Romano 1986

Romano, Frank. Machine Writing and Typesetting: The story of Sholes and Mergenthaler and the invention of the typewriter and the linotype. GAMA, 1986.

Sholes, printer and owner of newspapers

“It was usual for newspapers to conduct a job printing department for additional income and, one year, the compositors on Sholes’ newspaper went on strike. This so angered Sholes that he gave serious thought to typesetting by machine. Being a tinkerer at heart, he built models in which types could be impressed in wax, but the wax bulged and castings of molten metal were not useable. He cast his models aside and made peace with the staff.” (2)

“Sholes and his friends in Milwaukee spent their spare time inventing things, tinkering with carpentry and shop work. Their unofficial headquarters was a machine shop run by C. F. Kleinsteuber in a small wooden building on the north edge of Milwaukee. Sholes had devised a method for addressing newspapers by printing names of subscribers on the margin, as well as tinkering with other gadgets.” (3)

“It had been his job, as a lad, to number by hand the pages of account books with a metal stamp. The use of a metal ‘finger’ for this purpose was a much better idea and it occurred to him that he could devise a machine to perform this work much more neatly and quickly.” (3) — but what if it also did words?

1867, obtain description of stereotype by John Pratt from Scientific American (July 6, 1867)

Henry Mill, 1714 patent from Queen Anne for writing machine

July 23, 1829 patent to William Austin Burt in US for “typographer”; never manufactured

Sholes first experiment; “The first model was simply the letter ‘W’ and its activating mechanism, a telegraph key linked to a type bar pivoted to hit from below against a round glass disc; using carbon paper could print the letter

September 1867, had developed a working model with piano-like keys

“The first machines was finished by 1867. Patented with improvements June 23, 1868, it became patent number 79,265 and was listed as ‘Sholes et al.’ It had eleven piano keys and was of wood. Historians do not usually refer to the machine of June 23, 1868 patent, but speak of the ‘first machine’ as the July 14, 1868 patent since it was the first working model sent out from Sholes’ shop for testing by someone other than himself.” (6)

James Clephane, stenographer, brought in to test it

Clephane also interested in the Phelps Printing Telegraph, used by Western Union, and the printing telegraph of Charles T. Moore; also interested in typewriting machine of George H. Morgan in 1875

Western Union is interested, but thought Edison, one of their employees, could do better for less; Edison patented December 10 1872 an electrically operated traveling wheel device (patent 133,841), the forerunninger of the the stock ticker printing machine; “Edison found use for typewriters in automatic telegraphy” (10)

“Remington exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. For 25 cents, a comely lass at a Type-Writer would type a brief note suitable for mailing to the folks back home. Remington sales still did not take off. The exposition was a disappointment to Sholes, who expected notoriety, but another inventor named Bell got much of the attention.” (13)

Clephane, working with Moore on the transfer typewriter, to transfer typewritten text to lithographic stone; brings it to Mergenthaler shop in Baltimore; Clephane wanted to “bridge the gap between the typewriter and the printed page” (quoted on 26)

Working model made by Mergenthaler; printed clear letters on strip of paper, but ink didn’t transfer easily to lithographic stone

Hahl shop assembled 3 more machines and sold them to shorthand reporters in Washington, Chicago, and New York, “where they were used to duplicate legislative proceedings, court testimony and other documents. One office even reported that it had used the transfer typewriter to produce several pamphlets on an experimental basis, though it acknowledge that the quality was inferior. Finally, Clephane was ready to concede that the invention held out no hope of living up to his dream of bridging the gap between manuscript copy and printed page.” (28)

Using papier mache to create mold for stereotyping with typewriters; also failed (difficult to make key strike at exact same depth) — Rotary Impression Machine, patented 1879; first model used piano keys, later Rotary Matrix Machine had 27 round keys

“A page was too big a unit to deal with, but one line of type could produce a reasonable matrix. The Chinese abacus must have provided an idea to Ottmar. With its parallel columns of beads sliding on wires it was a model of simplicity. A machine with a similar series of parallel wires or bars could be built with each bar containing the type characters.The characters could move up and down, just as the columns of beads in the abacus moved. Type characters could be selected from each bar and slid down to a common level of alignment, forming a one line of a column. Then a papier mache strip could be passed against the whole line to produce a matrix.” (35)

Parallel bands would be notched to be arrested at desired level, similar to watchmaker’s escapement to step the mechanism of a watch or clock at desired intervals

Mergenthaler sets out to devise his first band machine

“The band machine looked like a Jacquard loom to which a typewriter keyboard had been attached.” (41)

First experimental model was stereotyping machine, but process got slower with needing to dry the papier mache