A machine used before computers were invented that allowed you to type with your hands and print letters on a page was an example of a typewriter.
- a writing machine with a keyboard, for reproducing letters or figures that resemble printed ones
- a style of printer's type that looks like a typewriter print
Origin of typewritertype + writer: so named (1867), probably by C. L. Sholes (1819-90), United States journalist, who patented the first practical machine (1868)
- A writing machine that produces characters similar to typeset print by means of a manually operated keyboard that actuates a set of raised types, which strike the paper through an inked ribbon.
- Printing A typestyle like that of typewritten copy.
- A device, at least partially mechanical, used to print text by pressing keys that cause type to be impressed through an inked ribbon onto paper.
- (archaic) One who uses a typewriter; a typist.
- The typewriter got up and disappeared out a back door, and soon she come back with a man, and he said, "Can I be of some help, Mr. Higgens?" -- The Southpaw, Mike Harris, 1953.
typewrite + -er
typewriter - Computer Definition
A mechanical or electromechanical device that is used to print text on a paper document. Although there were various typewriter-like devices created throughout the 1800s, the first typewriters with a carriage that moved the paper to the next character location began to emerge in the 1870s. The first commercially successful machine was the "Sholes & Glidden Type Writer" made by the Remington Arms company in Ilion, NY from 1874 to 1878. The QWERTY keyboard was created in that same time frame. Electric and Selectric Greatly reducing the effort it took to produce a typewritten page, electric typewriters were introduced by Remington and IBM in the 1920s and 1930s, still using the horizontal moving carriage. In 1961, IBM revolutionized the typewriter world with the introduction of its golf ball-like Selectric type wheel. Allowing the machine to reside in less desk space, the platen only moved the paper to the next line, while the type ball was moved across the page. Balls came with different typefaces and could be easily switched to change fonts. For an enchanting collection of old typewriters, visit www.typewritermuseum.org.