4 ,jenne1 ,assistant ,superintendent1 ,mr4 ,densmore1 ,mr4 ,yost and myself4 ,we examined and discussed the machine for perhaps an hour and a half or two hours and then adjourned for lunch or dinner4 ,as we left the room1 ,mr4 ,remington said to me1 ',what do you think of it8' ,i replied1 ',that machine is very crude1 but there is an idea there that will revolutionize business4' ,mr4 ,remington asked1 ',do you think we ought to take it up8' ,i said1 ',we must on no account let it get away4 ,it isn't necessary to tell these people that we are crazy over the invention1 but ,i'm afraid ,i am pretty nearly so4' ,the party met again later in the day and a tentative agreement was entered into which developed into the contract which opened a new chapter in the story of human progress4 ,the actual date of this contract was ,march #a1 #ahgc4 ,the original contract was for manufacture only1 but in due course of time the ,remingtons acquired complete ownership4 ,densmore was unsuccessful as selling agent and made little money in this role1 but when the ownership passed to the ,remingtons1 he accepted a royalty1 by which he was subsequently enriched4 ,sholes1 either at this time or shortly after1 is said to have sold out his royalty rights to ,densmore for #ab1jjj1 a goodly sum in those days1 but the only reward1 so far as we know1 that he ever received for his priceless invention and the years of labor he had bestowed upon it4 ,as soon as the ,remington firm had agreed to undertake the manufacture of the new machine1 the ample resources and the skillful workmen available at their great factory were brought into service in the further improvement of the typewriter4 ,there was still much work to do1 for the ,sholes and ,glidden machine1 even after the years of labor expended upon it1 was1 after all1 only the inventor's crude model4 ,sholes and ,glidden had worked out the basic ideas1 and that was about all4 ,to make these ideas practical1 in a machine that could be produced and sold in quantities1 now became the manufacturer's task4 ,it was a fortunate thing for the infant typewriter that the ,remingtons had in their service at this time a notable group of mechanical master minds1 and the efforts of these men were now centered on the new machine4 ,prominent in this group were ,william ,k4 ,jenne1 ,jefferson ,m4 ,clough1 afterwards superintendent of the factory of the ,winchester ,arms ,company1 ,byron ,a4 ,brooks1 a professor of higher mathematics1 and others4 ,brooks subsequently attained prominence in the field of typewriter invention4 ,but the most notable personage among these men was ,william ,k4 ,jenne1 and at this time the mantle passes from ,sholes to ,jenne1 who became for many years the central figure in the history of the development of the typewriter on its mechanical side4 ,it is true that ,sholes1 despite failing health1 continued active in the invention of typewriter improvements during the greater part of his remaining days1 but it was under the fostering care and supervision of ,jenne that the ,sholes and ,glidden model of #ahgc was transformed into the first commercial typewriter1 and it was under his continued superintendence that this famous machine subsequently underwent one improvement after another until it finally won for itself an indispensable place in the world's work4 ,jenne1 like ,sholes1 came of good ,new ,england stock4 ,he inherited his mechanical genius from his father1 ,siloam ,jenne1 who was a skilled mechanic and an inventor of some repute in his day4 ,it was in #ahfa1 at the age of #bc1 that ,jenne migrated from his ,massachusetts home to the town of ,ilion1 in the ,mohawk ,valley1 where he was destined to spend all of the remaining years of his long1 active and useful life4 ,these were the ,civil ,war times1 when ,e4 ,remington ,sons were busy on the big war contracts1 and the fame of their guns had already spread to the four corners of the earth4 ,jenne almost immediately entered the ,remington employ and1 in the historic year #ahgc1 he occupied an important position in their sewing machine department4 ,from the time1 however1 of the arrival at ,ilion of the ,sholes and ,glidden model he became identified with the typewriter exclusively4 ,he soon became ,superintendent of the ,typewriter ,works1 which position he continued to hold for thirty years1 until his retirement1 full of honors1 in the year #aijd4 ,we now come to the fateful hour1 the appearance on the market of the first commercial typewriter4 ,the actual manufacture of the machine began in ,september1 #ahgc1 and it may be said that in this year and month occurred the birth of the practical writing machine4 ,in the early part of the following year the first machines were completed and ready for sale4 ,the machine was then known simply as ,the ,type-,writer4 ,today it is known as the ,model #a ,remington and it will always be known as the ,ancestor of ,all ,writing ,machines4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,seeking ,a ,,market ,the general appearance of the first typewriter is well known4 ,a considerable number of these machines are in existence1 preserved in museums and other historical collections1 and1 until recent years1 a few of them still remained in active service4 ,the accompanying illustration1 however1 shows one of these machines which has a special interest all its own4 ,this was the first individual typewriter ever manufactured and offered for sale4 ,this machine was one of the first consignment of typewriters sent to the ,western ,electric ,company1 who were the original western selling agents4 ,later it came into the possession of the late ,walter ,j4 ,barron1 who had been a friend of ,sholes1 and afterwards became the inventor of a number of important typewriter improvements4 ,many years later ,mr4 ,barron presented it to the ,remington ,historical ,collection4 ,a single glance at this machine will show what a transformation had been wrought by the skilled ,remington mechanics in the crude ,sholes and ,glidden model of the previous year4 ,a more careful examination will reveal how primitive it still was compared with the efficient writing machines of the present day4 ,the first thing that will strike the most casual observer is the obvious sewing machine influence1 in fact it has sewing machine written all over it4 ,in this we undoubtedly see the hand of ,jenne1 who1 for years before he took up work on the typewriter1 had been connected with the sewing-machine branch of the ,remington business4 ,this influence appears in the fitting of the machine to a stand1 in the familiar grape-vine design of the pedestals1 and especially in the curious foot treadle which operated the carriage return4 ,the latter1 however1 quickly demonstrated its uselessness as a time saver1 and was soon displaced by the now familiar hand carriage-return lever4 ,after the disappearance of the foot treadle1 the stand itself soon followed into the discard4 ,another interesting feature is the metal case which completely encloses the machine4 ,this in time gave way to the now familiar open construction1 but it is worth noting that in recent years a tendency has set in to return to the enclosed feature of the first typewriter4 ,this original machine had many limitations1 but the worst one of all was the fact that it had no shift-key mechanism--it wrote capital letters only4 ,nevertheless1 the fundamental principles of construction embodied in this first typewriter still survive1 though their application has since been modified or transformed in the march of improvement4 ,in this original machine we find the escapement or step-by-step pulse beat1 which causes the letter spacing1 we find the type bars hung in such a manner that the type all strike the paper at a common printing point1 and we find a mechanism for the return of the carriage and line spacing of the cylinder4 ,most interesting of all1 we find the universal keyboard in very nearly its present form4 ,this was not an innovation introduced by ,jenne or any of his co-workers1 for1 tracing back to the ,sholes and ,glidden model of the previous year1 we find a very close approach to the same thing4 ,who invented the universal keyboard8--meaning the present universal arrangement of the letters on the typewriter keys4 ,of all the questions concerning the origin of the typewriter or any of its features1 this is the one most frequently asked4 ,the answer is that the universal keyboard1 with some minor variations1 has been standard since the invention of the writing machine4 ,some believe that the universal keyboard was invented by ,alexander ,davidson1 a mechanic and surveyor of ,west ,virginia1 who was also one of the pioneers in the field of commercial education4 ,it is known that ,davidson1 in the later seventies1 made a special study of the subject of scientific keyboard arrangement4 ,but there is no evidence that ,davidson ever saw a typewriter before the year #ahge1 at which time the keyboard had already assumed the universal form4 ,it is positively known that ,densmore and ,sholes1 laboring together1 worked out the universal arrangement of the letter keys4 ,just how they happened to arrive at this arrangement1 however1 is a point on which there has always been much speculation4 ,it must be remembered that both of these men were printers by trade1 a most important point in this connection4 ,the usual a b c arrangement of letters1 which would naturally suggest itself to the ordinary layman1 means nothing to a printer1 who is more familiar with the arrangement of the type in the printer's case4 ,here1 however1 we encounter the fact that the arrangement of the letters on the universal keyboard is nothing like the arrangement of the type in the printer's case4 ,the truth seems to be that the arrangement of the universal keyboard was mainly influenced by the mechanical difficulties under which ,sholes labored4 ,the tendency of the type bars on all the ,sholes models was to collide and stick fast at the printing point1 and it would have been natural for ,sholes to resort to any arrangement of the letters which would tend to diminish this trouble4 ,these mechanical difficulties are now of the past1 but time has proved and tested the universal keyboard1 and has fully demonstrated its efficiency for all practical needs4 ,keyboard reform has been agitated more than once since the invention of the typewriter1 but such movements have always come to nothing--for a very simple reason4 ,it is an easy and simple matter for the manufacturers to supply any keyboard the user may require2 indeed the special keyboards now in use number thousands4 ,but to induce typists generally to unlearn the universal keyboard and learn another would be a well nigh impossible task4 ,and it would not pay them to do so1 for no reformed keyboard could ever confer a benefit sufficient to offset the time loss that such a change would involve4 ,the universal keyboard has a hold similar to that of language itself4 ,in the historical collection which contains the original typewriter is another item of almost equal interest4 ,this is a copy of the first typewriter catalogue4 ,we know what the first typewriter was like4 ,this old catalogue1 however1 gives us a different slant4 ,it tells us what the builders themselves thought of it1 and what they wished the public to think4 ,it certainly looks its age--does this old catalogue4 ,the sheets are yellow and time stained1 the illustrations are old wood cuts which carry us back to the days before the invention of process engraving1 and the typesetting is of the period--let us say no more1 for possibly our present-day ideas of typesetting will look as antiquated to our own children4 ,but the first of anything1 whether an automobile1 a typewriter1 or just a catalogue1 ought to be primitive enough to look the part1 and this catalogue certainly does4 ,the ,type-,writer1 so says the catalogue1 in size and appearance somewhat resembles the ,family ,sewing ,machine4 ,a very good description1 as all will agree4 ,the next sentence1 however1 says1 ,it is graceful and ornamental--a beautiful piece of furniture for office1 study or parlor4 ,no one can question the utility of the typewriter1 but the beauty of the machine is not regarded in these modern days as a selling point4 ,there is also another claim that makes us pause4 ,persons traveling by sea1 the catalogue says1 can write with it when pen