June 22, 2018

On June 23, 1868, 150 years ago tomorrow, the United States Patent Office awarded patent no. 79,265 for the world’s first typewriter. The patent went to three inventors from Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel W. Soulé. The typewriter revolutionized business and personal communication, allowing people to write with clarity, repetition, and speed. Typewriters, of course, no longer sit on most people’s desks. But the legacy of the typewriter lives on in the keyboards of computers and smart phones as well as in the skill of typing itself.

This model of the Sholes, Glidden, and Soulé type-writer was awarded a patent 150 years ago on June 23, 1868. Credit: Smithsonian Institution

In 1867, after much trial and error, inventor and journalist Christopher Sholes designed the first practical type-writing machine. He built the first model with the help of fellow inventors Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soulé. The patented machine of 1868 used piano keys which were used in conjunction with the adjustable knob on top to produce the 26 letters—in ALL CAPS—of the English alphabet. The machine was soon fitted with a more practical keyboard consisting of buttons assigned to each letter as well as punctuation marks and a space bar. New versions also used an upright carriage, allowing users to see the words on the page as they typed. In 1873, the rights to the type-writer were sold to E. Remington and Sons, a gun manufacturer that marketed and mass-produced the new machine.

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This drawing of the first typewriter accompanied the patent awarded in 1868. Credit: © Science Source

The earliest typewriters used keyboard layouts that had letters arranged alphabetically. These layouts enabled the typist to locate keys easily. However, a problem often occurred. When the typist struck in rapid succession two or more keys whose type bars were next to one another, the bars frequently jammed. To remedy this problem, Sholes helped develop another layout in the 1870′s. This layout, known as QWERTY, is still the standard for keyboards in most English- and Spanish-speaking countries. It is called QWERTY because the letters Q, W, E, R, T, and Y appear in succession near the upper left-hand corner of the keyboard. In the QWERTY layout, the bars for the letters that most often appear in combination in the English language are far apart.

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A computer keyboard includes all the keys found on a typewriter, shown here in pale blue, along with other keys or groupings of keys. The top row of letters gave the QWERTY layout its name. Credit: WORLD BOOK Illustration

Keyboards in some other countries have different layouts, maximizing the use of common letters in other languages. Many French-speaking countries use the AZERTY keyboard. Germany and many central European nations have QWERTZ keyboards, and alphabets that do not use Roman characters—Arabic or Chinese, for example—have their own individual typing layouts.

The first successful portable typewriter appeared in the early 1900′s. Electric typewriters came into use in the 1920′s. The first simple word processors, then often called automatic typewriters, came into the market during the early 1960′s. Manufacturers developed the electronic typewriter during the late 1970′s. Beginning about 1980, personal computers and printers began to replace typewriters for home and office use.

July 16, 2013

—•— (Start message) The last telegram in the last country to maintain a national telegraph service was sent yesterday, closing a major chapter in the story of a system that dominated long-distance communication for more than 100 years. The final message, tapped out by Bharat Sanchar Nigram, India’s state-run telegram service, was transmitted 163 years after telegraph service was established in that country. The company said it could no longer compete profitably with Internet and cell phone messaging. Western Union ended its telegraph service in the United States in 2006. However, telegraph lines around the world have not been completely silenced. A Swiss-based company called Unitel Telegram Services reports transmitting tens of thousands of telegrams each month in more than 40 countries. According to the company, about half of its messages are sent to individuals, with businesses and diplomatic services accounting for the rest.

In an age of instant digital communication, it is difficult to appreciate the Earth-changing nature of the telegraph. Before the telegraph, most long-distance messages traveled no faster than the fastest horse. An exception was the semaphore method, in which a sequence of lights or other markers signaled from point to point. However, semaphore systems did not work well in bad weather. Even in good weather, they could transmit only a small amount of information.

Western Union messengers wait on scooters outside their office in 1940, ready for telegrams that need delivery. Western Union was the main provider of long-distance telegraph service in the United States from the mid-1800's until the early 2000's. (© American Stock/Getty Images)

The telegraph, which was an important means of communication from the mid-1800′s to the mid-1900′s, was the first instrument used to send messages by means of wires and electric current. Telegraph operators sent signals using a device that interrupted the flow of electric current along a wire. They used shorter and longer bursts of current, with spaces in between, to represent the letters of the message in what became known as Morse code. A device at the receiving end converted the signals to a series of clicks that a telegraph operator or a mechanical printer translated into words. The message was called a telegram if it was sent over wires stretched across land and a cablegram, or simply a cable, if it was sent through cables laid underwater.

The American painter and inventor Samuel F. B. Morse is credited with making the first practical telegraph in 1837. Morse received a U.S. patent for it in 1840. However, Morse’s invention built upon years of research and experiments by people who came before him. The text of Morse’s first telegram to his partner Alfred Vail was “What hath God Wrought?” •—•—•

Additional World Book articles:

• Signaling
• SOS
• Wheatstone, Sir Charles
• Woods, Granville T.
• Telecommunications (1924) (a Back in Time article)