HIGH SPOTS IN TYPEWRITER PROGRESS
We have noted the fundamental features contained in the original
typewriter of 1873. It had the step-by-step escapement mechanism which
caused the letter-spacing travel of the paper carriage. It had type
bars on which type were mounted which printed at a common center. It
fed the paper around a cylinder on the paper carriage. It was equipped
with a line spacing and carriage return mechanism. It printed through
a ribbon, which traveled across the printing point with the movement
of the carnage. It had the standard number of printing keys, placed
in four rows, and the characters on these keys, and the corresponding
type bars, followed the arrangement now known as "universal." To
these fundamental features the Model 2 Remington of 1878 added the
shift-key mechanism, with two type mounted on a single bar.
Every one of the features above described is standard in all
the leading writing machines of the present day. It must not be
supposed, however, that the reign of each and all of these basic
features has been undisputed throughout the entire fifty years of
typewriter history. In time other typewriters appeared on the market,
which represented radical departures from one or another of these
principles. Some of these machines proved practical in actual service
and won a considerable popularity, and some of them are manufactured
and sold today. A review of typewriter history would not be complete
which failed to take note of these departures from the type of
construction generally known as "standard."
One of the earliest issues in the typewriter field concerned
the relative merits of the type-bar principle versus the type
wheel. Mention of the type wheel brings us back to John Pratt's
Pterotype and the article concerning it in the Scientific American of
July 6, 1867, which is said to have suggested the idea of a typewriter
to Sholes and his colleagues. Pratt is said to have actually built and
sold some of these machines in England, but they were not a success,
and he for a time despaired of being able to construct a machine on
which the printing wheel would move quickly and yet stop instantly. He
worked over the problem for years, and when, at last he approached the
United States Patent Office he found himself in interference with two
other inventors, James B. Hammond and Lucien S. Crandall, both of whom
appeared with writing machines built on the type-wheel principle. A
deadlock ensued which was finally settled by Pratt yielding precedence
to Hammond upon a type-wheel machine and receiving a royalty, while
Crandall proceeded with his application for a patent on a type-sleeve
instrument. The first Hammond patents were taken out in 1880, and the
machine was placed on the market shortly thereafter. The early Hammond
had what was called the "ideal" keyboard, semi-circular in shape, but
later Hammonds have conformed to the "universal" keyboard arrangement.
The Hammond was the first practical type-wheel machine and is today the
leading machine of this class. The type-wheel construction has always
had strong advocates, but these machines have never been very serious
competitors of the type-bar machines in the general commercial field.
Soon after the advent of the Hammond, another important typewriter
issue arose--that of single versus double keyboard. The first
double-keyboard machine was the Caligraph, placed on the market in
1883, an enterprise upon which Yost entered after it became evident
that he could no longer retain his interest in the Remington. The
Caligraph was devised under the direction of Yost, principally by
a skilled German mechanic named Franz X. Wagner, who afterwards won
prominence as the inventor of the Underwood Typewriter. Yost's aim was
to construct a typewriter which would evade the Remington patents, but,
failing in this, he was subsequently granted a license. In after years
the Smith Premier became the leading double-keyboard machine. This
machine, the invention of Alexander T. Brown, was placed on the market
in 1890 by Lyman C. Smith, the gun manufacturer of Syracuse, and during
the next few years attained a wide popularity. It was urged in behalf
of the double-keyboard machine that the key for every character made
its operation easier and simpler for the beginner. The construction,
however, was more complicated, because it doubled the number of type
bars and connecting parts, and there was a further disadvantage in
the enlarged keyboard, which time made evident. The double keyboard
would probably have yielded to the shift key sooner or later, but
it was the advent of the touch method of typewriting which really
settled the matter. For use in connection with the touch system,
the compact keyboard of the shift-key machine proved so obvious an
advantage that the double keyboard lost ground rapidly and machines
with this keyboard began in time to disappear from the market. The
present Smith Premier Typewriter, invented by Jacob Felbel, is a
shift-key machine of standard design.
