Evening star., 1936-11-17

A clumsy wooden box with creaking
crank and q blotted, badly mlSSpelled
letter from q worried man to his wife
The first American typewriter and the
first letter ever written on a machine in
the United States.
The reconstructed patent model and
the letter itself are among the most in
teresting articles brought out Of the his
torical collection of the National Mu-
scum for the observance OF the Tooth
anniversary of the present American
patent system next Monday.
The crude old writing machine" was
an invention of an ingenious Yankee
named William Austin Burt, who had
settled down near Detroit as land sur
veyor and justice of the peace. The
instrument must have been very clumsy
to operate and it is doubtful whether a
letter could have been written on it more
speedily than by hand. Burt was ahead
of his time The first typewriter" never
came into commercial production.
1t was built entirely of wood. 1t was
operated by 8 lever connected with a
circular frame which carried the type.
A pointer at one end of this boxlike affair
correspondent with the position OF the
type on the frame inside the box and
when in proper position the type were
depressed into contact with the platen,
which corresponds to the feed roller on
the present-day typewriter.
There was no particular reason why
the Michigan land surveyor should have
invented a typewriter. The problem OF
mechanical writing was only one OF
many to which he devoted his mind
under the stimulation of that great
surge of inventive genius which charac-
terized the first half of the nineteenth
century in the United States. Me-
chanical writing was one OF the problems
which challenged the ingenuity OF the
Yankee mechanics who were spreading
out from New England farm houses
carving their tool kits, and Burt seems
to have been the first man TO have pro-
duced a machine suitable for patenting.
The Michigan surveyor had no con-
ception of the "nest of keys" principle
which is fundamental in the present day
Typewriter. He did have one idea, how
ever which did not come into use until
typewriters were well known half CEN
tury or more later. This was the pro-
vision of a double set of letters. small
and capital, and device by which it
was possible to shift from one to the
other.
The nimble- fingered typists in WASH
ington'S offices may suffer bit OF con-
ceit when they compare their own neat,
correctly spelled letters with this pioneer
effort. But Burt's machine was far more
clumsy than the worst piece of junk
fo,. fry,1 sfoy. fv,
any Office of the present and he himself
was not only first beginner" but q
first beginner" on a first machine.
Moreover, spelling was not among his
accomplishments. He had enjoyed only
a broken, common school education.
The writing of that letter constituted
one of the most human" episodes in
the history of American invention. It
follows:
"New-York March, IS, 1880.
"Dear Companion,
IT have but Jest got my second ma
chine into operation and this is the
first specimen I send you except few
lines I printed to regulate the machine,
I am in good health but am in fear these
lines will not find you so andthe children
from the malencholley account your let
ter gave me of sickness and deaths In
our neighbourhood, had rested con-
tented to what I should If 1t had been
summer season about the health of my
family, as it is jenerlly healthy during
the winter months; but their has been
an unusual quentity Of sickness heare
this winter, and it has b EN- very cold
In Urcpe as well as in America, strong
indication Of the change Of seasonth that
. I have % often mentioned.-Mr. Sheldon