The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.
(Ray Bradbury)
Today (23rd June, 2018) is Typewriter Day, which celebrates this humble mechanical device and the amazing pieces of literature it has brought to us over the decades.
Typewriters were originally conceived of in 1575 by an Italian printmaker, Francesco Rampazzetto, who invented the “scrittura tattile“, a machine to impress letters in papers, which never saw production
In 1714, Henry Mill obtained a patent in Britain for a machine that seemed to be a typewriter from the design and was explicitly described as being intended for that purpose
Another example was designed in 1802 by Agostino Fantoni, who developed a particular typewriter to enable his blind sister to write, while in 1808 another Italian, Pellegrino Turri, invented a similar machine and also carbon paper to provide the ink for it.
In 1823 Pietro Conti di Cilavegna conceived a new model of typewriter, known as “tachigrafo” and in 1855, Giuseppe Ravizza created a prototype typewriter called “Cembalo scrivano” o “macchina da scrivere a tasti” (“Scribe harpsichord, or machine for writing with keys”).
But it was on 23 June 23 1868, that Christopher Latham Sholes, Samuel W. Soulé, James Densmore, and Carlos Glidden received the first patent for an invention called the “Type-Writer.”
After receiving it Sholes licensed it to Remington & Sons, the famous gunmaker, who began production and later developed the Remington Typewriter with the now standard Qwerty layout, designed in 1873 to put common letter pairs far apart to speed up typing by preventing jams
Interesting history! They typewriter really transformed our world. They are still popular, and sold at antique stores, for new typists who like to see ‘immediate; results of their work!
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Thank you very much for your reflection.
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A fascinating story, it is truly a great day to be a typewriter or better yet, to use one! Thank you Luisa.🙏😊
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Thank you for your kind words. I’m so pleased you enjoyed this post
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Bellissima!
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Grazie di cuore ❤
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A te ❤️
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I learnt something today. Thank you!
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Thank you for saying so. Cheers!
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I always managed to jam the keys.
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Did you? Maybe you were using too many fingers 😉
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Only 1. My typing teacher said I was very creative. I still failed the class? 🤔
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😀
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Wow this is cool !! I didn’t know such a day existed. I have heard that people who owned a typie had a special attachment to it. Is it true Luisa ? I believe you might have had one 😇
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Yes I had one, It was my father’s: this is one of the reasons I loved it
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So glad to know that 😊. There is always great value for vintage things and a lot of history behind it Luisa 😇. Thanks again for this enlightening read ❤️
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Most welcome
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😊
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Wow … you have one !! I have it on my mind for so long, to get one. 🙂
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… but I don’t use it any longer…
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wow what great detail of it’s invention … what a game changer it’s been, thanks 🙂
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I really appreciate you for saying so. Thank you
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you did a lot of research for this, thanks!
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Most welcome ❤
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Che bello questo post!
Io ho un’Olivetti che ha esattamente 50 anni, regalo di mio padre per la promozione dalla quinta elementare alle medie. Adoravo scrivere a macchina.
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Anch’io ho la vecchia macchina da scrivere di mio padre. E’ quella su cui mi ha aiutata a battere la bozza della mia tesi di laurea (tanti e tanti anni fa)
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I miss the sound of the typewriter and the feel of the keys. My grandmother’s sister had one. As a boy I would sit in her living room writing stories. I thought I was on top of the world when I saw my ideas in fancy print.
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And I was very fond of my father’s typewriter, the one I used when I was young
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