The Machine Revolution in the 70s of the 19th century even affected a seemingly far from technical area such as writing. From time immemorial, man used only his hand to write signs. With the invention of the typewriter, he could entrust this operation to the mechanism. Instead of writing letters, it was now enough to hit the right key.
The advent of the typewriter has led to significant shifts in many areas of human activity and has raised the culture of office work to a higher level. The speed and quality of paperwork has increased several times.
Indeed, anyone can learn to write, but not everyone can write quickly and at the same time clearly, legibly and beautifully.
Meanwhile, the spread of written communication between people, the increase in the number of business papers and commercial correspondence requiring special clarity of the manuscript, as well as many other reasons (such as the desire to speed up the work of typesetters, who often worked slowly and made mistakes when typing text from a blind manuscript) have led to the desire to invent a typewriter that would be accessible to everyone and would allow them to immediately and quickly receive one or more copies of a neat and quickly readable manuscript.
Several models of typewriters appeared in the 18th century, but they were so slow that they couldn't be of any practical importance. One of the first known typewriters was assembled in 1833 by Frenchman Progreen. His typographer consisted of 88 levers connected to the letter and digital stamps. Levers were located on a circle and moved along and across a sheet of paper on special skids. It was difficult and inconvenient to work on such a machine.
In 1843, Charles Turber took a patent for the typewriter he invented for the blind. It was he who had the very fruitful idea of lever-operated movement of letters, which was later used in all typewriters. There were other designs for printing devices. However, the typewriter in the modern sense of the word appeared only thirty years later, and not in Europe, but in America.
In 1867, two American printers Lettam Sholes and Samuel Sulle invented a numbering machine that could be used for page numbering as well as for printing numbers and series of bank tickets. One of Shawls' acquaintances, interested in the new device, suggested that they use the principle of this simple typewriter to create a typewriter that could print letters and words instead of signs and numbers. This idea fascinated Shawls. At first, he continued to work with Sulle.
In the summer, the first one-letter typewriter was ready. It consisted of an old telegraph key in the form of a key, a glass plate, and some other parts. Shawls put a charcoal stripe and a thin sheet of white paper on the glass plate, then moving one hand of paper, he pressed the telegraph key with the letter "B" cut out of brass with the other hand. The result was a print on the paper.
In the autumn of the same year, the first sample of a multi-letter typewriter was created. It worked so well that it wrote quickly and clearly but was still very inconvenient for practical use, as it had a flat keyboard (as on the piano) and typed only in large letters. In 1868, this machine was patented, after which Sulle lost interest in it.
But Shawls decided at all costs to create a sample machine that could be launched into production. One of his acquaintances, Deximore, gave him financial support. Shawls went to work with his head. In the next five years, he made about 30 models of machines, each of which was better than the previous one, but still far from perfect.
It was only in 1873 that a fairly reliable and comfortable typewriter model was created, which Shawls offered to the famous Remington factory, which produced weapons, sewing and agricultural machines. In 1874, the first hundred machines were put on sale. The famous American writer Mark Twain was one of its first buyers. It was on it that he printed his "Tom Sawyer". Perhaps it was the first classical work, created behind the typewriter.
However, in general, the situation was not entirely satisfactory. Another eight years had to accustom the public to this amazing technical novelty. A lot of cars from the first series were returned to the shops, some with spoiled parts. For a long time, typewriters were looked at as a matter of luxury. But gradually the situation changed. Business offices, firms, and banks were the first to appreciate the new invention.
Already in 1876, the mass production of cars was established. The first "Remingtons", although had the same principle of operation as modern typewriters, still differed by some specific features. For example, the text in them was printed under the roller and was not visible. To look at the work, it was necessary to raise the trolley, which was located on hinges for this purpose. It was not quite convenient.
Meanwhile, Shawls' example inspired other inventors. In 1890, Franz Wagner received a patent for a typewriter with horizontally lying letter levers and with a font visible when typing. He sold the rights to the manufacturer to John Underwood. This machine was so convenient that soon began to enjoy mass demand, and Underwood earned a huge fortune on it. The inventor himself was not, however, so fortunate and died in poverty.
Since 1908, "Remington" also began to produce machines with visible font. After "Underwood" appeared typewriters of other firms, including several European developments. But in the first decades of its existence, this invention was more in line with the American way of life. At least until the beginning of the XX century, the lion's share of all manufactured and purchased cars was in the U.S. The principle of action of all these machines, in general, was the same.
Probably, no person has not seen the work of a typewriter. Therefore, there is no need to describe in detail its action and device. The main parts of the typewriter were: a keyboard with a system of levers, a carriage with rollers for paper and a cast iron frame mechanism installed on a wooden board. The carriage (a movable trolley carrying paper) carried a solid rubber cylinder and a wooden roller parallel to it, between which the paper passed.
When the machine was running, the carriage automatically moved from right to left after each letter had been printed. When a certain key was pressed, the lever associated with it, which had a steel cut out letter on itself, was raised. This letter hit the rubber roller on which the paper was moving. All the letters were punched at the same point as they were placed on the forming cylinder.
Between the paper and the letter, there was automatically a special tape soaked in black or colored paint. The steel letter, hitting the ribbon, printed its imprint on the paper. Two letters were placed on each lever. To print the second one, it was necessary to move the rubber cylinder by pressing a special key (move it to the upper register).
When you hit the key, not only did the lever connected to it come into motion, but by means of gear-conical gearing it was turned to a certain angle of the coil with the tape, which was wound up from one of them and wound up on the other, so that the next letter hit another place of the tape. When the whole ribbon passed under the font, the direction of its movement was changed with a special lever, and the coils began to rotate in the opposite direction. Simultaneously with the movement of the tape towards it under the influence of the spring moved elastic rubber roller, carried by a carriage and supporting the paper. The carriage moved backward by hand.
Thus, each pressing of the key caused three actions of the machine at once:
- the letter left the impression on the paper;
- the carriage moved one step to the left;
- the tape moved.
All this was achieved due to the interaction of different parts of the typewriter, the main of which was the printing mechanism, stepper mechanism, and ribbon mechanism.