When I first started sending emails, I wrote the whole message in caps, probably because I didn't trust the new-fangled Internet to deliver my message. One day a colleague told me politely that it was rude to use all upper case letters. She said it was like yelling.
The first commercial typewriter went on the market on this day in 1874 with the same problem. It could only produce upper case letters. People didn't like that. Also, the keys hit the paper from below so the typist could not see what he or she was typing.
People had been trying to invent a typewriter since the 1830s. An early model was described as a cross between a piano and a kitchen table. After the Civil War, with the country booming, businesses needed a machine for fast and legible correspondence. In 1867 an inventor named Sholes got together with a mechanic named Glidden to build a typewriter
They sold a share of their business to a financier named Densmore to provide capital to produce a working machine. Densmore sent out typed letters to entice businesses to order the machines. Western Union ordered several for recording messages, but the machines broke down easily.
Meanwhile, the Remington Company was looking for a new product to replace the rifles they had been making for the recent war. Remington had the equipment and the machinists to produce a more reliable machine. The manager of the project had been in charge of Remington's sewing machine division, so the first typewriters resembled sewing machines, with a black lacquer case, floral designs on the front, and a foot treadle to move the paper up. The QWERTY keyboard was designed to put the most frequently used letters on opposite ends of the typebar to prevent the keys from jamming.
Businesses began buying typewriters but the public did not like them. People felt the big machines took away the personal touch and that the machine could be rigged to cheat the customer. At $125 each, a typewriter cost as much as the average person’s annual income. There was no need for the individual to own a typewriter.
The typewriter was a boon for women workers. A woman working in an office made several times as much as one working in a factory, though she only made half as much as a man in the same office. The year the typewriter came out, only 4% of clerical staff in the U.S. were women. By 1900 it was 75%. Women now earn about 80% as much as men.
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| "I've got a long way to go, and don't call me baby." |
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