writing is impossible4 ,maybe so1 but people who have been at sea under conditions when they found pen writing impossible1 will probably have their doubts4 ,but there is food for thought in this old catalogue from beginning to end4 ,the clause in the title1 ,a ,machine to ,supersede the ,pen1 reads today like one of the world's great prophecies4 ,the advantages of typewriting over pen-writing are enumerated as ,legibility1 ,rapidity1 ,ease1 ,convenience and ,economy1 and time1 which proves all things1 has certainly proved these claims4 ,it is only when we pass from the description of the machine itself to ,some of its uses that we seem to discern a halting note4 ,first in the list of prospective users come the ,reporters1 and it is interesting to know that1 to the inventors of the typewriter1 court reporting appealed as the principal field of the new machine4 ,next in order come ,lawyers1 ,editors1 ,authors and ,clergymen4 ,these apparently are the only classes of users who are considered worthy of a special appeal4 ,but how about the business man8 ,we search in vain for any mention of his name until we come to a single sentence1 evidently intended as a ketch-all for the left overs1 which reads3 ,the merchant1 the banker1 ,,all men of business can perform the labor of letter writing with much saving of valuable time4 ,did the builders of the first typewriter fully appreciate the tremendous truth contained in these words8 ,if so1 it is hard to believe that they would have confined all reference to the business man to a single sentence in an obscure portion of their first catalogue4 ,this one sentence1 in this place1 seems to lack the ring of conviction4 ,it makes one wish that the typewriter men of #ahgd could live again to witness the typewriter wonders of #aibc1 and see how many-fold greater has been the fruit of their labors than anything of which they dreamed4 ,so much for what the builders thought of their own product4 ,but what did the buyers and the users think8 ,we turn eagerly for information on this point to the testimonials1 of which this old catalogue contains several4 ,but the first one that meets our eyes engrosses us so completely that we straightway forget about all the rest4 ,it is from no less a person than ,mark ,twain1 and this is what he says3 ,hartford1 ,march #ai1 #ahge4 ,gentlemen3 ,please do not use my name in any way4 ,please do not even divulge the fact that ,i own a machine4 ,i have entirely stopped using the ,type-,writer1 for the reason that ,i never could write a letter with it to anybody without receiving a request by return mail that ,i would not only describe the machine but state what progress ,i had made in the use of it1 etc41 etc4 ,i don't like to write letters1 and so ,i don't want people to know that ,i own this curiosity breeding little joker4 ,yours truly1 ,saml4 ,l4 ,clemens4 ,certainly a queer testimonial4 ,and we are glad that the selling agents1 in spite of ,mark ,twain's prohibition1 had the nerve to publish it4 ,in course of time ,mark ,twain overcame his reticence1 and many years after1 in his ,autobiography1 he tells in his own inimitable manner all about his first typewriter4 ,it seems that he bought it in ,boston late in the autumn of #ahgd1 when in company with that other famous humorist ,d4 ,r4 ,locke1 better known as ,petroleum ,v4 ,nasby4 ,he and ,nasby saw the strange looking device in the window of the ,remington store1 were drawn in by curiosity1 and ,mark ,twain purchased one on the spot4 ,what ,nasby's impressions were of his purchase ,mark ,twain does not tell us1 but we know that they must have been deep and vivid1 for only a short time later we find ,nasby a member of the firm which for a time controlled the sale of the ,remington ,typewriter4 ,shortly afterward ,mark ,twain had one of his manuscripts type-copied on this typewriter4 ,the ,autobiography says that this book was ,the ,adventures of ,tom ,sawyer1 but in this statement1 based only on his memory of the long ago1 ,mark ,twain must have been mistaken4 ,a letter of his1 written many years earlier1 proves that the book was ,life on the ,mississippi4 ,however1 the exact identity of the book is a minor matter4 ,in any case1 ,mark ,twain was unquestionably the first author who ever submitted a typewritten manuscript to a publisher1 a practice now universal4 ,and it accords with the importance of this great step in progress that this original typewritten manuscript should have been a literary masterpiece4 ,another letter1 typed by ,mark ,twain himself1 appears in fac-simile in his ,autobiography4 ,this letter was written to his brother1 ,orien ,clemens1 three months before the letter to ,e4 ,remington ,sons1 and before the curiosity breeding little joker had worn out his patience4 ,it has a special interest because it was the first letter written by ,mark ,twain on his first typewriter4 ,the row of characters typed across the top of the sheet are undoubtedly the work of ,mark ,twain's little daughter ,susie1 to whom reference is made in the letter4 ,mark ,twain's description of the first typewriter as a curiosity breeding little joker applies very well to those who had some inkling of what the machine really was1 but1 on those who did not1 the impression was sometimes very different4 ,the story is classic of the ,kentucky mountaineer who returned his first typewritten letter to the man who wrote it1 with the words indignantly scribbled on the margin1 ,you don't need to print no letters for me4 ,i kin read writin4 ,this particular yarn cannot be verified1 but there were plenty of similar cases4 ,j4 ,p4 ,johns1 a ,texas insurance man and banker in the seventies1 gives the following transcript from memory of a reply he once received from one of his agents to one of his first typewritten letters3 ,dear ,sir3 ,i received your communication and will act accordingly4 ,there is a matter ,i would like to speak to you about4 ,i realize1 ,mr4 ,johns1 that ,i do not possess the education which you have4 ,however1 until your last letter ,i have always been able to read the writing4 ,i do not think it was necessary then1 nor will be in the future1 to have your letters to me taken to the printers1 and set up like a hand bill4 ,i will be able to read your writing and am deeply chagrined to think you thought such a course necessary4 ,another story1 of somewhat similar flavor1 was told by ,william ,k4 ,jenne himself4 ,on one occasion he planned to visit ,new ,york with his family and sent a typewritten letter1 making a reservation1 to one of the hotels4 ,when he and his family reached the hotel1 nothing was known of his application4 ,finally he asked them particularly about his letter and described the way it was written4 ,the clerk then recalled such a communication1 but he supposed it was a printed circular and had thrown it away4 ,as a self-advertiser1 the writing machine possessed some obvious advantages4 ,the only trouble with this curiosity breeder in its early days was that it did not breed the kind of curiosity that translated itself into real buyer interest4 ,the most curious were usually skeptical of the utility of the new machine4 ,they objected to the fact that it wrote capitals only1 and they could not assimilate the idea of paying #abe for a writing machine1 when pens could be bought for a penny4 ,this price question recalls the case of one of the early inventors1 who might have won the honor of anticipating ,sholes as the creator of the first practical typewriter1 had he not become obsessed by one unfortunate idea4 ,he believed that five dollars was about the limit that anyone would or should pay for a writing implement1 and in the vain effort to produce such a machine he squandered a splendid inventive talent4 ,the point that he overlooked was the actual value of the time and labor saved by the writing machine4 ,the world today understands this point perfectly1 but when we find this simple truth hidden even from an enthusiastic typewriter inventor1 we must not be surprised that it was very little understood in the seventies of the last century4 ,the marketers of the first typewriter soon discovered that they had undertaken something more than the sale of a new machine4 ,their real job was to sell a new idea1 and to do this was a slow and toilsome work of education4 ,no wonder the typewriter made such small and discouraging progress in its early years4 ,this lack of public interest was painfully in evidence at the great ,centennial ,exposition held at ,philadelphia in #ahgf4 ,here the typewriter made its initial bow to the public1 and it was carefully groomed for the occasion in a brand new court dress4 ,the identical machine exhibited at the ,centennial is now another prized relic in the ,remington ,historical ,collection4 ,it was a special machine1 with mother-of-pearl finish1 on which had been lavished all the splendors suggested by the decorative tastes of fifty years ago4 ,but the public was neither dazzled nor convinced4 ,they came indeed to see it in fair numbers4 ,curiosity there was in plenty1 but it was curiosity mingled with some ridicule and very little serious interest4 ,very few machines were sold1 and about the only revenue derived by the exhibitors was from samples of typewriting sold as curios for a quarter apiece4 ,the ,centennial ,exhibition will be forever memorable as the occasion of the first public appearance of two of the greatest inventions of modern times1 the telephone and the typewriter4 ,but how different their receptions by the public6 ,when ,alexander ,graham ,bell made his first public exhibition of his invention1 an ,emperor stood at his side and the news of his achievement was heralded the world over in cable dispatches and newspaper headlines4 ,few then realized that on exhibit in the same building was another new invention1 comparatively unnoticed1 which was destined to rival even the telephone in the magnitude of its service to the world4 ,we have mentioned some of the obstacles which made the early progress of the typewriter so slow and difficult4 ,added to all these was another1 the task of furnishing the operator4 ,it was not a case of finding the operator1 for in those days there were none to find4 ,it was another selling job1 usually that of persuading someone to become an operator and then1 in most cases1 of training that operator4 ,truly the early typewriter salesman earned all that he made4 ,this necessity of supplying the operator led to the growth of another distinctive feature of the typewriter business1 namely the free employment departments for stenographers and typists1 maintained for the service of typewriter users4 ,the yearly total of stenographers placed in positions by these departments has grown to enormous figures4 ,more than one typewriter company today places upwards of one hundred thousand typists per year in positions in the ,united ,states alone4 ,this development anticipates our story1 but it all had its beginning in the early days of the business4 ,in these modern days1 when commercial education has become a universal institution1 when the public1 private and religious schools in the ,united ,states alone1 which teach shorthand and typewriting1 number thousands1 when similar schools have made themselves indispensable the world over1 it is hard to realize that fifty years ago there were none4 ,the whole modern system of commercial education is a creation of the writing machine4 ,it is true that in ,america there were some pioneers in this field1 men like ,eastman1 ,packard1 ,spencer1 ,bryant and ,stratton1 whose schools antedated the typewriter4 ,but the so-called business colleges of fifty years ago were few in number and1 in the days before the typewriter1 their scheme of instruction was necessarily limited to bookkeeping and business practice1 with frequently an undue emphasis on fancy penmanship4 ,nevertheless these schools did form the nucleus around which was ultimately built our modern commercial school system1 and it is this fact1 as we shall presently see1 which has made the history of commercial education in ,america so different from the same history in other countries4 ,the relationship between the typewriter and the business school was slow in its early development1 and equally slow was the growth of the general relationship between typewriting and shorthand4 ,a single sentence in the first typewriter catalogue is interesting on this