Facts About Automatic Typewriters
The automatic typewriter was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes in 1867. The premise of the invention was to allow an individual to produce type that resembled the product of a printing press. While this ability is taken for granted today, at the time all written material was either produced on a printing press or was handwritten. Numerous writing machines had been attempted prior to Sholes' invention, but his was the first to be practically usable and become popular.
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How Manual Typewriters Work
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The user strikes a lettered key with a finger. This key activates a lever that has an embossed letter on the end of it. The lever swings up and strikes the piece of paper through an ink-saturated ribbon that is stretched in front of the paper. This action leaves the shape of the letter in ink on the paper. The paper is wound around a cylinder that can be advanced line by line. The cylinder sits in a carriage that advances from right to left as the keys are hit, allowing the letters to strike the paper in succession rather than all in the same place. Most manual typewriters are equipped with a small bell that is hit when the carriage reaches its limit. The carriage is then manually returned to the right side and typing begins on the next line.
How Automatic Typewriters Work
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Automatic typewriters use the same basic construction and design as manual typewriters, but rather than mechanically activating the levers, the keys electronically activate other forms of letter vehicles to strike the paper. One of the more common automatic typewriters is the IBM Selectric, which uses a letter ball, a small sphere covered with letters that sits in the carriage of the typewriter, and is activated by the keys to strike the proper letter onto the paper. Electric typewriters are quieter and much easier to use than manual typewriters.
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Drawbacks of Typewriters
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Unlike a computer, when a mistake is made on a typewriter it is already on the paper. It must then be covered with a white ink-like substance known as white-out. Some typewriters utilize a ribbon that is partly ink and partly white-out. This allows the typist to remove letters by typing the white-out over them, rather than applying the white-out manually.
QWERTY
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"Qwerty" is the term used for a certain kind of keyboard, named for the first six letters in the upper row. When Sholes first invented the typewriter, he intentionally used this layout because it was anti-intuitive and slowed down the typist. This was necessary at the time because of the mechanics of his invention; if the typist typed too quickly the hammers would jam. Although this concern is now obsolete, the qwerty keyboard lives on because so many people have become accustomed to it.
Antiques
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Many older typewriters are now collector's items. The range of designs that existed in the infancy of the typewriter is quite amazing, as inventors attempted to determine the most efficient and useful construction. The baroque look and mahogany, oak and brass of antique typewriters are quite appealing to modern tastes, and 19th century typewriters in good condition can now sell for more than a computer.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit vintage typewriter image by Inger Anne Hulbækdal from Fotolia.com
