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History of the Typewriter

The concept of the typewriter dates back to the earliest being 1714, but it was not patented and fully developed until 1867 by Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soule. Sholes was a newspaper editor and a printer, he had a need for faster writing and that propelled his idea of the typewriter. Carlos Glidden provided financial support and contributed ideas to the project. Samuel W. Soule assisted in the practical design and construction of the machine. There was a major demand and crave for having communication delivered faster at that time period, and the typewriter was one of the first steps to that kind of efficiency. Typewriters were created to create a more legible and efficient way of writing. When things were handwritten, there could be a lot of grammatical and spelling errors, it could be time consuming, and difficult for other people to read. It was created to stop these issues and a way for important documents for governments, businesses, etc to produce more copies and documents that are more legible and less time consuming to make. It also was a great way for people to be able to keep record of important documents, etc, as documents weren’t able to fade or be damaged as easily, and was also more legible for people of the future to read. People were able to have an easier time launching businesses and getting information relayed to the masses. The typewriter truly changed communication within that time period and was a revolutionary concept for many years. It was one of the first steps to more professional and efficient writing and mass production of writing and communication. The first commercially successful typewriter was manufactured by E. Remington and Sons and first sold in 1874, it went for around $100. Although there were a lot of benefits to the typewriter being created, there were some negatives just like anything else. Due to the creation of the typewriter, there were some jobs for people lost because the had to be able to know the machinery of the typewriter and how to use it, and things that were handwritten weren’t needed, less people were needed for the job. Furthermore, the typewriter also propelled some environmental issues. There was a lot of electronic waste and resource depletion when it came to the parts of the typewriters machinery. A lot of physical force was also required in order to use a typewriter which created strain on people using the machine as well. Overall, typewriters truly did change the standard writing style as well. Typewriters encouraged a more uniform and standardized writing style due to their mechanical limitations. They also allowed more people to use them because the specific penmanship was not required, it was just typing and pressing on letters. They definitely played a crucial role in shaping modern writing practices and contributed significantly to the evolution of written communication in the 20th century. Society as a whole wanted better and faster communication. 

https://www.britannica.com/technology/typewriter