The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1918-06-06
F THE many useful in
ventions and appliances
designed to facilitate and
ovpo1;fo oA'oo morL opI


Hkg1gN designed to facilitate and
GgD expedite Office work and
as an aid to the business man, the
typewriter occupies a place of it's
own. A sketch of it's origin and
growth from a small beginning to
a great enterprise is not without
considerable interest. The type
writer was destined to a sphere of
usefulness, not only in the world
of commerce but also to be indis-
pensable to prominent men in all
walks of life. The idea of a ma
chine to do the work of the pen
was not the product of any one
mind, many having conceived and
wrestled with the problem before
its full fruition into the practical
model of today.
1t was a combination of ideas
from many acute minds. The first
attempt to produce a typewriter
was made by one Henry Mill, an
English engineer of some repute,
as far back as 1714, but the records
of the British patent office do not
give a very comprehensive de.
scription of it, and except for this
brief record nothing is known of
this projected machine: it's record
died with the inventor.
To VIM. Austin Burt of Detroit
belongs the honor of being the
first American to take out a patent
for the construction of a type
writing machine. This was in 1929.
The machine itself was both crude
in design and of very rough con-
struction. The only model of this
typewriter together with its patent
record was destroyed by a fire in
the patent Office in 1886.
In the interest of brevity it is
not necessary to describe here the
numerous inventions or to review
the efforts of the many inventors
to produce a perfect typewriting
machine. The only comment nee
cessary in regard to these inven-
tions is that though many good
ideas were brought forth in their
models, some of them even being
retained in the machines of the
present day, none of the machines
were of practical value and could
not stand the test of hard usage.
Foucalt, who was an inmate of an
institution for the blind in Paris,
brought forth successful ma
chine for printing raised letters
for the blind and it's exhibition
gained the inventor a rather large
renOwn.
De Frances invention is remark
able for the number of features it
possessed common to the modern
typewriter. 1t employed a motion
similar to that of piano hammer
to throw up the type to common
center. 1t contained the familiar
carriage travelling from side to
side, alarm bell for indicating end
of line and blank key for spac-
ing. 1t is hard to assign reason
for its non-appearance for sale on
the market. The machine con-
structed by Mr.. Beach in 1856
showed a material advance in prac-
ticality and its exhibition attracted
much attention. However, it never
emerged from the experimental
stage. Many other patents were
issued during the next ten years,
but none of these inventions showed
the necessary progress toward the
desired end of practically.
After listening to an account of
all these Intellectual attempts, it is
refreshing to describe the success
full production of the first practical
typewriter in 1867. The credit
for it's projection and construction
belongs to three men: G. Latham
Sholes, a printer and editor of
Milwaukee, Wis; Samuel w. Soul,
a printer and inventor, and Carlos