point4 ,stenographers1 it says1 can come to our office and dictate to operators from their shorthand notes1 and thus save the labor of transcription4 ,a very graceful invitation1 but why not suggest to shorthand writers or their employers that they buy their own machines8 ,we see in this sentence that the builders of the first typewriter sensed the partnership that was coming between shorthand and typewriting1 but in those days the great union of the twin arts was still in the future4 ,when did it actually come8 ,from the very beginning in many individual cases1 like ,clephane's and ,weller's and ,wyckoff's4 ,but as a feature in commercial education1 not until several years after the invention of the writing machine4 ,the first school which taught typewriting1 of which there is positive record1 was opened by ,d4 ,l4 ,scott-,browne at #gcg ,broadway1 ,new ,york1 in #ahgh4 ,from that time1 however1 the development became rapid1 and within a few years there were similar schools in every large city in the country4 ,from this time also begins the real success of the typewriter in finding a market4 ,as shorthand writing1 during the ages that preceded the writing machine1 had only a restricted field of usefulness1 so the typewriter in its early years1 before it joined forces with shorthand1 was confined to a very limited sale4 ,and then it made its partnership with stenography--the most remarkable partnership in all business history4 ,of late years another important invention1 the office phonograph1 has made its bid for a share in this partnership1 but the status of the writing machine1 as the senior partner1 is impregnably established4 ,meanwhile the typewriter itself was about to undergo a great development4 ,it is hardly a coincidence that the first school to teach typewriting and the first typewriter which won a wide popularity both appeared in the same year1 #ahgh4 ,this machine was the ,model #b ,remington1 the first typewriter which wrote both capitals and small letters4 ,this first shift-key model1 like the ,model #a of #ahgd1 was the product of several master minds4 ,jenne1 of course1 had a big hand in it2 so also did other men who had labored with him on the first model4 ,the problem of printing both capitals and small letters1 with the standard keyboard arrangement1 was solved by the combination of the cylinder shifting device1 invented by ,lucien ,s4 ,crandall1 with type bars carrying two types1 a capital and a small face of the same letter1 invented by ,byron ,a4 ,brooks4 ,the shift-key machine proved to be a long step in advance1 and the typewriter soon began to gain in popular favor4 ,since the advent of the typewriter in #ahgd1 one firm of selling agents after another had been battling against heavy odds to find a profitable market for the machine4 ,densmore and ,yost were the first selling agents1 followed by ,densmore1 ,yost ,company1 ,general ,agents 7the style assumed when ,densmore personally withdrew from the selling agency71 and finally by ,locke1 ,yost ,bates1 a firm composed of ,d4 ,r4 ,locke 7,petroleum ,v4 ,nasby71 ,g4 ,w4 ,n4 ,yost1 and ,j4 ,h4 ,bates1 afterwards a successful advertising agent in ,new ,york4 ,during all of this time the load of debt on the enterprise grew greater and greater1 until the problem of getting back the amount that had been sunk in manufacture and unsuccessful sales effort seemed well nigh impossible of solution4 ,further changes were now made which eliminated ,yost entirely1 and in ,july1 #ahgh1 the selling agency was entrusted to the well-known house of ,fairbanks ,company1 the celebrated scale makers4 ,as the ,fairbanks business was well organized1 it was thought that their facilities would largely increase sales4 ,one of the first acts of ,fairbanks ,company was to appoint ,c4 ,w4 ,seamans as manager of typewriter sales4 ,with the appearance of ,seamans in the story begins the chain of events which finally led to the commercial triumph of the writing machine4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,,launched ,,on ,,the ,,commercial ,,world ,clarence ,walker ,seamans was born in ,ilion1 and his first employment was in assisting his father1 who had charge of the gunsmithing department of the ,remington factory4 ,this was in #ahfi1 when he was only fifteen years old1 and he continued in this service through the memorable years #ahgc and #ahgd4 ,in the following year1 however1 a company of ,ilion men of means bought a silver mine in ,utah and sent young ,seamans to the mine to look after their interests4 ,here he remained for the next three years4 ,in #ahgh we find ,seamans again in ,ilion1 just at the time when ,fairbanks ,company had been intrusted with the selling agency for the typewriter4 ,they needed some one to look after this branch of the business1 and ,yost recommended ,seamans4 ,philo ,remington thought him too young1 and was not favorably disposed to the selection4 ,henry ,h4 ,benedict1 however1 strongly advised that ,seamans be appointed1 and this was finally done4 ,seamans entered upon his new work with enthusiasm and enterprise4 ,he held his position with ,fairbanks ,company for three years1 and they were years of tremendous struggle4 ,nevertheless some progress was made1 and in the year #ahha1 when ,e4 ,remington ,sons decided to take over the selling agency1 the efficient work already done by ,seamans resulted in his appointment as the sales head of their typewriter business4 ,under this new arrangement progress became more pronounced1 but still the business was absurdly small1 judged by present-day standards4 ,the actual sales in this year numbered #abjj machines4 ,these results did not satisfy ,seamans1 who soon began to form broader plans4 ,he entered into negotiations with ,mr4 ,henry ,h4 ,benedict and ,mr4 ,w4 ,o4 ,wyckoff of ,ithaca1 ,n4 ,y41 a widely known and successful court reporter1 which resulted in the organization1 on ,august #a1 #ahhb1 of the historic firm of ,wyckoff1 ,seamans ,benedict4 ,the new firm made a contract with the ,remingtons1 who conceded to them the selling agency for the entire world4 ,they agreed to take all the machines the ,remingtons could build1 who on their part agreed to furnish all that could be sold4 ,this contract marked the turning point in the history of the writing machine4 ,the members of the firm of ,wyckoff1 ,seamans ,benedict were the real founders of the commercial success of the typewriter1 and the personalities of these three men are as interesting as their achievements were notable4 ,william ,ozmun ,wyckoff was a giant of a man1 in mind1 heart and body1 robust and whole-souled1 whose dauntless courage and invincible faith in the typewriter were reminiscent of ,densmore4 ,when the ,remingtons first began to manufacture the typewriter1 he saw one of the new machines1 and his own profession of court reporter gave him an instant vision of its future4 ,he immediately secured the selling agency for ,central ,new ,york ,state and his first act was to place the typewriter in service in his own offices in ,ithaca4 ,here1 at the very outset1 he encountered a situation which furnished a real test of his faith4 ,every member of his staff rebelled against the use of the new machines4 ,but ,wyckoff was equal to situations of that sort4 ,use it or quit1 was his answer1 and they used it4 ,this was all very well for a start1 but it was quite different in the great outside territory1 where the possible buyers were not open to this particular form of sales argument4 ,one of the first to enter ,wyckoff's employ as typewriter salesman was ,j4 ,walter ,earle1 hardly more than a boy then1 who many years after became president of the ,remington ,typewriter ,company4 ,the letters written by ,wyckoff to ,earle during the late seventies1 filled with sage advice and admonition1 selling suggestions and unfailing encouragement1 supply a graphic picture of all that the typewriter salesman of that day was up against4 ,they also furnish an intimate and attractive picture of the man ,wyckoff himself1 sketched unconsciously by his own hand4 ,the characteristics of the two other members of the firm1 ,clarence ,w4 ,seamans and ,henry ,h4 ,benedict1 have already revealed themselves in this story4 ,seamans1 like ,yost1 was a wonderful salesman4 ,better still1 he was a natural leader1 with a gift for the successful handling of marketing problems which proved of incalculable value in establishing the business on a successful basis4 ,mr4 ,benedict likewise possessed marketing abilities of a high order1 which he later demonstrated by his important work in organizing the typewriter business in ,europe1 where the difficulties encountered were even greater than in the ,american field4 ,he possessed a habit of thoroughness1 combined with a foresight and soundness of business judgment which1 time and again1 were of vital service to the firm4 ,taken all in all1 these three men represented a combination of qualities not often found in a business partnership4 ,the new firm possessed unbounded energy and enthusiasm but its material resources were limited4 ,many discouragements were encountered1 but they overcame them all and the business increased steadily4 ,the firm started in a very limited fashion1 occupying a corner of the ,remington concern's office at #bha ,broadway1 ,new ,york1 the staff consisting of a few clerks with two or three mechanics1 perhaps numbering ten persons in all4 ,in #ahhd the firm moved to its own offices at #cci ,broadway4 ,in the winter of #ahhe-ahhf1 while the business was in the full tide of success1 a disquieting rumor reached the three partners that the ,remingtons were planning to sell their interest in the typewriter4 ,it had been known for years that the old house1 owing mainly to wasteful factory management1 had been sinking deeper and deeper into debt1 and now it seemed that the crisis had come4 ,here was a situation which imperiled the future of the whole enterprise1 but a difficulty is often a disguised opportunity1 and so it proved to be in this case4 ,henry ,h4 ,benedict immediately took the train to ,ilion and his interview with ,philo ,remington in ,march1 #ahhf1 which resulted in the transfer of the ownership of the typewriter1 is another one of the big moments in this story4 ,here is the account of what happened1 as told by ,mr4 ,benedict himself4 ,i arrived in the morning and spent the fore-noon with ,mr4 ,philo ,remington4 ,i began by asking him if the rumor was true that they were thinking of disposing of their typewriter interests4 ,he said it was true4 ,i said1 ',but why do you do this8' ,he replied1 ',we need money4' ,i said1 ',may ,i ask for what purpose8' ,he replied1 ',to pay our debts4' ',but1' ,i said1 'you could not expect to get for the typewriter enough to pay a tenth of your debts4' ',well1 perhaps not1' he said1 'but it would satisfy the more pressing of our creditors4' ',mr4 ,remington1' ,i said1 ',i was with you for thirteen years1 and served you to the best of my ability1 and ,i was absolutely loyal to you4 ,i am going to be loyal now4 ,my advice to you is not to sell your typewriter4 ,the amount of money you would get would not go far2 ninety per cent of your creditors would still be unpaid1 and they will be after you more savagely if you pay the claims of others and leave theirs unsatisfied4' ,he shook his head and said1 ',well1 we think we had better sell4' ',is that your final decision8' ,i asked4 ,he answered1 ',yes1 ,i think so4' ,i said1 ',have you a customer for your plant8' ',well1' he said1 'there are some people talking about taking it4' ',have you committed yourself to them8' ,i asked4 ,he replied1 ',no1 not absolutely4' ',you're determined to sell1 are you8' ',yes6' ',very well1' ,i said4 ',i have given my advice4 ,now ,i want to buy the plant4' ,then we began to talk business1 and before night ,i telegraphed to ,new ,york to send me a certified check for ten thousand dollars to bind the bargain4 ,thus it was that the entire plant used in the manufacture of the machine1 together with all patent rights1 franchises1 etc41 necessary to a complete control of the business were purchased by ,wyckoff1 ,seamans ,benedict4 ,the manufacturing plant was established in the building formerly occupied by the ,agricultural ,works1 and ,w4 ,k4 ,jenne was installed as mechanical superintendent4 ,the typewriter enterprise since that day has been entirely separate and distinct from the other