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The first commercially successful typewriter was the work of three men, not one: US patent 79,265, granted on 23 June 1868, names Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soule. Sholes is usually remembered alone. After years of changes, Remington began selling the machine in 1874.

Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden, Samuel Soule; U.S. Patent 79,265 (1868)

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The story behind the card

The three men worked in a machine shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sholes was a newspaper publisher and politician, Soule a fellow printer, and Glidden a lawyer and amateur inventor who helped fund the work; Soule soon dropped out. Another backer, James Densmore, bought a share of the patent and kept pushing for improvements. In 1873 E. Remington and Sons, a maker of guns and sewing machines, bought the rights, and the Sholes and Glidden Type Writer went on sale the next year. It typed only capital letters and already had a keyboard close to today's QWERTY, arranged partly to stop the type bars jamming, though historians still debate the exact reasons.

Türkçe oku
Ticari başarı kazanan ilk daktilo tek bir kişinin değil, üç kişinin eseriydi: 23 Haziran 1868'de verilen 79.265 numaralı ABD patentinde Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden ve Samuel Soule'un adı yazar. Yine de genellikle yalnızca Sholes hatırlanır. Yıllarca süren değişikliklerden sonra makineyi 1874'te Remington satışa çıkardı.

Üçü de Wisconsin eyaletinin Milwaukee kentindeki bir makine atölyesinde çalışıyordu. Sholes gazete sahibi ve politikacıydı, Soule da onun gibi matbaacıydı; Glidden ise işin masraflarına da katkıda bulunan bir avukat ve amatör mucitti. Soule kısa süre sonra işten ayrıldı. Destekçilerden James Densmore patentin bir payını satın aldı ve makinenin sürekli iyileştirilmesi için bastırdı. Silah ve dikiş makinesi üreten E. Remington and Sons 1873'te hakları satın aldı; Sholes and Glidden Type Writer ertesi yıl satışa çıktı. Makine yalnızca büyük harf yazabiliyordu ve klavyesi bugünkü QWERTY düzenine şimdiden çok yakındı. Harflerin bu şekilde dizilmesinin bir nedeni, harf kollarının birbirine takılmasını önlemekti; ama asıl gerekçe tarihçiler arasında hâlâ tartışılıyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Christopher Latham Sholes
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