The Typewriter

 During our class presentations, a classmate dove into the history of the typewriter and its rich history. In 1575 the idea of the typewriter was invented by Italian printmaker, Francesco Rampazetto. He came up with a device called the “scrittura tattile” that was invented to assist the blind. It was round and had nail-like keys sticking out of the top with letters on it, kind of like braille. This was not very functional for how the hands typed, therefore it began to change and evolve. 

There is a lot of speculation over who the actual inventor of the typewriter was, but we know around 1808 is when it was invented and brought to life. In the early days of the typewriter, it was considered rare to own one. 

In 1868 the typewriter was patented in America and the first publicly used typewriter was pushed out, the Remmington typewriter. The keys were in alphabetical order on the first typewriter and had strings that came out of the top. 

As time went on and technology advanced, the typewriter got smaller, more functional and more commonly used. The arrangement of letters we use today ended up on the typewriters and the keys got easier to press. 

When I was younger I thought the coolest thing ever was to have a typewriter. I now value the electronic keyboard and am so lucky that technology has advanced in this way. Typewriters are expensive and time consuming, with the use of ink and jamming up of keys. You also had to type with your pointer fingers! 

What people love about typewriters is the nostalgic feeling of clicking the keys and seeing the fresh ink hit the paper. Making a mistake may mean nothing to us when writing a paper on a laptop, because we can just delete it in the blink of an eye. With the typewriter every mistake was an error that affected the way that paper looked after you had to white-out the mistake. Part of me wonders if we would be better at the English language, grammar and spelling and more cautious about what we say if we knew we couldn't just press “delete”.

Today not many people use typewriters, but some still enjoy the look of them and collect them for their homes. The price of typewriters has gone up because they are now considered “vintage” and “collectables”. Maybe investing in a typewriter is a good idea!