activities with which the name ,remington is associated1 and thus it escaped the disasters which shortly after befell the old and honored house of ,e4 ,remington ,sons4 ,in #ahhh the need for greater office facilities had become so urgent that ,wyckoff1 ,seamans ,benedict removed their ,new ,york office to #cbg ,broadway1 which remained their home office for nearly thirty years4 ,at first only one or two floors were occupied1 then the entire building1 and finally the two additional buildings on either side4 ,in #ahib the original co-partnership was changed into a mercantile corporation which included the manufacturing company1 and in #aijc the corporate name was changed to ,remington ,typewriter ,company1 of which ,mr4 ,benedict became the first president4 ,of the three members of the original firm1 ,wyckoff died in #ahie and ,seamans in #aiae4 ,henry ,h4 ,benedict1 the surviving partner1 has been from the beginning a director of the company1 and enjoys in this anniversary year a unique distinction as the only man now living whose identification with the typewriter business has been continuous throughout the entire fifty years of its history4 ,the progress of the typewriter1 once a real start had been made1 continued without serious interruption4 ,the very conditions which made early progress so slow and difficult now began to reverse themselves4 ,the machine1 with widening opportunities1 proved itself more than ever a most efficient self-advertiser1 and every typewriter in actual service carried its own message of legibility and utility to many thousands4 ,in course of time typewriting became as familiar as pen writing in business correspondence1 and the superior speed of the machine soon suggested new uses for which the pen had never been employed4 ,the typewritten circular letter came into being1 the forerunner of the various duplicating devices1 and indeed of the whole system of direct-by-mail advertising as we know it today4 ,the ,united ,states mail bags soon felt1 in their bulkier contents1 the impetus of the new machine4 ,general business also felt this impetus4 ,formerly lashed to a pen point1 it now became articulate1 and as business creates business1 so the new forms of business activity1 fostered by the typewriter1 opened new and wider opportunities for ever increasing sales4 ,the machine1 which won its entry as a labor saver1 soon intrenched itself as a business builder1 and general business1 which was merely helped by the machine at the outset1 became completely transformed by it in the end4 ,this wonderful transition has come about so gradually that the business world1 though proudly aware of the fact itself1 is only dimly conscious of the part played by the great transforming factor4 ,we call this the age of big business1 and so it is1 but it is only necessary to compare the average business office and business methods of today with those of fifty years ago to realize the extent to which modern business is an actual outcome of the writing machine4 ,the story of the typewriter in ,europe1 and in foreign countries generally1 is very nearly a repetition of its history in the ,united ,states4 ,in every case we find the same early years of struggle and in the end the same transforming influence on business and business methods4 ,the introductory struggle in ,america was hard enough1 but in the ,old ,world there were some even greater obstacles to be encountered4 ,here the writing machine was forced to make headway against the more deliberate and leisurely habits of the people1 and the more deeply rooted conservatism of an older civilization4 ,there were also some graver practical difficulties1 as we shall presently see4 ,the systematic invasion of the ,european market began very soon after the firm of ,wyckoff1 ,seamans ,benedict took up their great selling task1 and it was mainly through the efforts of ,mr4 ,benedict that the foundations of the business were laid in the ,old ,world countries4 ,prior to this time ,e4 ,remington ,sons had made their own attack on the ,british market1 and their first ,british catalogue1 published over the imprint of their ,london address1 #ej-ed ,queen ,victoria ,street1 ,e4 ,c41 contains an impressive list of press notices in ,british journals1 published at different times in #ahgf1 also a list of patrons which includes the ,king of the ,netherlands1 the ,duke of ,bedford1 the ,marquis of ,salisbury1 ,earl ,granville and other notables of the period4 ,there is testimonial evidence in this old catalogue that machines were sold in ,england as early as the year #ahgd1 and similar early efforts are traceable in other ,european countries4 ,but this early selling effort was not sustained1 and it was more than ten years later before any real impression was made on the ,european market4 ,the ,london office of ,wyckoff1 ,seamans ,benedict was opened in #ahhf1 and by the year #ahij the machine had begun to occupy an important place in the ,british commercial world4 ,the successful introduction of the machine in most of the ,continental ,european countries belongs to the same period4 ,offices were opened in ,paris in #ahhd1 and direct representation was established in ,belgium in #ahhh1 ,italy in #ahhi1 ,holland in #ahij1 ,denmark in #ahic1 and ,greece in #ahif4 ,the ,german market was entered in #ahhc1 and the ,russian1 with a special machine equipped to write the ,russian characters1 in #ahhe4 ,from the very outset of its career in ,europe the typewriter has been used by celebrities without number4 ,many of the crowned heads have been included among its personal users4 ,lloyd ,george1 many years ago1 while still an obscure and struggling attorney in ,wales1 owned and operated a ,model #b ,remington4 ,count ,tolstoi1 that earnest disciple of the primitive life1 to whom modern machinery in every form was abhorrent1 was glad to make an exception in its favor1 and many of his extant photographs show him in the act of giving direct dictation to his daughter on the typewriter4 ,indeed it is not surprising to find the writing machine thus intimately associated with the great1 for the very nature of its service1 the conservation of brain effort1 places it in a far different class from any mere manual labor saver4 ,one development of the typewriter business in nearly all foreign countries is totally different from anything known in ,america4 ,we have already spoken of the modern system of commercial education as the creation of the typewriter4 ,in ,america1 however1 the typewriter companies and commercial schools1 though each is a necessity to the other1 have grown up as distinct and separate institutions4 ,this may be accounted for by the fact that the germ of our modern commercial school system existed in a few of the so-called business colleges before the days of the typewriter4 ,in ,england also1 before the advent of the writing machine1 we find a few schools teaching the recently invented art of phonography1 the latter-day development of the ancient art of shorthand4 ,in other foreign countries1 however1 there was not even the germ of the commercial school as we know it today4 ,if the task of getting operators during the early days of the business was a difficult one in ,america1 in other countries it was formidable4 ,it soon became evident that the problem could be solved only in one way1 by the founding of schools of shorthand and typewriting1 owned and operated by the typewriter company itself4 ,this was the origin of the ,remington system of commercial schools1 which were established by the company or its selling representatives in practically every country on earth1 with the one conspicuous exception of the ,united ,states4 ,even in ,great ,britain it was found necessary to establish these schools at several points in order to insure a sufficient supply of competent operators1 and in the countries of ,continental ,europe there was no other recourse4 ,the ,remington schools at ,paris1 ,berlin1 ,vienna1 ,moscow1 ,petrograd and many other cities throughout ,europe were established soon after the machine had invaded these markets4 ,in other continents the business met similar conditions and went through the same process4 ,in ,australia the great ,remington schools at ,melbourne1 ,sydney and other cities have graduated many thousands of operators2 so also in ,south ,africa1 and throughout the entire ,south ,american continent1 where not only the large centers but even many of the smaller cities now have their ,remington schools4 ,in the ,asiatic countries the problem of securing competent stenographers and typists assumed another phase4 ,here the stenographers and typists are all natives1 ,chinese1 ,japanese1 ,siamese1 ,javanese1 ,hindu1 etc41 and they are all men1 for this is one part of the world where the modern girl typist has not yet arrived4 ,in the countries of the ,far ,east1 the ,chinese predominate among the practitioners of the twin arts4 ,it's a stiff job1 that of acquiring such mastery of a foreign language that the stenographer can take and transcribe accurately the shorthand notes taken from dictation in that language1 but the ,oriental peoples1 with their remarkable linguistic gifts1 have proved equal to the task4 ,the schools of shorthand and typewriting in the ,eastern countries are easily the most interesting in all the world1 and it is noteworthy that these schools maintain the highest standards of efficiency4 ,the ,remington schools in various cities throughout ,india1 which train the ,babu or educated native in the twin arts1 have been for many years the main source of supply of the typists employed in all branches of the ,indian ,government service4 ,the founders of the typewriter business had little realization that out of their efforts would come a new plan of practical education2 still less did they realize that over a great part of the earth's surface the task of developing this plan would fall on the manufacturer himself4 ,in their broad effect on human society1 the by-products of the typewriter business1 in more than one phase1 have been quite as important as the main idea4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,high ,,spots ,,in ,,typewriter ,,progress ,we have noted the fundamental features contained in the original typewriter of #ahgc4 ,it had the step-by-step escapement mechanism which caused the letter-spacing travel of the paper carriage4 ,it had type bars on which type were mounted which printed at a common center4 ,it fed the paper around a cylinder on the paper carriage4 ,it was equipped with a line spacing and carriage return mechanism4 ,it printed through a ribbon1 which traveled across the printing point with the movement of the carnage4 ,it had the standard number of printing keys1 placed in four rows1 and the characters on these keys1 and the corresponding type bars1 followed the arrangement now known as universal4 ,to these fundamental features the ,model #b ,remington of #ahgh added the shift-key mechanism1 with two type mounted on a single bar4 ,every one of the features above described is standard in all the leading writing machines of the present day4 ,it must not be supposed1 however1 that the reign of each and all of these basic features has been undisputed throughout the entire fifty years of typewriter history4 ,in time other typewriters appeared on the market1 which represented radical departures from one or another of these principles4 ,some of these machines proved practical in actual service and won a considerable popularity1 and some of them are manufactured and sold today4 ,a review of typewriter history would not be complete which failed to take note of these departures from the type of construction generally known as standard4 ,one of the earliest issues in the typewriter field concerned the relative merits of the type-bar principle versus the type wheel4 ,mention of the type wheel brings us back to ,john ,pratt's ,pterotype and the article concerning it in the ,scientific ,american of ,july #f1 #ahfg1 which is said to have suggested the idea of a typewriter to ,sholes and his colleagues4 ,pratt is said to have actually built and sold some of these machines in ,england1 but they were not a success1 and he for a time despaired of being able to construct a machine on which the printing wheel would move quickly and yet stop instantly4 ,he worked over the problem for years1 and when1 at last he approached the ,united ,states ,patent ,office he found himself in interference with two other inventors1 ,james ,b4 ,hammond and ,lucien ,s4 ,crandall1 both of whom appeared with writing machines built on the type-wheel principle4 ,a deadlock ensued which was finally settled by ,pratt yielding precedence to ,hammond upon a type-wheel machine and receiving a royalty1 while ,crandall proceeded with his application for a patent on a type-sleeve instrument4 ,the first ,hammond patents were taken out in #ahhj1 and the machine was placed on the market shortly thereafter4 ,the early ,hammond had what was called the ideal keyboard1 semi-circular in shape1 but later ,hammonds have conformed to the universal keyboard arrangement4 ,the ,hammond was the first practical type-wheel machine and is today the leading machine of this class4 ,the type-wheel construction has always had strong advocates1 but these machines have never been very serious competitors of the type-bar machines in the general commercial field4 ,soon after the advent of the ,hammond1 another important typewriter issue arose--that of single versus double keyboard4 ,the first double-keyboard machine was the ,caligraph1 placed on the market in #ahhc1 an enterprise upon which ,yost entered after it became evident that he could no longer retain his interest in the ,remington4 ,the ,caligraph was devised under the direction of ,yost1 principally by a skilled ,german mechanic named ,franz ,x4 ,wagner1 who afterwards won prominence as the inventor of the ,underwood ,typewriter4 ,yost's aim was to construct a typewriter which would evade the ,remington patents1 but1 failing in this1 he was subsequently granted a license4 ,in after years the ,smith ,premier became the leading double-keyboard machine4 ,this machine1 the invention of ,alexander ,t4 ,brown1 was placed on the market in #ahij by ,lyman ,c4 ,smith1 the gun manufacturer of ,syracuse1 and during the next few years attained a wide popularity4 ,it was urged in behalf of the double-keyboard machine that the key for every character made its operation easier and simpler for the beginner4 ,the construction1 however1 was more complicated1 because it doubled the number of type bars and connecting parts1 and there was a further disadvantage in the enlarged keyboard1 which time made evident4 ,the double keyboard would probably have yielded to the shift key sooner or later1 but it was the advent of the touch method of typewriting which really settled the matter4 ,for use in connection with the touch system1 the compact keyboard of the shift-key machine proved so obvious an advantage that the double keyboard lost ground rapidly and machines with this keyboard began in time to disappear from the market4 ,the present ,smith ,premier ,typewriter1 invented by ,jacob ,felbel1 is a shift-key machine of standard design4 ,another early issue in typewriter construction concerned the relative merits of the ribbon and the inking pad4 ,this brings us to the last enterprise of ,g4 ,w4 ,n4 ,yost1 which he undertook after severing his connection with the ,caligraph4 ,in #ahhh ,yost brought out the machine1 developed by ,alexander ,davidson1 ,andrew ,w4 ,steiger and ,jacob ,felbel1 that ever since has borne his name4 ,the most notable departure of the ,yost ,typewriter from the standard design was the elimination of the ribbon and the use instead of an inking pad1 on which the face of the type rested4 ,the first ,yost was a double-keyboard machine1 but later models embody the shift-key principle4 ,of late years this type of machine has been hardly known on the ,american market1 although it has always enjoyed a considerable sale in ,europe4 ,the inking pad1 as a substitute for the ribbon1 found many advocates at one time because of one serious deficiency in the early ribbon machines4 ,the automatic ribbon reverse is an old story now1 and present-day typewriter users take it as a matter of course4 ,many of them may be surprised to hear that the typewriter was twenty-two years old before the first automatic ribbon reverse appeared on a writing machine4 ,some of the older generation of typists1 however1 can still remember the time when it was always necessary to operate the machine with one eye on the ribbon1 in order to be sure to reverse it at the right time1 or else suffer the consequences in a chewed-up ribbon and spoiled work4 ,during the early nineties ,jenne labored hard on the problem of an automatic ribbon reverse1 the solution of which called for inventive skill of a high order4 ,after several experimental devices had been designed1 all of which were far too complicated1 a simple solution was found by ,george ,b4 ,webb1 and the first automatic ribbon reverse made its appearance on the ,remington in #ahif4 ,within a few years the old hand reverse became practically obsolete on all standard machines4 ,in the meantime a new demand had been steadily growing1 which was destined to influence quite radically the future course of typewriter development4 ,all of the earlier type-bar machines were built on what is known as the understroke principle4 ,the type bars were arranged in a circular basket1 underneath the carriage1 and the type printed at a common point on the under side of the cylinder4 ,these machines were satisfactory in speed and quality of work1 but they had one practical defect--it was necessary for the operator to raise the carriage in order to see the writing line4 ,the advantages of visible writing were so obvious that the problem began at an early date to engage the attention of typewriter inventors4 ,on the type-wheel machines1 visible writing was easily attained1 but on the type-bar machines it called for real inventive effort4 ,the first type-bar visible writer1 the ,horton1 appeared as early as the year #ahhc4 ,most of the early type-bar visible writers were of the down-stroke type1 the type bars striking downward to a common point on the top of the cylinder4 ,prominent among machines of this construction were the ,columbia ,bar-,lock 7#ahhh71 the ,williams 7#ahij7 and the ,oliver 7#ahid74 ,the latter machine1 in particular1 secured and has since held a considerable market4 ,later on the front-stroke principle of construction took the lead in the general business field4 ,the first front-stroke machine to attain prominence was the ,underwood4 ,this machine was the invention of ,franz ,x4 ,wagner1 whose earlier connection with the ,caligraph we have already noted1 and was placed on the market in #ahig by ,john ,t4 ,underwood1 who had long been identified with the writing-machine industry as one of the pioneer manufacturers of typewriter ribbons and carbon papers4 ,the design of the front-stroke machines represented a new departure in the arrangement of the type bars1 which were placed in a segment in front of the carriage1 the type printing on the front of the cylinder4 ,this front-stroke principle proved to be a satisfactory solution of the problem of visible writing1 and all of the leading standard machines are now of the front-stroke type4 ,prominent among these machines today are the ,underwood1 the front-stroke ,remington1 which was largely the work of ,oscar ,woodward1 followed by later improvements2 the ,l4 ,c4 ,smith1 brought out by ,lyman ,c4 ,smith1 the original manufacturer of the ,smith ,premier1 and the ,royal1 followed some years after its first appearance by a new model4 ,visible writing is an old story today1 the last non-visible machines having disappeared from the market many years ago4 ,doubtless1 when this problem had been solved1 it seemed to some as though the typewriter had attained finality4 ,but there is nothing final on this earth1 and a new demand has been growing of recent years until it has become as strong and insistent as the demand for visible writing of twenty years ago4 ,the familiar clicking noise of the typewriter has been with us as long as the machine itself1 and in the early days people did not seem to mind it4 ,but when the use of the typewriter had grown until whole batteries of them had invaded every department of business1 the accumulated noise became a disturbance1 and users began to wish that the machine would imitate1 if it could1 the one and only virtue admittedly possessed by the pen--that of silence4 ,the development of quiet typewriting brings us to the present-day stage of typewriter progress1 which hardly belongs to this story4 ,it is sufficient to say that the writing machine1 which has always been equal to any demand made upon it1 has run true to form in this case4 ,during recent years one typewriter has appeared1 the ,noiseless1 built around this central idea1 also quiet models of at least three of the standard makes4 ,it seems a far cry from the first typewriter of #ahgc to the shift-key1 front-stroke1 visible-writing1 quiet machine of #aibc4 ,equally great has been the progress in the skill of the operator1 from the first would-be typists who awkwardly tried their hands on the early machines1 to the standards attained by the best typists of the present day4 ,the progress of the operator1 however1 has not been marked by the same slow1 successive stages4 ,it has been the outcome of one great development--the introduction of the scientific method of key fingering known as touch typewriting4 ,we have referred more than once to the article in the ,scientific ,american of ,july #f1 #ahfg1 which started so many brain cells working to such good purpose4 ,one more quotation from this article1 which has a special application to the operator1 is now in order3 ,the weary process of learning penmanship in the schools will be reduced to the acquirement of writing one's own signature and playing on the literary piano4 ,note the words playing on the literary piano4 ,they were suggested spontaneously in connection with the idea2 they were an unconscious prophecy which time has fulfilled4 ,to operate the machine with the eyes resting not on the keys but on the copy1 as the eyes of the pianist rest on the music1 to use all the fingers1 to regulate the touch so that the best results are obtained1 thus gaining time in the execution and excellence in the work2 these are the ends secured by the touch system1 a method now taught universally in business schools4 ,who was the first touch typist8 is a question now frequently asked4 ,the answer is1 the first blind typist1 whoever that person was4 ,we have recorded how the needs of the blind figured in the efforts of so many of the early typewriter inventors4 ,pen writing is almost an impossibility for blind people4 ,a frame of parallel wires fitted over the writing paper1 with one wire for each line of writing1 is of some help to the blind in pen writing1 but if they lose the line they cannot find it again1 and it is the same with words and spaces between words4 ,the human hand has no automatic spacing mechanism1 like the typewriter1 and that is what the blind person needs4 ,but where sight is lacking there is only one possible method of operation--by touch4 ,the touch method was a discovery of the blind1 and a gift by them to all the typists of the world4 ,it took time1 however1 for this idea to become diffused among schools and operators generally1 and during the early years of the typewriter the style of typing now known derisively as peck and hunt was universal among sighted operators4 ,here was a paradox1 where the gift of sight caused blindness and only the blind could see what was hidden from everybody else4 ,in a few years1 however1 the art of touch typing was acquired by a few sighted typists of exceptional skill4 ,the first of whom there is record was ,frank ,e4 ,mc,gurrin1 who taught himself the art on a ,model #a ,remington in #ahgh1 while a clerk in a law office in ,grand ,rapids1 ,mich41 and afterwards became the champion speed operator of his time4 ,the exhibitions given by ,mc,gurrin in different cities of the country during the eighties were of the very highest educational importance4 ,the most notable of these was the contest between ,mc,gurrin and ,traub2 decided at ,cincinnati on ,july #be1 #ahhh4 ,the modern typewriting contests are interesting mainly as demonstrations of the utmost capacity of the operator1 but the contest between ,mc,gurrin and ,traub had a far deeper significance4 ,it was really a contest between two different systems of typing--the new and the old4 ,louis ,traub was an instructor in typewriting and agent and expert operator of the leading