Happy QWERTY to You!

Today is a special day for writers (and typists) everywhere as it is the 140th anniversary of the first 'modern' commercially successful typewriter, the Remington 1, which went on sale on this day in 1874. The original device, which was designed by Scholes and Gidden, took a while to get noticed and thus catch on as it was a clunky ole affair that required a trained operator, only dealt in block capitals and didn't allow the typist to see what he or she was writing. It also cost the average year's salary of $125 to buy so it's hardly a surprise that only 400 were sold in the first year - primarily to clergymen, lawyers, newspaper editors and authors, one of whom, Mark Twain, called his a "curiosity breeding little joker"*. Still, the genie was out of the bottle and two crucial modifications which were added to forthcoming models - a hand lever to allow the operator roll the paper and a facility to allow both upper and lower case letters to be typed  - proved to be game changers. Reducing the price helped to stir wider interest as well so that by the end of the 1870s the machine was on its way ... and, as they say, the rest is a chronological study of past events! Sadly however, the ole typewriter never really got the glory it deserved at the time because another device came out round about then and stole all of its and the world's thunder. That would have been the telephone! But as things have died down a bit, we can now blow a virtual trumpet in salute of yet another ingenious thing that done changed the world. Clackety clack, qwertyuiop!

Inventor of the typo!


* - It's said that Twain's Tom Sawyer was the first novel ever written on a typewriter.