EOT Timeline

 The typewriter's history dates back to the 16th century and includes inventions such as Francesco Rampazetto's "scrittura tattile," a device for printing characters on paper. Many have tried to create useful tools for writing over the years, including William Austin Burt, who patented a "typographer" in 1829. Burt's invention, though, proved ineffective and unprofitable.

The invention of the first practical typewriter by newspaper editor Christopher Latham Sholes and his partners Samuel Soule and Carlos Glidden in the middle of the 19th century was a significant advancement. The goal of their 1868 prototype was to provide a quicker and more readable writing method than handwriting, which was sluggish and prone to mistakes. The team's efforts were motivated by the need for corporate communication to be productive and efficient in the industrial age.

The QWERTY keyboard was a characteristic of Sholes' design; it was made to minimize mechanical jams by spacing out frequently used characters rather than to increase typing performance. Large-scale typewriter production and marketing by Remington led to the device's rapid adoption by the corporate world, the legal profession, and journalists.

The typewriter had an immense impact on business. Office work was transformed by its ability to create documents more quickly, clearly, and consistently. This shift created new job opportunities, especially for women who started to make significant strides in the workforce as typists. The machine's contribution to increased written communication efficiency sped up administration and allowed industries to grow.

There were difficulties with the typewriter's launch. Secretary work became industrialized, even while it eliminated the issue of unreadable handwriting and labor-intensive manual writing. Many typists, specifically women, found themselves stuck doing tedious work in a highly disciplined office setting, which limited their ability to be creative and satisfied with their work. In addition, typewriters needed attention and training, which at first prevented them from being widely used in rural or small company settings.

The typewriter ultimately paved the way for later developments in communication technology despite the difficulties. It played a significant role in creating word processing programs and, eventually, the keyboard used on computers today. The fact that most keyboards still use the QWERTY layout from the typewriter attests to its everlasting influence. The typewriter started to lose use by the middle of the 20th century as computers and electronic word processors became more common, but its influence could still be seen in the digital tools we use on a daily basis.