double-keyboard machine of that day4 ,both in the keyboard used and the method used1 he stood in opposition to ,mc,gurrin4 ,the conditions called for forty-five minutes writing from dictation1 and forty-five from copy1 unfamiliar matter being used4 ,mc,gurrin won decisively on both tests1 but the significant fact was that his speed increased three words per minute when writing from copy1 while ,traub's speed fell off twelve words per minute on the same test4 ,the reason is obvious4 ,mc,gurrin's eyes were always on the copy1 while ,traub was compelled to write an eyeful at a time4 ,traub was open to conviction and accepted the logic of the result without reserve4 ,he subsequently became an expert touch operator of the shift-key machine4 ,the exhibitions of ,mc,gurrin and other self-taught touch typists of this early period served a useful purpose in demonstrating that the idea was feasible1 but to make it practical for all typists was the task of the educator4 ,the first business school to begin systematic instruction to pupils by the touch method1 or the all-finger method as it was then called1 was ,longley's ,shorthand and ,typewriter ,institute of ,cincinnati4 ,the credit for the introduction of this system belongs to ,mrs4 ,m4 ,v4 ,longley1 wife of ,elias ,longley1 whose name is well known to the shorthand fraternity of ,america through his prominent association with the development of phonography4 ,this was in #ahha4 ,in the following year her ,remington ,typewriter ,lessons were published1 the first printed system for teaching the all-finger method4 ,the advertisement describes the system as a series of lessons and exercises--by a system of fingering entirely different from that of other authors and teachers2 a very conservative statement considering the radical departure it represented from the prevailing usage of the day4 ,the first typewriter man to interest himself in the system was ,h4 ,v4 ,rowell1 for many years manager of the ,remington office at ,boston1 who is still living at an advanced age4 ,it was a paper read by ,mrs4 ,longley before the ,first ,annual ,congress of ,shorthand ,writers1 held at ,cincinnati in #ahhb1 that gave ,rowell his first inspiration on the subject1 and from that time he became an ardent and constant advocate of the touch system4 ,the first business educator who took up this method at ,rowell's suggestion was ,w4 ,e4 ,hickox who introduced it in his private shorthand school at ,portland1 ,me4 ,hickox1 who began to teach touch typing in #ahhb1 was the second educator in ,america and the first in the ,east to adopt this method1 but it was some years before he had any imitators4 ,rowell1 however1 continued ceaseless in his efforts1 and in #ahhi he interested ,b4 ,j4 ,griffin of the ,springfield ,business ,school1 ,springfield1 ,mass4 ,griffin became a touch typewriting enthusiast4 ,he introduced it in his school to the exclusion of all other methods1 and the remarkable typing skill of some of his graduates soon produced a deep impression on other business educators4 ,in the same year1 #ahhi1 ,bates ,torrey of ,portland1 ,me41 published ,a ,manual of ,practical ,typewriting4 ,the word touch seems such a natural one as applied to this method that it would seem almost futile to search for its originator1 but1 as a matter of fact1 ,bates ,torrey was the first one to use it in a printed manual4 ,we also note in this book a great advance in the point of view over ,mrs4 ,longley's ,typewriter ,lessons4 ,mrs4 ,longley's method was a genuine touch system in its results1 but not in its main purpose1 which was avowedly to secure an improved method of fingering4 ,seven years later the all-finger method had become simply a means to an end--the ability to write by touch4 ,the developments of the year #ahhi set the ball rolling1 and during the next few years many new touch manuals appeared and one school after another took it up until the touch method was firmly established in the ,east4 ,the growth of the system in the ,west was due mainly to the efforts of another typewriter man1 ,o4 ,p4 ,judd1 for many years manager of the ,remington office in ,omaha4 ,judd1 writing in #ahig1 says that ,omaha has become the storm center of the commotion over the touch method of typewriting4 ,two educators of that city1 ,van ,sant and ,mosher1 urged on by ,judd1 entered into a friendly competition1 and the rival exhibitions given by their splendidly trained pupils soon spread the method far and wide4 ,early in the year #aija the ,remingtons made a complete canvass of the schools of ,america to ascertain definitely the extent to which the touch system was then in use4 ,it was found that half of the schools of the country had already begun instruction by the touch method and1 of the remainder1 the great majority announced their intention of doing so with the beginning of the fall term4 ,very soon after1 the old peck and hunt plan of teaching had disappeared entirely from the schools1 and the old style operators have become fewer and fewer with each passing year until one of them in a present-day business office is almost a curiosity4 ,the seeming impossibility of thirty-five years ago1 when people watched ,mc,gurrin and wondered1 has become the universal commonplace of today4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,widening ,,the ,,field ,the developments we have been considering cover only one phase of typewriter progress4 ,the advent of the shift-key typewriter1 of the automatic ribbon reverse1 of visible writing1 of the touch system1 and finally of the quiet typewriter1 have all been important advances in efficiency1 or convenience1 or general satisfaction in the performance of the older and more familiar typing tasks4 ,those improvements1 however1 the aim of which was to extend the actual scope and range of the writing machine belong1 in the main1 to a different chain of typewriter development4 ,during the first twenty-five years of its history1 the time-saving service of the typewriter was confined almost entirely to straight1 line-by-line writing1 with its practical applications1 such as letter writing1 manuscript writing1 and the like4 ,so long as these fields remained unconquered there was little incentive or opportunity to think of anything else4 ,thus the great fields of form1 tabular and statistical writing remained for many years beyond the reach of the writing machine4 ,the reason1 of course1 from the mechanical standpoint1 lay in the lack of any mechanism for the instantaneous setting of the carriage at any desired writing point4 ,whenever the nature of the work required these carriage settings with great frequency1 the slow method of hand setting consumed all the time that could be saved in the actual typing4 ,however1 as time went on1 the opportunities for time saving in these special forms of writing became more and more evident4 ,if we have typewritten letters1 why not typewritten bills and statements and vouchers and statistical forms of every kind8 ,why1 in fact1 use the pen at all except for signatures8 ,these questions were asked with greater and greater frequency4 ,and in due time the typewriter builders gave the answer4 ,the first decimal tabulator1 known originally as the ,gorin ,tabulator1 from the name of its inventor1 appeared in #ahih as an attachment of the ,remington ,typewriter4 ,there is a special interest in the date of this invention1 for it marks exactly the half-way point in the fifty years of typewriter history4 ,the second quarter century of this period1 which begins with the advent of the decimal tabulator1 has seen the typewriter extend its range to every form of writing or combined writing and adding formerly done by the pen4 ,the ,gorin ,tabulator was exactly what its name implies--a decimal tabulator4 ,it wrote columns of figures--anywhere on the page and as many as the page would hold--with the same speed as ordinary1 line-by-line writing4 ,the decimal tabulator brought the carriage instantly to the exact point in every column where the next line of writing began1 whether units1 tens1 hundreds or millions1 as illustrated in the following example3 #cdjgba #e #c #gba #ee #hef #bi #h #jf #gchb #gfg #ieb #gg #idjjf #i #gfc #he #gc #hf #egc #ie #jj #bjii #adb #cde #dh #jej #ff #ibhbchdfej #d #cef #geh #a #cif #gbb #jj #ehegbje #fg #ied #fgh #ejj #hjj #jj ,with the appearance of the first tabulator1 the typewriter began to invade new fields which hitherto had been entirely beyond its reach4 ,in some of the ,old ,world countries the decimal tabulator actually took the lead in blazing a path for the writing machine4 ,in these countries there survived for many years a certain prejudice against the typewritten letter1 but this prejudice did not extend to form and tabular work1 and the first machines purchased by countless business houses in ,england1 ,france1 ,italy and elsewhere were tabulating typewriters4 ,this seems like a reversal of the natural order1 but the final result was the same4 ,the typewriter1 once introduced1 soon came into use for every kind of writing4 ,the decimal tabulator is a notable example of how one idea leads to another4 ,during the years immediately preceding its appearance there had been happenings in other branches of the office appliance field4 ,the idea of clerical labor saving1 embodied in the first typewriter1 had given birth to a varied industry1 and among other new inventions1 had produced the adding machine4 ,the first adding machines1 however1 carried no printing mechanism1 and so long as typewriters were also lacking in a tabulating mechanism1 the fields of the two machines lay entirely apart4 ,in the early nineties1 however1 the ,burroughs machine1 which listed figures in a column as added1 began to find a market4 ,soon after came the first tabulating typewriter1 and it was soon recognized that each of these machines represented a partial approach to the field of the other4 ,the question then arose3 ,since the typewriter now writes figures in columns1 why not build one that will add these columns as written8 ,in other words1 why not build an adding typewriter8 ,in due time the adding typewriter came1 to be followed later by the typewriter-accounting or bookkeeping machine4 ,prominent among machines of this type are the ,elliott-,fisher1 which has a flat writing bed or platen1 the ,remington1 which introduced the feature of automatic subtraction1 and the ,underwood1 which is electrically operated4 ,the earlier adding typewriters added in vertical columns only1 but soon a cross-adding mechanism was added1 and the two acts of vertical and cross computation are performed in one operation4 ,the accounting machine completed the application of the typewriter to every form of business writing1 including combined writing and adding4 ,in the latter field the advantages it offers are those of the typewriter intensified4 ,the combination of two tasks--writing and adding--in one1 eliminates the separate adding and the separate adding cost4 ,a further advantage is the error-proofing of every task1 the machine furnishing its own checks against possible mistakes by the operator4 ,to the business man these advantages are decisive4 ,the typewritten bill is now about as universal as the typewritten letter1 so also is the typewritten statement1 and the old-fashioned bound and pen-written ledgers are fast giving place to the modern card ledger1 kept on the bookkeeping machine4 ,the same applies to every conceivable kind of combined typing and adding in every line of business4 ,the pen has not entirely disappeared from these fields as yet1 but it is going1 and its final departure is as clearly indicated as anything in the book of fate4 ,while the typewriter has been completing its conquest of the entire field of business writing1 there has been another development at what we may call the opposite end of the scale4 ,the machine is now demonstrating its time-saving utility not alone for business writing but for all writing4 ,the use of the machine for every kind of personal writing was clearly forecast by its original builders1 as the first typewriter catalogue plainly proves4 ,indeed this was clearer to them than the general business uses4 ,many years were to elapse1 however1 before the employment of the typewriter became general outside of the business field1 and then it came about through the development of a new type of machine1 especially designed for the