The typographer was an early typewriter invented by William Austin Burt.[1] Intended to aid in office work, the machine worked by using a lever to press characters onto paper one at a time.[2][3] It was the first typewriting machine to be patented in the United States, although Pellegrino Turri had made one in Italy in 1808.[4] Perhaps because of its slow speed, or because there was not yet a wide market for typewriters, it was not a commercial success.[2][3]
The working model that Burt constructed for his 1829 patent was destroyed in the 1836 Patent Office fire.[2][5]
References
edit- ^ Wyckoff, W. O.; Jones, R. McKean (1900). "Typewriters". Universal Cyclopaedia, Vol. 12. D. Appleton. p. 7. OCLC 861656957.
- ^ a b c "Burt, William Austin". The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. 18. J. T. White. 1922. pp. 367–368. OCLC 164589128.
- ^ a b Peters, Gary (October 24, 1979). "World's First Writing Machine". The Sheboygan Press. Sheboygan, Wisconsin. p. 47 – via Newspapers.com
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- ^ Revett, Kenneth (September 15, 2008). Behavioral Biometrics: A Remote Access Approach. John Wiley & Sons. p. 222. ISBN 978-0470997932. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
- ^ "First Letter Ever Written on a Typewriter Finds its Way Here". The Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. July 10, 1922. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com .
Further reading
edit- Adler, Michael H. (1973). The Writing Machine, A History of the Typewriter. George Allen & Unwin Ltd. ISBN 0-04-652004-X.
- Linnoff, Victor M. (2000). The Typewriter, an illustrated history. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-41237-7.