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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?