Another early issue in typewriter construction concerned the relative
merits of the ribbon and the inking pad. This brings us to the last
enterprise of G. W. N. Yost, which he undertook after severing his
connection with the Caligraph. In 1888 Yost brought out the machine,
developed by Alexander Davidson, Andrew W. Steiger and Jacob Felbel,
that ever since has borne his name. The most notable departure of
the Yost Typewriter from the standard design was the elimination of
the ribbon and the use instead of an inking pad, on which the face
of the type rested. The first Yost was a double-keyboard machine,
but later models embody the shift-key principle. Of late years this
type of machine has been hardly known on the American market, although
it has always enjoyed a considerable sale in Europe.
The inking pad, as a substitute for the ribbon, found many advocates
at one time because of one serious deficiency in the early ribbon
machines. The automatic ribbon reverse is an old story now, and
present-day typewriter users take it as a matter of course. Many of
them may be surprised to hear that the typewriter was twenty-two
years old before the first automatic ribbon reverse appeared on a
writing machine. Some of the older generation of typists, however,
can still remember the time when it was always necessary to operate
the machine with one eye on the ribbon, in order to be sure to reverse
it at the right time, or else suffer the consequences in a "chewed-up"
ribbon and spoiled work. During the early nineties Jenne labored hard
on the problem of an automatic ribbon reverse, the solution of which
called for inventive skill of a high order. After several experimental
devices had been designed, all of which were far too complicated, a
simple solution was found by George B. Webb, and the first automatic
ribbon reverse made its appearance on the Remington in 1896. Within
a few years the old hand reverse became practically obsolete on all
standard machines.
In the meantime a new demand had been steadily growing, which was
destined to influence quite radically the future course of typewriter
development. All of the earlier type-bar machines were built on what
is known as the understroke principle. The type bars were arranged in
a circular "basket," underneath the carriage, and the type printed at
a common point on the under side of the cylinder. These machines were
satisfactory in speed and quality of work, but they had one practical
defect--it was necessary for the operator to raise the carriage in
order to see the writing line. The advantages of visible writing
were so obvious that the problem began at an early date to engage the
attention of typewriter inventors. On the type-wheel machines, visible
writing was easily attained, but on the type-bar machines it called for
real inventive effort. The first type-bar visible writer, the Horton,
appeared as early as the year 1883. Most of the early type-bar visible
writers were of the down-stroke type, the type bars striking downward
to a common point on the top of the cylinder. Prominent among machines
of this construction were the Columbia Bar-Lock (1888), the Williams
(1890) and the Oliver (1894). The latter machine, in particular,
secured and has since held a considerable market. Later on the
front-stroke principle of construction took the lead in the general
business field. The first front-stroke machine to attain prominence
was the Underwood. This machine was the invention of Franz X. Wagner,
whose earlier connection with the Caligraph we have already noted,
and was placed on the market in 1897 by John T. Underwood, who had
long been identified with the writing-machine industry as one of the
pioneer manufacturers of typewriter ribbons and carbon papers. The
design of the front-stroke machines represented a new departure in
the arrangement of the type bars, which were placed in a segment
in front of the carriage, the type printing on the front of the
cylinder. This front-stroke principle proved to be a satisfactory
solution of the problem of visible writing, and all of the leading
standard machines are now of the front-stroke type. Prominent among
these machines today are the Underwood, the front-stroke Remington,
which was largely the work of Oscar Woodward, followed by later
improvements; the "L. C. Smith," brought out by Lyman C. Smith, the
original manufacturer of the Smith Premier, and the Royal, followed
some years after its first appearance by a new model.