owner's personal use4 ,the portable typewriter1 small1 light1 compact1 convenient1 and easy to carry anywhere in its traveling case1 proved to be the type of machine desired by the personal user4 ,the earliest of the portables was the small ,blickensderfer1 a type-wheel machine4 ,the first type-bar portable machine to attract wide notice was the ,corona1 which dates from the year #aiab4 ,today there are a number of these machines1 including the portable ,remington1 ,underwood1 ,hammond1 ,gourland and others1 two of these1 the ,remington and ,gourland1 with keyboards like those on the big machines4 ,the rapid progress of the portable in its own field points clearly to the time when the use of the typewriter for every kind of writing will be nearly universal4 ,the accounting machine and the portable1 different as they are in nearly every way1 have one point in common4 ,both have contributed to what we may call the intensive use of the writing machine4 ,one other development1 which concerns its extensive use1 will close the list4 ,we have already spoken of the world-wide use of the writing machine4 ,this is not a mere figure of speech2 it is a literal statement of fact4 ,there is no article of commerce in the world more universal in its distribution4 ,everywhere on earth today1 where man is found with the ability to read and write1 there will be found the omnipresent typewriter4 ,it is hard for the imagination to visualize this universal fact4 ,a map of the world does not help much4 ,perhaps a photograph gallery of all the types of people of all the nations that follow typing as a profession would convey a better idea4 ,but fortunately a still better method of visualization is at our command4 ,some years ago a linguistic genius conceived the idea of collecting typewritten translations of the motto ,to save time is to lengthen life1 in all the languages of the world4 ,the collection1 which had grown when published to eighty-four languages1 is here presented4 ,truly a remarkable evidence of the way in which a writing machine produced in the village of ,ilion has conquered the world4 ,some may ask1 what language is ,quoc-,ngu8 ,quoc-,ngu is a ,romanized version of a ,chinese dialect1 spoken in ,anam1 a division of ,french ,indo-,china4 ,if the language is as strange as its name it must be a tongue twister1 and our typewritten sample shows that it is as strange--just about4 ,nevertheless a considerable number of typewriters are used today for writing ,quoc-,ngu4 ,the purely ,celtic languages form an interesting group4 ,they are represented by five examples1 ,irish1 ,gaelic1 ,welsh1 ,breton and ,manx4 ,the typewritten sample shows the ,romanized writing of the ,irish or ,erse language4 ,typewriters have also been sold to write ,erse in the original character1 the type having been specially cut for the purpose4 ,six of the ,philippine languages are represented1 ,tagalog1 ,pampango1 ,ilocano1 ,visayan1 ,bicol and ,pangasinan4 ,here1 indeed1 is striking evidence of the heterogeneous population of these new ,american possessions4 ,equally notable is the ,south ,african group in which five languages are represented1 ,sizulu1 ,sesotho1 ,sixosa1 ,setshangaan and ,taal4 ,of these the first four are native ,kafir dialects4 ,hollandsch or ,dutch was in the old days of the ,transvaal ,republic the official language4 ,taal is the every-day language of the ,south ,african ,dutchman1 and is a conglomeration1 principally of ,hollandsch1 with some ,english4 ,english-speaking people who have never been in ,south ,africa may be curious to know what mixed ,dutch and ,english sounds like4 ,the typewritten sample1 however1 can only show how it looks4 ,,to ,,save ,,time ,,is ,,to ,,lengthen ,,life ,typewritten in #hd ,languages ,transcriber's note3 non-,latin scripts have been omitted4 ,english-- ,to save time is to lengthen life4 ,french-- ,gagner du temps1 c'est prolonger la vie4 ,portuguese-- ,economisar tempo alargar a vida4 ,hungarian-- ,takarkoskodj az idvel1 meghosszabitod az leted4 ,polish-- ,kto czas oszczodza--przedluza sobie zycie4 ,basque-- ,demboraren irabaztia1 biciaren luatzia da4 ,catalan-- ,economizar tmps es allargar la vida4 ,provenal-- ,temps gagna fa longo vido4 ,breton-- ,hastenn ar vuez ho c'honi amzer4 ,irish-- ,is ,ionann ,am-,coigilt agus ,seagal-buanad4 ,gaelic-- ,faid saoghail is seadh do re chuir a b-feidhm4 ,welsh-- ,mae arbed amser yn estyn oes4 ,manx-- ,dy hauail traa te jannoo bea ny sleurey4 ,flemish-- ,tijd besparen is leven verlengen4 ,frisian-- ,td besparje is libjen verlenge4 ,icelandic-- ,a spara tma er a lengja lifi4 ,bohemian-- spora casu jest prodlouzenim zivota4 ,roumanian-- ,a economisi timp este a prelungi viata4 ,slovenian-- ,varcevanje s casom1 je daljsanje zivljenja4 ,slovak-- ,usporuvat cas je prodluhit zivota4 ,esthonian-- ,judsam t on elu pidkendus4 ,lettish-- ,laiku taupot--pagarina dzivibu4 ,lithuanian-- ,uzcedyjimas laiko ilgina amzo4 ,croatian-- ,tko vrijeme stedi1 taj produzuje zivot4 ,spaniolish-- ,economia di tiempu1 alarga la vida4 ,german-- ,zeit sparen heisst das ,leben verlngern4 ,italian-- ,risparmiando tempo prolungate la vita4 ,latin-- ,parcere tempori vitara longiorem facit4 ,swedish-- ,att vinna tid r att frlnga lifvet4 ,danish-- ,at spare ,tid er at forlnge ,livet4 ,norwegian-- ,at spare tid er at forlnge livet4 ,finnish-- ,aikaa voittaessa1 elm pidentyy4 ,maltese-- ,min jahdem fis1 itaughal haghtu4 ,albanian-- ,kur ngi bier mot ron shum4 ,romanch-- ,spargner temp ais prolunger la vita4 ,ido-- ,sparar tempo esas longigar la vivo4 ,esperanto-- ,spari tempon estas plilongigi la vivon4 ,sioux-- ,wicoran yuptecana kin he wiconi yuhanske4 ,winnebago-- ,wo shknn l k l ki ci gi shi1 wankshik ho i n ni gi sa letch n n4 ,aztec-- ,aquin mo quixpoloa in cahuitl quihuellaquilia inemiliz4 ,maya-- ,k taquick tiempo cu chokuactal kimil4 ,ilocano-- ,ti pinagtiped iti aget paatidduguen ni biag4 ,visayan-- ,magdaginot sa adlao1 kay mao ang hataas ga kinabuhi4 ,bicol-- ,pag-imotan ang panahon pagpa-lwig nin buhay4 ,pampango-- ,ing pamagarimuhan king panaun makakaba king bie4 ,pangasinan-- ,say panagteper ed maong sa panahon so macasuldon ed pan bilay4 ,tagalog-- ,ang pag-aarimuhn sa panahn ay nakapagpapahaba g buhay4 ,sizulu-- ,lowo o gcina isikati sake u yena o nesikati eside ukusandisa emhlabeni4 ,sesotho-- ,ea sa senyeng linako tsa hae ke eena ea phelang halelele lefatseng4 ,sixosa-- ,ongaciti ixesha lake nguyena o nexesha elide ukulandisa emhlabeni4 ,setshangaan-- ,a lavisaka shikati utomi wa yena u tayengeteleka muhlabeni4 ,spanish-- ,economizar tiempo es alargar la vida4 ,dutch-- ,tyd uitwinnen is zyn leven verlengen4 ,taal-- ,tijd te spaar maakt gebruik langer4 ,quoc-,ngu-- ,loi ngy gio1 bang song lu nam4 ,hawaiian-- ,malama pono anamika manawa1 ,he mea ia e hooloihi aku ai ike ola4 ,maori-- ,e poto taima e ora roa4 ,romanized-,malay-- ,me-niampumakan waktu itu me-nambahi panjang umor4 ,eskimo-- ,uvdlunik aungnertusrinek intnertunarpok4 ,hova-- ,tsy mandany andro foana no manalava ny aina4 ,the languages of the ,american ,indian are represented by only three examples1 ,sioux1 ,winnebago and ,aztec4 ,to save time is to lengthen life takes nineteen words to say in ,winnebago4 ,evidently the moral of this motto was never applied very seriously by the ,winnebago ,indians4 ,if it took them as long as that to say everything1 it is perhaps no wonder that the ,winnebagos are nearly all dead4 ,many other languages in this extensive list are worth lingering over1 but we must pass on to the most interesting feature of the collection1 namely those languages that are written in non-,roman characters4 ,in the languages we have thus far considered1 the mechanical problem1 from the typewriter standpoint1 was an easy one4 ,where special accents are required1 they are easily supplied by the simple expedient of using dead1 i4e41 non-spacing keys4 ,the adaptation of the typewriter1 however1 to write the non-,roman languages was in some instances a very difficult mechanical problem4 ,there are twenty-four languages in this list1 written in no less than eight different characters1 ,russian1 ,hebrew1 ,greek1 ,armenian1 ,burmese1 ,hindi1 ,arabic and ,japanese 7,katakana74 ,the ,russian group includes four languages1 ,russian1 ,servian1 ,ruthenian and ,bulgarian4 ,the character in which these languages are written is known as ,cyrilian1 an invention of ,st4 ,cyril in the ninth century1 and is based on the ,greek character1 to which its resemblance will be noted4 ,the languages written today in the ,greek and ,cyrilian characters correspond almost exactly to the present limits of the ,orthodox ,greek ,church4 ,the use of the ,arabic character also corresponds very nearly to the geographical limits of the ,mohammedan religion4 ,seven languages written in this character are represented1 ,arabic1 ,turkish1 ,persian1 ,sart1 ,urdu1 ,malay and ,tartar4 ,of all the languages now written on the typewriter1 the ,arabic group presented the gravest mechanical difficulties4 ,the ,arabic character1 as written1 is not subject to any of the usual rules4 ,it has in its complete alphabet over one hundred individual characters2 it writes backwards1 i4e41 from right to left2 the characters are written on the line1 above the line and below the line1 and they are of various widths1 requiring full spacing1 half spacing and no spacing at all4 ,here indeed was a medley of problems well calculated to tax ingenuity to the limit1 and the ,arabic typewriter is a crowning triumph of mechanical skill4 ,the ,hindu group shows the ancient ,sanscrit and four modern ,hindu vernacular languages written in the same character1 which is known as ,devanagari4 ,these vernacular languages are ,hindi1 ,marawari1 ,magadhi1 and ,marathi4 ,the ,hindu vernacular machines1 especially the ,marathi1 are having a considerable sale today among the native princes and potentates of ,british ,india4 ,the ,japanese 7,katakana7 sample is interesting mainly as a curiosity4 ,it does not write the complete ,japanese language--only the syllabic system known as ,katakana4 ,this is read from right to left in perpendicular columns4 ,in order to write this character on the horizontal lines of the typewriter1 the type are laid on their faces and1 in reading1 the lines are held in perpendicular position4 ,after reviewing this formidable list of eighty-four languages1 the question naturally arises1 ,are there any written languages that it does not include8 ,yes1 there are1 and this collection of typewritten samples has steadily grown until it now includes more than #aej languages1 while the number of different non-,roman characters now written on the typewriter has increased from eight to twenty4 ,there are two important languages1 however1 which still lie outside the pale of the writing machine4 ,these are the ideographic languages1 ,chinese and ,japanese4 ,the ancient ,japanese language was originally phonetic1 but the syllabic signs are now commonly intermixed with ideographic characters of ,chinese origin4 ,chinese is a strange language4 ,it has no alphabet or phonetic signs--only ideographs4 ,these ideographs are literally word pictures1 and there is a separate picture for every word4 ,there are from #dj1jjj to #ej1jjj of these ideographs1 and to write each one at a single stroke would require a typewriter with many thousands of keys4 ,can the problem ever be solved of writing this language on a practical typewriter8 ,some inventors claim they have already solved it4 ,it seems hard to credit1 but the typewriter developments of the past and present warn us not to call anything impossible that is demanded of the writing machine4 ,meanwhile the ,chinese and ,japanese buy typewriters--thousands of them2 not to write their own languages1 of course1 but other languages1 usually ,english4 ,and they are coming to use these machines1 not alone for foreign correspondence1 but for business correspondence among themselves4 ,the time saving service of the typewriter is so great that they find it worth another language4 ,and this brings us to what many will regard as the most interesting of all the achievements of the typewriter4 ,the steady growth of ,english as the commercial language of the ,far ,east is a well known fact1 and of all the influences that have caused this growth1 one of the most important is the writing machine4 ,thus it may be said for the typewriter that it has not only facilitated