Most of us would be lost without our computers. We have forgotten that it wasn't that long ago that we had only machines that printed letters. They did not calculate, sort, store or do any of the other functions we rely on our computers to do.
These machines, called type writers, were new in 1876 and they promised to revolutionize the business world. The following article appeared in the Evansville Journal of the 21st of March 1876.
For several days there has been exhibited in the reading room of the St. George Hotel a mechanical invention called the "type writer," which is wonderful indeed in its accomplishment and really establishes a very important principle in combining the two departments comprising the "art preservative" - writing and printing. It is a handsome and small iron-cased box, with several rows of keys arranged like a key board of a piano, each key representing a letter of the alphabet, a punctuation sign, or a figure. By manipulating these keys with the fingers, the various characters are printed on paper, and instead of miserable chirography you have a handsomely printed sheet of paper. The keys may be worked more rapidly than you may write, and it is claimed that with the aid of the machine, one may write with three fold rapidity.
The invention is wonderful and worthy of close inspection. These machines are rapidly coming into vogue in this country among the classes of writers who have a great deal of writing to do in a very little time. The mode of operating does not cause any of the "cramped" feeling in the fingers, which frequently ends in what is called "pen paralysis."
We've come a long way.
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