Electric Typewriter: Facts On Machine History And Invention Revealed

Many different machines inventions were made in the 19th century.

These included machines of various different shapes, sizes, and utilities. There were some that were meant to type words.

However, they were so big and hard to operate that using them mostly took even more time than just writing something by hand.

A typewriter is a character-typing machine that can be mechanical or electromechanical. A typewriter usually has a row of keys, each of which produces a single character on paper, done via simply striking an inked ribbon with a type element selectively against the paper.

The typebar of a conventional typewriter concludes its trip by striking the ribbon and paper. To reduce noise, a noiseless typewriter incorporates a complicated lever mechanism that mechanically decelerates the typebar before pushing it on the ribbon and paper.

Because the flexibility to offer numerous kinds and sizes of type is a basic necessity of a composing typewriter, the type-wheel machine is significantly more suited than the typebar.

The proportional spacing of characters in a word (rather than centering every character within the same width, as in conventional typewriting) and justification, or alignment of the right-hand margin, are two other significant requirements of a typing machine with print-like output results.

The Universal Stock Ticker, designed by Thomas Edison in 1870, established the foundation for the electric typewriter, which would not gain general appeal until almost a century later. This gadget used input from a specially adapted typewriter at the other end of a telegraph line to print characters and numbers on a stream of paper tape.

Typewriters have a glorious past that started with the typewriter-like machines that preceded them, which gave way to the fully functional typewriters, all of their various revised versions, and the modern electric typewriters. The electric typewriter, in turn, paved the way for the computer keyboards we use today.

The modern electric typewriter has an elaborate story of its own. Let's explore the history, origin, operation, and all about the different models of electric typewriters.

Electric Typewriter History

In 1953, a specialized high-speed version of 'typewriter' was introduced in response to the demand for high-speed printing devices to translate the output of computers into legible form.

Thomas Edison produced the first electric typewriter in 1872, which consisted of a printing wheel and was eventually refined into the ticker-tape printer.

James Smathers invented the electric typewriter as an office writing machine in 1920.

The first electric typewriter to be commercially successful for a long time was the IBM Electromatic typewriter. This typewriter model, unlike the subsequent IBM Selectric typewriter, employed a traditional moving carriage and typebar system. All of the units were immediately sold, and Remington wanted to keep it going.

The Electromatic was developed and manufactured by the NE Electric Company, which put it on the market in 1929. It became The Electromatic Typewriter Co. after going through General Motors.

The International Business Machines Corporation created what was credited as the first-ever commercially successful typewriter. This never-seen-before Selectric typewriter came out in 1961 and was based on a spherical type-carrier architecture. The sphere-shaped typing element glides over the page as the appropriate character or symbol is selected, tilting and spinning.

Electric Typewriter Models

The first typewriter could only type capital letters because it did not have a shift-key mechanism. 

This gave rise to a challenge; both capitals and small characters needed to be printed, but this had to be managed without increasing the number of keys. The solution came with a cylinder-shifting mechanism. A combination of the uppercase and lowercase types of the same letter were placed on one bar, and the case could be shifted as required. 

IBM had predicted that typewriters would feature proportional letter spacing in 1941.

Almost every typewriter manufacturer had produced a portable typewriter by the '50s; they were all typebar devices that performed identically to office machines. Because portables employ lighter parts, they are more compact but less robust than standard models.

In 1956, the first electrically operated portable typewriters were introduced. IBM created a range of electric typewriters known as IBM Electric typewriters beginning in the mid-'30s.

Each model was sold in two variants after 1944, the 'Standard' and 'Executive'.

In the '50s, many early computers were console typewriters or terminals that employed the A, B, and C models' modified standard versions. They had a moving carriage instead of the fixed carriage seen in the IBM model, which was introduced in 1961.

It was simpler to communicate with a computer with the IBM Selectric typewriter, which debuted in 1961 and came to be favored in new designs.

Working Of An Electric Typewriter

Due to IBM's World War Two activities, the debut of the typewriter model variant called the Executive, which was planned for much earlier, had to be postponed until 1944.

A multiple escapement system and four character widths characterized the Executive version, allowing it to simulate 12 points ragged right typesetting. By methodically counting letters on each line, a talented typist could use the Executive to even produce precisely justified layouts.

As per Darren Wershler-Henry, IBM introduced the proportionally spaced typewriter that was the Executive in 1944. Characters on the Executive typewriter took up two to five grid cells depending on how wide the letter was.

Beeching offers a narrative that perfectly encapsulates this achievement's significance.

The proportionally spaced typewriter raced to the top of the worldwide administrative culture and bureaucracy when President Franklin D Roosevelt was given the first machine off the line.

The original United Nations Charter was typed on an IBM, just like the Armistice papers that ended World War Two.

A page of the typewritten text created with an 'Executive' looked like a page of typeset text to people accustomed to monospaced typewritten documents. The fonts of IBM Executive typewriters provided the rendition of the typeset text.

Because the 'Executive' featured a full set of dedicated digit keys, all of the digits on the screen had the same width; therefore, a written figure with a certain number of digits always had the same overall width, no matter what the digits were.

This further offered IBM more creative latitude when it came to typefaces. After introducing them on the Executive, IBM preserved the unique digit keys on subsequent non-proportional-spacing typewriter models, most notably the Selectric series.

Are there still electric typewriters?

The invention of automated controls that allow typing from distant electrical impulses rather than manual control was one of the most significant advancements in the world of typewriters and office equipment.

Using remote control typewriters and computer technology, office machine makers were able to create an integrated system of corporate communication. When the leading companies introduced this technology, the popularity it gained in only a short time is not surprising considering the numerous advantages it provided.

Of course, there was market competition. However, IBM gained an edge by marketing to schools more aggressively than Remington, with the hope that students who had learned to type on a Selectric would choose IBM typewriters in the workplace when corporations replaced their old manual versions.

Although many current typewriters have one of several similar designs, their development was gradual, developed over decades by several innovators working separately or in rivalry with one another.

The use of modern computers has largely taken over the use of typewriters, no matter how advanced the model. However, in places where stable energy is not always available, the devices are still commonly utilized. Olivetti, situated in Brazil, is one of the few remaining typewriter makers.