Visible writing is an old story today, the last non-visible machines
having disappeared from the market many years ago. Doubtless, when this
problem had been solved, it seemed to some as though the typewriter
had attained finality. But there is nothing final on this earth, and
a new demand has been growing of recent years until it has become as
strong and insistent as the demand for visible writing of twenty years
ago. The familiar "clicking" noise of the typewriter has been with us
as long as the machine itself, and in the early days people did not
seem to mind it. But when the use of the typewriter had grown until
whole batteries of them had invaded every department of business,
the accumulated noise became a disturbance, and users began to wish
that the machine would imitate, if it could, the one and only virtue
admittedly possessed by the pen--that of silence. The development of
quiet typewriting brings us to the present-day stage of typewriter
progress, which hardly belongs to this story. It is sufficient to say
that the writing machine, which has always been equal to any demand
made upon it, has run true to form in this case. During recent years
one typewriter has appeared, the Noiseless, built around this central
idea, also quiet models of at least three of the standard makes.
It seems a far cry from the first typewriter of 1873 to the shift-key,
front-stroke, visible-writing, quiet machine of 1923. Equally
great has been the progress in the skill of the operator, from the
first would-be typists who awkwardly tried their hands on the early
machines, to the standards attained by the best typists of the present
day. The progress of the operator, however, has not been marked by
the same slow, successive stages. It has been the outcome of one
great development--the introduction of the scientific method of key
fingering known as touch typewriting.
We have referred more than once to the article in the Scientific
American of July 6, 1867, which started so many brain cells working
to such good purpose. One more quotation from this article, which
has a special application to the operator, is now in order:
"The weary process of learning penmanship in the schools will be
reduced to the acquirement of writing one's own signature and
playing on the literary piano."
Note the words "playing on the literary piano." They were suggested
spontaneously in connection with the idea; they were an unconscious
prophecy which time has fulfilled. To operate the machine with the
eyes resting not on the keys but on the copy, as the eyes of the
pianist rest on the music, to use all the fingers, to regulate the
touch so that the best results are obtained, thus gaining time in the
execution and excellence in the work; these are the ends secured by
the touch system, a method now taught universally in business schools.
"Who was the first touch typist?" is a question now frequently
asked. The answer is, the first blind typist, whoever that person
was. We have recorded how the needs of the blind figured in the efforts
of so many of the early typewriter inventors. Pen writing is almost
an impossibility for blind people. A frame of parallel wires fitted
over the writing paper, with one wire for each line of writing, is
of some help to the blind in pen writing, but if they lose the line
they cannot find it again, and it is the same with words and spaces
between words. The human hand has no automatic spacing mechanism, like
the typewriter, and that is what the blind person needs. But where
sight is lacking there is only one possible method of operation--by
touch. The touch method was a discovery of the blind, and a gift by
them to all the typists of the world.
It took time, however, for this idea to become diffused among schools
and operators generally, and during the early years of the typewriter
the style of typing now known derisively as "peck and hunt" was
universal among sighted operators. Here was a paradox, where the gift
of sight caused blindness and only the blind could see what was hidden
from everybody else. In a few years, however, the art of touch typing
was acquired by a few sighted typists of exceptional skill. The first
of whom there is record was Frank E. McGurrin, who taught himself the
art on a Model 1 Remington in 1878, while a clerk in a law office in
Grand Rapids, Mich., and afterwards became the champion speed operator
of his time. The exhibitions given by McGurrin in different cities of
the country during the eighties were of the very highest educational
importance. The most notable of these was the contest between McGurrin
and Traub; decided at Cincinnati on July 25, 1888.
The modern typewriting contests are interesting mainly as
demonstrations of the utmost capacity of the operator, but the
contest between McGurrin and Traub had a far deeper significance. It
was really a contest between two different systems of typing--the
new and the old. Louis Traub was an instructor in typewriting and
agent and expert operator of the leading double-keyboard machine of
that day. Both in the keyboard used and the method used, he stood
in opposition to McGurrin. The conditions called for forty-five
minutes writing from dictation, and forty-five from copy, unfamiliar
matter being used. McGurrin won decisively on both tests, but the
significant fact was that his speed increased three words per minute
when writing from copy, while Traub's speed fell off twelve words per
minute on the same test. The reason is obvious. McGurrin's eyes were
always on the copy, while Traub was compelled to write an "eyeful"
at a time. Traub was open to conviction and accepted the logic of
the result without reserve. He subsequently became an expert touch
operator of the shift-key machine.
