Untold creations – ideas from 50+ years ago, now digitalized
QWERTY
Take a quick look at your keyboard.
First five letters from the top.
Now, slowly skim through the whole keyboard layout.
Ever wondered why the keyboard is designed in that order?
Christopher Latham Sholes, American, 1868
The first person who successfully invented commercialized typewriters with the introduction of QWERTY layout – for the first time!
Sholes and his partner Glidden, 1873 – sold the prototype and business to a manufacturer called Remington arms company.
Remington was the successor and took dominant presence in the industry from 1874 onwards.
Now…
Let’s try a quick 3-seconds test.
Try to Google search the following: who invented typewriter?
You’ll see lots of – and we mean lots of – Christopher Latham Sholes, among other few names.
If you look back at the brief introduction of Christopher Latham Sholes, he is known as the inventor of the typewriter.
But there are fine prints to it.
He is really not.
The paucity of documentation over those years has disabled us to know who really was the first.
And if you were to really, really go through in details and widen up your research – you’ll find many other names associated with the invention of typewriter.
Now, this also applies to quite a number of other inventions.
Alexander Graham Bell is known as the inventor of telephones.
But again – try to Google search and you’ll see the names of others in the history write ups.
Well actually that’s the evolution of technology.
It’s built over the contribution of several players.
All of them contributing bits and parcel to make the whole of what we have today.
But the question is, who really got their names on the history books?
Suspense’s Over
So, who was the first inventor of the typewriter?
We’ll go through it for you, in reverse.
Do follow closely and click on the names below:
Rasmus Malling-Hansen, Danish, 1865?
First to commercially sell typewriter (known as Hansen Writing Ball) but was never successful as compared to Sholes’ version.
Charles Thurber, American, 1843?
Invented and patented the first practical typewriter – but it was slow, crude and never manufactured.
Pellegrino Turri, Italian, 1808?
First typewriter proven to have worked – built for for his blind friend, Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano but nobody knows how the machines looks like except for some specimen of letters written by the Countess.
Henry Mill, English, 1714?
Filed a vaguely worded patent for an artificial machine for transcribing letters one after another.
We can go on – but that’s not what this context is about…
The Fine Prints
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Nothing new.
But very very relatable to what we are going to tell you now…
Nobody remembers who came second
-anonymous
Classic example:
First person on moon – Neil Armstrong.
Second person on moon?
Yes, yes – we know that some of you intellects got the answer.
But let’s face it, there are many people who wouldn’t really know the person who came second on moon.
Or in fact you do not know Buzz Aldrin at all.
But hang on – what exactly are we trying to say?
Didn’t Christopher get accredited and is now remembered as the person who invented the typewriter although he wasn’t the first inventor?
So didn’t we just contradict ourselves?
Now read again…
Nobody remembers who came second – even if second is the original inventor
-anonymous
But people will remember who came first – even if first is NOT the original inventor
Take a little deep breath if you’re getting confused.
You’re ok right?
Let’s continue…
Now – it’s really about who documented their name in the history books FIRST.
Who claimed the prize FIRST.
If the first ever machine created by Henry Mill was documented – i.e. he filed an extensively worded patent, conducted prototype generation, developed brand , commercialized to end users successfully, created a mark to remember – then he will be on the history books as the inventor.
Of course his contribution might have played an important role to the development.
But he is not the one who is remembered for the invention of typewriter.
Ok done!
Now what’s the damn fine print with this?
Let’s take it from the top!
Christopher Latham Sholes, American, 1868
The first person who successfully invented commercialized typewriters with the introduction of QWERTY layout.
The 4 keywords (fine print) were:
- successfully
- invented
- commercialized
- typewriters
Summing it up:
- Sholes introduced QWERTY – a layout that has proven to be faster to type on as compared to other layouts.
- Sholes was the first inventor that managed to scale his product on a successful commercial level.
- The term ‘typewriter’ was given to Sholes’ creation and lasted all the way.
- Sholes’ model was innovated to have the shift key – enabling the possibility to use one of two characters (uppercase and lowercase / different special symbols such as ! and ?) – on a single typebar.
- By 1930s, Sholes’ patent went on and got innovated from mechanical typewriters to electric typewriters – even though Sholes was not around anymore.
Sholes, Sholes, Sholes
So the name went down on the history books – as the inventor of typewriter.
And whatever you’re reading now – is an evolution of his work.
As we typed this, the QWERTY layout was in front of our eyes.
Typewriters used to be a thing back then till the late 80s.
The baby boomers and Gen X even had special type-writing classes to master the usage of typewriters.
They were widely used for business communications, clerical work, authorship and education.
There were one for every desk.
It was an essential product.
Until they were phased away with the invention of computer and printers – and ask we speak – digitalization.
So What Now?
To us, information is key.
We do not advocate that being second is bad.
Don’t get us wrong – it’s not about you pursuing to be first all the time.
Sometimes being second in whatever you do is good enough.
As long as you pursued excellence along the journey.
Pursue excellence and success is yours.
However, there are some matters that we’d really want you to be first on.
And that is to be first-hand:
First-hand information from credible sources,
First-hand knowledge from experts in the field,
First-hand skills from experienced people,
First-hand ideas from account of life.
There are lots of general articles all around the internet.
Ranging from different topics,
Different methods of write ups,
Different point of views,
Different setting,
Different timeline,
Different, different, different.
So now, you’ve roughly seen the way that
blacwhite
has its pages written.
These are specially curated documentation of our work.
Done with lots of expertise, experience and ideas.
We have been creating the element of suspense, distinctiveness and even mind bending to a certain extend.
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Untold creations – ideas from 50+ years ago, now digitalized