Omaha daily bee., 1919-03-15
Evolution of the Typewriter
Reprinted from Bsifords Magazine for
April, 1892, by the courtesy Of the publishers)
Second InstalIment.

Second Installment.
During the winter Of 1862, two
acquantanees Of long standing c. Latham
Sholes, printer and editor by trade, although
at that time collector OF customs for the port
Of Milwaukee, and Samuel w, Soule. also a
printer, inventor and farmer, were engaged to-
gether in developing machine for serially
numbering the pages of blank books and the
like. At the same shop in which they were
having the artisan work done Mr.. Carlos Gid
den, the son of a SUCCESSFUL ironmonger OF Ohio,
was also engaged in developing a mechanical
"spader" to be used instead Of plow Sholes
and Glidden, thus thrown into almost daily con-
tact, became much interested in each others i'm
ventions Mr.. Glidden evlneed great interest in
the Sholes machine. and one day CHANGED to re-
mark to him. Why can not such machine be
made that will write letters and words instead
OF figures onlyG" Thus was the seed of thought
dropped without any knowledge at the time of
speaking that such an idea had ever before been
suggested. Nothing further was said or done at
that time, but the sequel showed that the sug-
gestion was not an idle one, and was destined
to bear abundant fruit in due season. In the
spring OF the following year Q867) copy OF
the Scientific American, which quoted an arti-
Gle from a London technical journal fell into
the hands of Mr.. Giidden. II described ma
chine called the pterotype (winged typel, in
vented by one John Pratt Of Center, Ala, which
was designed to do just what Mr. Glidden had
suggested
An editorial article in the paper pointed out
the great benefit to mankind which such ma
chine would confer, as well as the fortune
which the successful inventor would acquire,
This was brought to the attention of Mr.. Sholes
and strongly appealed to his imagination. He
was man Of intellectual temperament, though
perhaps somewhat lacking in the more severely
practical qualities necessary to carry out an
enterprise such as he was about to inaugurate.
Ia @a Rw.w rI4ak Il -.,I
as Glidden had first suggested the idea he in
vlted him to join in the enterprise. Souie was
subsequently invited to join. All made sug-
gestions. Glidden, who was of mechanical
turn, suggested many devices, but the sugges-
tions of the others seemed to be Of a more prac-
tcal nature, so that it finally turned out that
Gliddens principal share in the invention was
in the value Of the general suggestions which
he made The first crude model constructed
was largely the work of Soule, who suggested
the pivoted types set in circle, and other minor
details Sholes contributed the ietter-spacing
device The work went steadily onward, and by
September OF that year the first machine had
been made. Ii was a success insofar as it was
able to write accurately and with fair rapdity,
but it soon showed that it was far from being
an acceptable practical writing machine But
many letters were written with it and sent to
friends: Among others one was sent to Mr..
James Densmore, then of Meadvle, Pa This
proved to be a fortunate thing for the nascent
enterprise, for it brought into it a man Of prac-
tical affairs, who had sufficient enthusiasm to
purchase, as he shortly thereafter did, by the
payment OF all expenses already incurred, an in
terest in the enterprise without so much as hav-
ing seen the machine. Mr. Densmore had been
both editor and printer, and could we'll realize
the importance OF such a machine; but it is one
small tribute to the characteristic energy and
foresight of the man that he was thus willing
to embark his means in a device so entirely
new and untried, for it must be remembered
that the present inventors had no knowledge
OF any previous efforts in this line excepting
that Of Mr. John Pratt above mentioned. Mr.
Densnlore did not actually see the typewriter
until March, 1868, He then pronounced it good
for nothing save to show the feasibility of the
idea, and urged further improvement pointing
out many defects which would need to be
remedied before the instrument could be made
available for practical uses. AT this time Soule
and Glidden both dropped out of the enterprise,
leaving it entirely to Sholes and Densmore
Urged on by Mr. Densmore, Sholes continued
to devise model after model, until some rs or
SO experimental instruments had been made,
each little better than its predecessor, though
still lacking the essentials of successful ma
chine. In the hands of practical users, stenog-
raphers and others, each of these was proved to
be in some respect defective, and broke down
under the strain of constant usage. This process
was kept up until the patience of Sholes was
prise had been solely in his hands it might have
failed at this critical point and this attempt to
produce writing machine would have shared
the fate of the many previous ones and come
to naught But the, shrewdness and common
sense of Densmore proved the salvation of the
enterprise, for he insisted that such criticism
and tests were Just what were needed to reveal
the weak points. He insisted that the whole
thing might as we'll be abandoned unless the
machine could be so constructed that anybody
could use it, Thus by slow degrees the original
conceptions of the inventor were modified by
practical experience, until 1873 it was deemed
sufficiently perfect to be placed in the hands of
manufacturer with view to putting the ma
chine on the market for the general public.
With this end in view came Densmore early in
the year 1878 to the great gun factory Of B..
Remington & Sons, at lion, N. Y. Somewhat
dubious about his own ability to successfully
persuade the Remingtons TO undertake the man
ufacture, he invited an acquaintance, Mr. G..
W. N. Yost, with whom he had been associated
in former years in the oil transportation bush
ness in Pennsylvania, to accompany him, in
order to have the assistance of his well known
huency in persuading the Remingtons.
After much negotiating they were success
full in their endeavors, and the Remington firm
agreed to undertake the manufacture of the new
machine. The first machines were ready for
the market about the middle of 1874,
The first ones sold for general use were very
different in appearance from the compact and
weil-constructed Remingtons of today although
the fundamental principles Of the early machine
still survive for nothing Of real utility has yet
been found to supersede them. This machine
was exhibited at the Centennial in 1876.
ITO Az