The exhibitions of McGurrin and other self-taught touch typists of
this early period served a useful purpose in demonstrating that the
idea was feasible, but to make it practical for all typists was the
task of the educator. The first business school to begin systematic
instruction to pupils by the touch method, or the all-finger method as
it was then called, was Longley's Shorthand and Typewriter Institute of
Cincinnati. The credit for the introduction of this system belongs to
Mrs. M. V. Longley, wife of Elias Longley, whose name is well known to
the shorthand fraternity of America through his prominent association
with the development of phonography. This was in 1881. In the following
year her "Remington Typewriter Lessons" were published, the first
printed system for teaching the all-finger method. The advertisement
describes the system as "a series of lessons and exercises--by a
system of fingering entirely different from that of other authors
and teachers"; a very conservative statement considering the radical
departure it represented from the prevailing usage of the day.
The first typewriter man to interest himself in the system was
H. V. Rowell, for many years manager of the Remington office at
Boston, who is still living at an advanced age. It was a paper read by
Mrs. Longley before the First Annual Congress of Shorthand Writers,
held at Cincinnati in 1882, that gave Rowell his first inspiration
on the subject, and from that time he became an ardent and constant
advocate of the touch system. The first business educator who took up
this method at Rowell's suggestion was W. E. Hickox who introduced
it in his private shorthand school at Portland, Me. Hickox, who
began to teach touch typing in 1882, was the second educator in
America and the first in the East to adopt this method, but it was
some years before he had any imitators. Rowell, however, continued
ceaseless in his efforts, and in 1889 he interested B. J. Griffin of
the Springfield Business School, Springfield, Mass. Griffin became
a touch typewriting enthusiast. He introduced it in his school to
the exclusion of all other methods, and the remarkable typing skill
of some of his graduates soon produced a deep impression on other
business educators. In the same year, 1889, Bates Torrey of Portland,
Me., published "A Manual of Practical Typewriting." The word "touch"
seems such a natural one as applied to this method that it would seem
almost futile to search for its originator, but, as a matter of fact,
Bates Torrey was the first one to use it in a printed manual. We
also note in this book a great advance in the point of view over
Mrs. Longley's "Typewriter Lessons." Mrs. Longley's method was a
genuine touch system in its results, but not in its main purpose,
which was avowedly to secure an improved method of fingering. Seven
years later the all-finger method had become simply a means to an
end--the ability to write by touch.
The developments of the year 1889 set the ball rolling, and during the
next few years many new "touch" manuals appeared and one school after
another took it up until the touch method was firmly established in
the East. The growth of the system in the West was due mainly to the
efforts of another typewriter man, O. P. Judd, for many years manager
of the Remington office in Omaha. Judd, writing in 1897, says that
"Omaha has become the storm center of the commotion over the touch
method of typewriting." Two educators of that city, Van Sant and
Mosher, urged on by Judd, entered into a friendly competition, and
the rival exhibitions given by their splendidly trained pupils soon
spread the method far and wide.
Early in the year 1901 the Remingtons made a complete canvass of the
schools of America to ascertain definitely the extent to which the
touch system was then in use. It was found that half of the schools
of the country had already begun instruction by the touch method
and, of the remainder, the great majority announced their intention
of doing so with the beginning of the fall term. Very soon after,
the old "peck and hunt" plan of teaching had disappeared entirely
from the schools, and the old style operators have become fewer
and fewer with each passing year until one of them in a present-day
business office is almost a curiosity. The seeming impossibility of
thirty-five years ago, when people watched McGurrin and wondered,
has become the universal commonplace of today.