Since their invention in the 19th century, typewriters have been an indispensable part of offices, newsrooms, government agencies, and homes throughout the world. Typewriters were a dominant medium of writing even a few decades back, but now, computers with word processors have replaced typewriters as the most popular writing devices.

The invention of the printing press by John Gutenberg was a major technological breakthrough, as it eventually paved the way for the development of typewriters with toner cartridges . The first notable mechanical writing device that resembled the modern typewriter was made in England by an Englishman named Henry Mill. His machine was patented in 1714. Later on, Italian inventor Pellegrino Turri developed the first true typewriter with ink cartridges . This typewriter was created in 1808 by Turri for a blind friend.

In 1829, William Burt from Michigan patented the typographer. During his time, several typewriters were already invented, but they were all unreliable and unwieldy. Finally, in 1867, the first user-friendly and practical typewriter was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes, who was a printer as well as a politician. Soon, he patented the typewriter with Samuel Soule and Carlos Glidden. The patent was licensed by Remington & Sons, and the typewriter became known as the Remington Model 1. The Remington typewriter started to roll out in the market in 1874, and it became the first commercially successful typewriter with toner cartridges.

This Remington model even inspired Thomas Edison to create an electric typewriter. However, electric typewriters did not gain ground at that time.

The second commercial typewriter for the American market was the Caligraph. Launched in 1890, the Caligraph featured separate keys for upper case and lower case letters. In other words, it had a full keyboard. Another example of a typewriter with a full keyboard was the Smith Premier of 1890. Typewriters with the QWERTY keyboards became quite popular by the end of the 19th century, although certain popular typewriters such as Hammond, which was launched in 1884, did not integrate a QWERTY keyboard. Hammond typewriters used the two-row curved keyboard. They quickly built a strong customer base and continued to be popular until word processors emerged in the 1980s. The Crandall, which was introduced in 1881, and the Blickensderfer were two other contemporaries of Hammond that were well-liked too. Another popular typewriter that was launched in the 19th century was the Mitterhofer, which had the unique two-hand typing feature.

The Underwood Typewriter Company initially started off as a supplier of carbon paper and typewriter ribbons for Remington. However, when Remington decided to manufacture those items themselves, Underwood decided to try their hand at typewriter manufacturing. In a few decades, Underwood became one of the leading manufacturers of typewriters with ink cartridges
in the world, and they had sold more than five million units by 1940. The model Underwood 5 alone sold more than three million units worldwide.

Although the popularity of typewriters has started to dip steadily since the 1990s, they are still being used in numerous offices in the developing world.

Images and Information on Antique Typewriters

• The Evolution of Typewriters
• Underwood 5 (1941)
• Mitterhofer Typewriters (1869)
• Blickensderfer 5 Typewriter (1893)
• Remington Typewriter (1875)
• Crandall Typewriter (1886)
• Hammond Typewriters (1884 and 1918)
• Gardner Typewriter (1890)
• Sholes and Glidden Typewriter (1874)

This was written by Clickinks.com the home of Printer inks and Laser Toner

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