Earlier Successful Typewriter?

[Rdffigueira]

So, I was thinking these days about the typewriter. The entirely mechanical models seemed to be one of the most useful (and reliable) inventions of the 19th Century, and became omnipresent by the 20th Century. When I checked out, it seems it was invented as early as the 17th Century by an Italian printmaker. Anyways, in the beginning of the 19th Century, some Italian and British inventors created certain models, but only became commercially successful after the 1870s.

It appears to be a fairly simple invention (perhaps even more than the printing press itself), specially compared (an imperfect comparison) with musical instruments based on keyboard with strings. I was wondering exactly why it took so long to become successful, even among the intellectual European elites.

Was it due to the lack of useful printing materials (like paper)? Perhaps the illiteracy of the population itself? Were the earlier models more defective?

 

[telynk]

I'm guessing that the reason the typewriter wasn'the adopted earlier was that the cost of producing anything with complicated mechanical parts was fairly high until the industrial revolution really took hold. My guess is that the cost of a typewriter before the 19th century would have been comparable to that of hiring a Stine. Why buy a typewriter when you can can get a scribe for the same price??

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

It's very difficult to make something with that kind of precision. Part of your problem with the 'piano' comparison is that piano keys hit piano strings that are spaced all the way across the piano. A typewriter has to have all its keys hit in exactly the same place, then get out of the way for the next key. While moving the paper exactly the width of a letter.

Also,

This, together with the placement of the letters so that the fastest writing fingers struck the most frequently used letters, made the Hansen Writing Ball the first typewriter to produce text substantially faster than a person could write by hand. The Hansen Writing Ball was produced with only upper case characters.

There's little point in a typewriter if you can't type faster than someone can write by hand - otherwise, just write by hand.

I don't know if you've ever USED a typewriter, but even in the 1970s, mine would jam occasionally if I wasn't careful. It was a much, MUCH bigger problem a century earlier.

 

[sloreck]

You might be able to see a usable typewriter produced in the 1840s/1850s. It was about that time that mass production/replaceable parts (such as Colt revolvers) started. Any sooner than that, and they would pretty much have to be hand made.

 

[Rdffigueira]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I guess the problem wasn't the lack of idea to build it, but rather the lack of economic interest in its construction, and the absence of an industrial context to spread it.

I was under the impression that perhaps the lack of widespread literacy could be an issue, but now I think it wasn't that relevant.

 

[1940LaSalle]

I think sloreck is on to something: if somehow the demand were there, the technology to produce a typewriter was probably available by (let's say) 1850. Unfortunately, the US was on the brink of the industrial revolution by then as opposed to having it underway as it was by the 1870s/1880s. Thus, it would have been an expensive device, requiring a cadre of technicians who could repair one.

Seems to me (sidebar here) that's the second significant technology that had the pieces available and could have been implemented earlier: the other was the cable car. Interestingly, that developed about contemporarily with the typewriter, and could have been implemented in its own right at about 1850 also--albeit in New York or Philadelphia first, rather than San Francisco, since the latter was just developing.

 

[Sian]

while at the face of it a typewriter might seem simplistic, its actually quite a delicate piece of mechanical masterwork, getting every letter to hit the same spot, and retreat in time for the next letter to get there, with little matter in which order the letters is written. This would need quite a bit of experience in making small reliable springs that can pull the typebar back rapidly after getting catapulted out of its bed, and getting each typebar to hit the same spot (with minimal deviation) repeatedly.

 

[sloreck]

Another issue about the typewriter, on the "demand" side is the second half of the 19th century had an increase in "bureaucracy" in business especially. The volume of reports, and other paperwork welcomed a device that could produce a customized (as opposed to pre-printed) bit of paperwork, letters, memos, etc. Prior to the ACW handwritten documents of pre-printed forms did the job.