the use of language but it has been no mean influence in determining the spread of language itself4 ,what is to be the future of this remarkable mechanism1 which in fifty years has transformed the whole world of business1 and has wrought such fundamental changes in our modern social order8 ,as we pass the fiftieth milestone of typewriter history1 it is natural1 not only to review the past1 but to think of all that time may hold in store4 ,that the future of the typewriter will be wonderful1 more wonderful than anything we have yet known1 is certain1 but what new forms it may assume is for no man to say1 for the futility of such speculations has been demonstrated by all human experience4 ,on the mechanical side such forecasts are obviously impossible4 ,the most farseeing typewriter man of today knows that the mechanical progress of the next fifty years is a sealed book to him--even as the history we have just recorded was a sealed book to the pioneers of #ahgc4 ,even on the side of its application to human needs1 it is hard to forecast the future progress of a machine1 the use of which is already so nearly universal4 ,we know1 however1 that this fact does not impose any limits on future development4 ,even if the reign of the typewriter today were complete and absolute1 and the pen had become as obsolete as the stylus1 there would still be new worlds for the writing machine to conquer4 ,the need which first called the typewriter into being1 the problem of clerical time and labor saving1 is always with us2 it changes its form1 but never its essence4 ,the enormous time-saving the machine has already achieved is only the promise of more time-saving1 and when every writing task has been annexed by the typewriter1 it will be more than ever its mission to perform these tasks with ever increasing efficiency1 increasing accuracy1 and increasing speed4 ,only in one phase do the new developments of the present give a clear indication of what the future has in store4 ,the rapid growth in the personal and home use of the typewriter1 following the advent of the portable machines1 is revealing to many thousands a quality of the machine1 long known but never before aggressively exploited1 namely1 its incomparable value as an educational implement4 ,we do not mean commercial education1 for in this field the typewriter established its reign many years ago4 ,we mean the education of the child in reading1 writing1 spelling1 and1 as he grows older1 in all the fundamentals of language composition4 ,there are two reasons for this value4 ,one is the delight of the child in the machine itself1 the use of which provides a vehicle for his creative instinct4 ,the other is the perfection of form in the typed words and sentences1 which present attainable standards to the child from the very outset of his efforts4 ,the extraordinary results obtained by the typewriter in this field are attested by educators and by parents without number1 and the progress of such recent wonder children as ,winifred ,stoner and ,willmore ,kendall is directly attributed to their early and continuous use of the writing machine4 ,it is interesting to know that1 among the founders of the business1 that man of vision1 ,william ,o4 ,wyckoff1 foresaw these results1 and his letters to ,earle1 written in the late seventies1 to which we have already referred1 urge strongly the sale of machines in the home for educational use4 ,wyckoff was fifty years ahead of his time1 and it has remained for the portable machine of our day to spread this great message4 ,it may be a long time yet before the use of the typewriter is established in the elementary schools1 as an educational implement as necessary as charts and blackboards1 but in the home this service has already begun and will be extended with every passing year4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,how ,,women ,,achieved ,,economic ,,emancipation ,,through ,,the ,,writing ,,machine ,the greatest of all the triumphs of the typewriter1 greater even than its influence on business or education or language1 is the transformation it has wrought in our whole social order4 ,this is a phase of typewriter influence which even today is far too little understood4 ,the fact that the writing machine has freed the world from pen slavery is itself a triumph so vast and palpable that it rivets attention1 almost to the exclusion of anything else4 ,this is not because the facts are obscure concerning other phases of typewriter influence4 ,that it was the writing machine which opened to women the doors of business life is so well known that the mere mention of it sounds like a commonplace4 ,but few indeed have considered the real importance of this fact in its relation to human society4 ,the movement that we know by the name of feminism is undoubtedly the most significant and important social evolution of our time4 ,the aims and aspirations behind this great movement need not detain us4 ,suffice it is to say that1 like all great social movements1 its cause and its aim have been primarily economic4 ,what is known as sex-emancipation might almost be translated to read economic emancipation2 at any rate it could only be attained through one means1 namely1 equal economic opportunity1 and such opportunity could never have been won by mere statute or enactment4 ,before the aims of feminism could be achieved it was necessary that women should find and make this opportunity1 and they found it in the writing machine4 ,we have described the transformation of the whole business world since the invention of the writing machine4 ,equally revolutionary1 and facilitated by the same agency1 has been the transformation in the economic status of women during the same period4 ,the business office of #ahgc seems no more remote from the present than the economic restrictions imposed on the women of fifty years ago4 ,it might almost be said that no real career was possible for her outside of the home4 ,such opportunities for gainful occupation as did exist were usually for the untrained and uneducated1 in shops1 factories1 domestic service and the like4 ,in only two other callings had they made themselves indispensable1 that of school teaching and nursing1 and all the openings in this and a few minor occupations could do little more than utilize a fraction of intelligent womanhood4 ,they furnished no adequate basis for true and general economic freedom4 ,obviously it was the business world1 and that alone1 which could furnish women with the opportunity for real emancipation1 and so long as this door remained closed1 there could be no hope of its attainment4 ,the prejudice which existed fifty years ago against the employment of women in a business office1 or in clerical capacities of any kind1 is something which in our day is hard to understand4 ,it was blind and unreasoning1 as prejudices usually are1 but it was universal4 ,how strong it was1 and how unreasoning1 was clearly shown in the one notable attempt to utilize the services of women in clerical work1 which came before the advent of the typewriter4 ,it is a singular fact that this attempt was made by a native and life-long resident of ,herkimer ,county1 a forecast of the part that other native sons of ,herkimer ,county were yet to play in the great work of sex emancipation4 ,this man was ,general ,francis ,elias ,spinner1 born in ,mohawk1 ,n4,y41 a suburb of ,ilion1 and a close friend of ,philo ,remington4 ,general ,spinner was appointed ,treasurer of the ,united ,states by ,president ,lincoln on ,march #af1 #ahfa1 and continued to hold this office until ,june #cj1 #ahge4 ,when he took up his official duties at ,washington1 he found a condition similar to the one with which all of us were recently familiar during the ,great ,war4 ,the men had gone to war in such vast numbers that there was everywhere a scarcity of workers1 and ,general ,spinner conceived the idea of employing women as government clerks4 ,this was a startling innovation in those days2 nevertheless several hundred women were appointed to government clerkships through his agency4 ,the grateful women of the time afterwards remembered ,general ,spinner's efforts1 and his statue1 erected by the women of the ,departments of the ,government1 now stands in ,herkimer1 ,n4,y4 ,on the pedestal of this statue are ,general ,spinner's words3 ,the fact that ,i was instrumental in introducing women to employment in the offices of the ,government gives me more real satisfaction than all the other deeds of my life4 ,however1 the unhappy experiences of many of these women showed how strong were the prejudices of the time4 ,grace ,greenwood1 the authoress1 tells of a letter she received from one of them which says3 ,would you work for nothing1 board yourself1 and be lied about8 ,such was the world's attitude fifty years ago concerning women's work4 ,and then ,herkimer ,county made another contribution to the cause of sex emancipation4 ,a new and strange machine appeared1 and it went to work1 at first quietly and unobtrusively1 but in the end triumphantly to break down these barriers of conservatism and prejudice4 ,even at this day1 many of us1 though recognizing the facts1 are puzzled to account for this amazing achievement of the writing machine4 ,yet there is no mystery about it1 for it was all due to the operation of that law which is sure to break all barriers1 the law of necessity and fitness4 ,we have shown that the typewriter did more than save business time4 ,it stimulated business activity1 and in time this activity reached the point where there were no longer men enough to perform all of the clerical tasks4 ,the girl stenographer and typist came into business because she was needed1 and with her coming the ancient barriers fell4 ,the typist blazed the path by which other women entered every department of business4 ,economic emancipation was won and from this great triumph has resulted every other development of modern feminism4 ,the suffrage1 the winning of greater social freedom1 the wider participation of women in every phase of public life1 all these are children of the same parent4 ,when economic freedom was won1 everything was won1 and all else followed1 naturally and inevitably4 ,the feminist movement has had its leaders1 many and prominent ones1 but it is sometimes the one with no thought or consciousness of leadership who renders the greatest service4 ,in the choice of some historic figure to symbolize this movement1 who has a better claim than the man whose life and work created the great opportunity through which sex emancipation was achieved8 ,it is pleasing to know that the inventor of the typewriter lived to see the beginnings of this great movement and the knowledge of it gladdened his later years4 ,sholes died in ,milwaukee on ,february #ag1 #ahij1 and for some years before his death he never rose from his bed4 ,but though more dead than alive in body1 his mind remained clear1 unclouded and active to the very end4 ,mr4 ,c4 ,e4 ,weller tells of a private letter which relates the following incident which occurred shortly before his death1 when a daughter-in-law remarked to him1 ,father ,sholes1 what a wonderful thing you have done for the world4 ,he replied1 ,i don't know about the world1 but ,i do feel that ,i have done something for the women who have always had to work so hard4 ,this will enable them more easily to earn a living4 ,in one of the last letters he ever wrote1 ,sholes says1 ,whatever ,i may have felt in the early days of the value of the typewriter1 it is obviously a blessing to mankind1 and especially to womankind4 ,i am glad ,i had something to do with it4 ,i builded wiser than ,i knew1 and the world has the benefit of it4 ,these farewell words of ,sholes form a suitable close to this story4 ,he rendered the world of womankind a great service1 he lived long enough to know it1 and he died contented and happy in that knowledge4 ,his closing words show that he thought more of this achievement than of any other service rendered by his invention4 ,in this anniversary year of the writing machine it is fitting that our thoughts should turn to the simple1 gentle1 kindly1 modest1 lovable man1 who in his lifetime neither sought nor obtained rewards or honors1 and whose very name is little known today in the great world of business which he transformed with his invention1 or to the millions of women who owe so much to his efforts4