The History of Typewriters

There are several individuals who have contributed to the typewriter! The Concept started in 1714 with an Englishman named Henry Mill.

He was born in 1683 and passed away in 1771. The machine he patented in 1714 appears to be similar to what we call ‘TYPEWRITER,’ yet little is known about it.

Early typewriters were created to enable the blind to write. Another creator of the typewriter, Pellegrino Turri made the machine for his blind lover in the year 1801. Turri also created carbon paper to provide the ink for the machine. Not much is known about Turri’s creation, however, some of the letters his lover wrote are still around today.

Rasmus Malling-Hanson was a Danish inventor and one of the pioneers of the 19th century. Of all his inventions, the one that gave his name recognition was the Hansen Writing Ball. The Hansen Writing Ball was created in 1865 and was the first commercially produced typewriter. It is said that Nietzsche received one for Christmas from his mother and sister and hated it! Maybe, it was because it looked like a pincushion! Christopher L. Sholes was an inventor born in good old Pennsylvania. He then moved to Wisconsin. He is well known for creating the typewriter. The Sholes and Glidden only typed in capital letters. The S&G was a decorative machine, boasting painted flowers and decals. It looked rather like a sewing machine, as it was manufactured by the sewing machine department of the Remington arms company. The Sholes and Glidden had limited success, however, Remington (its successor) soon became dominant in the industry. The QWERTY keyboard became universal but there were some typewriters that did not follow this route. One example of this is the Hammond. I currently own two Royal Typewriters. Both were passed to me by generations and generations of family members and I have been blessed to have the two at my disposal. The Royal Typewriter Company was founded in 1904 in Brooklyn, NY. Many writers including Earnest Hemingway used a Royal. Royal had many models of typewriters. Their first electric typewriter was created in 1950. As far as my little research has taken me, Royal had produced about 23 different models of typewriters.