Written by Reginald Beer Frontispiece Ltd
I'm sat at my laptop at Cannon Workshops, Canary Wharf, typing my next post concerning a British patent obtained by Henry Mill on this day, January 7, in 1714.
Mill's patent was for "an artificial machine or method for impressing or transcribing of letters, one after another, as in writing." The 'type-writer.'
The term 'type-writer,' however, wasn't introduced into the English language until June 23, 1868, when it was first used by printer and journalist Christopher Latham Sholes of Wisconsin.
Latham also introduced the QWERTY typeface configuration which is now generally used, including by myself as I sit contemplating the next sentence.
The adoption of QWERTY by Remington in their first market leading type-writer of 1873 led to 'copy-catting' by other manufacturers and its eventual universal adoption.
When I began my working life in Fleet Street in 1960 the type-writer was king. As it was in many offices where rows of typists sat, sometimes dozens deep, copy-typing documents for their employers.
Today, the type-writer is but a memory, although a 'fond memory' at that.
The illustration that accompanies this article is from the Illustrated London News dated February 13, 1886. At a price of 'eight guineas,' the price is as much a part of history as the product it was promoting.
Antique print courtesy of Frontispiece Ltd.
See other items of historic interest at: mapsandantiqueprints.com