History of Typewriters and Their Evolution - Research Paper Example

?INTRODUCTION An invention of the 1860s, type became so popular that they became a very important part for each and every household. The households that had small businesses going on as a part of their income support, typewriters became a must have.People started using it for all kinds of writing. Some people even used it for personal correspondence, though its use in this form was quite limited. The typewriters were being used by authors and publishers to prepare manuscripts that went for printing. It became an indispensible tool for the professional writers. In private homes, people used it usually for the business correspondence with their lawyers, proprietors and other official purposes. They ruled over the business world for more than a century. Nineteenth century became the century of typewriters. There were quite many modifications within the existing machine, but they still had no replacements (Williams, 2003). The advent of the word processors in the end of nineteenth century took the place of typewriters in the western world, and many of the uses of the typewriters were replaced. The typewriters started to become obsolete but they were still very prominent in their use in some countries where the economy was not good or the advancement of technology was behind the western worlds. It is still very popularly used in some Countries in Africa and India. WHAT IS A TYPEWRITER? A typewriter is a mechanical or an electromechanical machine, it writes the characters in a very similar way as the characters are written when we use printers. The keyboard operated types when the keys are struck. The keys when struck produce an impression with the use of ink transfer or carbon impression on the paper (Wershler-Henry, 2007). Manufacturers who were in business became quite famous for their manufactured typewriters and made quite a lot of profit from it. The famous companies that were involved during the middle of nineteenth century in the making of typewriters were E. Remington and Sons, IBM, Imperial Typewriters, Oliver Typewriter Company, Olivetti, Royal Typewriter Company, Smith Corona, and Underwood Typewriter Company (Marie, 2006). The main concept and design of the typewriter is same, but due to the ever increasing demand of the typewriters there were many inventors who were working together or independently just to make the machine perfect. Many of the inventors were working in contest with each other while some were working for the increased social benefit. The innovations that were carried out on the typewriters were all incremental. Many people provided insights as to the improvement of the machine and the result was a more commercially useful instrument. It has been estimated that the number of times the innovations that have occurred are around fifty two to make it more workable and profitable for the business. Earlier ribbon was used for typing but then introduction of print ball made typing more easier (Kittler, Young and Wutz, 1999). HISTORY OF TYPEWRITERS AND THEIR EVOLUTION The first of its kind was a machine that was built by Henry Mill in 1714 (Marie, 2006). He had obtained a patent for a machine that was very much similar to the typewriter. The reviews that could be found about the machine all relate to a machine that could be used to write letters. The machine was said to be so perfect that it enabled the letters to be transcribed or printed on a sheet of paper in such a perfect and neat manner that it could be used repeatedly and the perfection in the printed pages remained synchronous. It was a machine that was considered as a perfect solution for all the correspondence either business or commercial. It was considered as a machine that would produce quite a lot of ease in the maintenance of the public records as well. The reason it was considered as a more effective way as compared to the manual writing that was done to keep the records was because the print stayed for a longer time period (Daniell and Mortensen, 2007). The typewriter that continued to be in use was the one that was created by Henry Mill. In 1808, an Italian inventor Pelligrino Turri created a machine that was similar to the typewriter and also had an additional feature, which made it suitable to be used by the people who were blind. He also has the invention of carbon paper to his credit. The carbon paper was used for the machine that he had created and it provided the ink for the machine. The addition of blind people to the users was a very big gift as it made it possible for them to get jobs too (Auster and Messer, 2002).  William Austin Burt in 1829 created a machine that was known as typographer; when he requested a patent for the machine, it was described at that as the first recorded or patented writing machinery. It is considered technically wrong because Turri’s invention had preceded it and before that Henry Mill’s invention had come earliest of all. Austin Burt’s invention was considered to be the first typewriter (Bugan, 2012a). The invention of Austin Burt was not a very successful one as the speed of typing or writing even used by inventor was not good one. The speed was very slow even compared to the things being written by hand. It was the sole reason that William Austin Burt was not able to find a patent buyer for his machine. The machine could not establish a market for itself and failed drastically (Morgan, 2010). As the time progressed the business communication needs and requirements also increased and this called for a faster, efficient and effective system that could help develop the business in a much better way. The typewriter that was being used at that time had a speed of 130 words per minute, while on the other hand the words that were being written only had a speed of 30 words per minute (the speed is according to the record in the year 1850). This is why the need for stenographers and telegraphers arrived. During the time period of 1827 till 1870 there were many machines that were patented but none of the machines had the opportunity to go into commercial productions because there cost and benefit analysis clearly showed them as not acceptable (Bugan, 2012b). There were number of inventors who built a machine that was much similar to the typewriter. The inventors belonged to different nations and therefore, here the history is a bit muddled. An Italian inventor invented a typewriter that could enable the author to see what he was typing actually and this was a blessing as the person could see what he was typing while working not just as a complete document. At around same time a priest from Brazil constructed a typewriter that was also functional, and the government of Brazil, to this day consider the priest as the person to have developed the typewriter (Frayn, 2009). Hansen Writing ball was the first ever sold typewriter. This typewriter was produced in 1870 and was a huge success. The typewriter that consisted of the Hansen writing ball was considered to be the first typewriter that had letters arranged in such a way that the person typing could type in the fastest way possible. This was the most sold typewriter at its time. WOMEN AND TYPEWRITERS Women were usually stereotyped with the use of the typewriters. This was the machine that allowed the women to enter the workforce. This was a work that did not require much skills and only involved sitting in one place and does not involve any hard work or physical work. The percentage of women increased in the workforce with the increased introduction of typewriters. The jobs that became open to them were those of stenographers. The percentages are as follows: During the 1870s the amount of female staff in the office was around 5% of the workforce that was employed as stenographers in total. During the 1890s the amount of female staff in the office was around 64% of the workforce that was employed as stenographers in total. During the 1920s the amount of female staff in the office was around 92% of the workforce that was employed as stenographers in total (Marie, 2006). With the increase in the office sizes the demands for the stenographers increased, and this resulted in the required increase of the workforce of stenographers and typists. The result was the increase in the employment rates of women who were all working as stenographers or typists which caused a monopoly of women in the field. Women were earlier not considered capable enough to do work in offices, but introduction of typewriters made the jobs seem easier and therefore, women began to be employed. Once women entered the arena there was no stopping there force. Women had improved rights in general from the middle of nineteenth century. The movies that were being made during those times always portrayed women working or getting jobs as typists in the offices and this further strengthened the stereotype that already existed. The increased need of clerical staff made it possible for the women to enter the workforce. In the late nineteenth century, clerical work was seen as a job to be done by man, but with the start of the twentieth century this job became more womanized and began to be considered as a soft job or job deemed proper for women alone. Women before the advent of typewriters in the offices hardly had paid jobs. The paid jobs that they had were usually being employed as domestic servants or as private tutors, nurses or nannies. If a woman was considered to be “tough” then the other job that she could opt for was farming or factory work (Daniell and Mortensen 2007). ARE TYPEWRITERS OBSOLETE? The role of typewriters earlier was many a times a very crucial one. This was a fact as the typewriters were used for correspondence or internal memos in the government offices and senates, which symbolized the importance of the typewriters at that time. It was used as a means of recording what was being said or discussed and, hence, proved very crucial during the war times as well. Today with the advent of desktop computers laptops and similar kind of technology, typewriters are next to obsolete, as they are quite slow and there are many features that are missing in the typewriters as compared to the modern day technology. The reason that they became obsolete is that with the fast advancements that were occurring, typewriters could not keep pace with it. The advancements that were occurring were all related to the instruments that were being used in office work. Though they were also made into electronic typewriters, but even then they lacked the features that existed in the processors that were being used today. Another reason that caused the typewriters to become obsolete is the need for faster means of communication (Marie, 2006). The advancement in technology also brought advancement in the society. Society evolved itself into a modern society and hence typewriters and many inventions were shunned aside. Asian countries have always lacked behind the western countries in terms of use of technology and technological advancements in their day to day life; therefore, this is the reason that typewriters can still be found as being used in some of the Asian countries today. Asian countries are poorer; therefore, the improvement in these countries is quite slow as compared to the west. In contrast, in the western countries the typewriters have become a part of the museums. References Auster, P., & Messer, S. (2002). The story of my typewriter. New York, D.A.P. Bugan, C. (2012a). Burying the typewriter: a memoir. Minneapolis, Minn, Graywolf Press. Bugan, C. (2012b). Burying the typewriter: childhood under the eye of the secret police. London, Picador. Daniell, B., & Mortensen, P. (2007). Women and literacy: local and global inquiries for a new century. New York, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Frayn, M. (2009). Travels with a typewriter. London, Faber and Faber. Kittler, F. A., Winthrop-Young, G., & Wutz, M. (1999). Gramophone, film, typewriter. Stanford, Calif, Stanford University Press. Marie, J. (2006). The typewriter. Baltimore, MD, PublishAmerica. Morgan, B. (2010). The typewriter is holy: the complete, uncensored history of the Beat generation. New York, NY, Free Press. Wershler-Henry, D. S. (2007). The iron whim: a fragmented history of typewriting. Ithaca, Cornell University Press. Williams, R. (2003). The Mac is not a typewriter. Berkeley, Calif, Peachpit. Read More