Typewriter

In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep learning about Typewriters. I imagine someone slowly, methodically, typing one finger at a time on one of these machines and that does the trick for me. Perhaps you'll find this article just what you need for some rest tonight. Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,

Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster.

Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,

Typewriter.

A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters.

Typically,

A typewriter has an array of keys,

And each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectively against the paper with the type element.

At the end of the 19th century,

The term typewriter was also applied to a person who used such a device.

The first commercial typewriters were introduced in 1874,

But did not become common in offices in the United States until after the mid-1880s.

The typewriter quickly became an indispensable tool for practically all writing other than personal handwritten correspondence.

It was widely used by professional writers in offices and business correspondents in private homes,

And by students preparing written assignments.

Typewriters were a standard fixture in most offices up to the 1980s.

After that,

They began to be largely supplanted by personal computers running word processing software.

Nevertheless,

Typewriters remain common in some parts of the world.

For example,

Typewriters are still used in many Indian cities and towns,

Especially in roadside and legal offices due to a lack of continuous reliable electricity.

The QWERTY keyboard layout developed for typewriters in the 1870s remains the de facto standard for English-language computer keyboards.

The origin of this layout still needs to be clarified.

Similar typewriter keyboards with layouts optimized for other languages and orthographies emerged soon afterward,

And their layouts have also become standard for computer keyboards in their respective markets.

Although many modern typewriters have one of several similar designs,

Their invention was incremental,

Developed by numerous inventors working independently or in competition with each other over a series of decades.

As with the automobile,

The telephone,

And telegraph,

Several people contributed insights and inventions that eventually resulted in ever more commercially successful instruments.

Historians have estimated that some form of the typewriter was invented 52 times as thinkers tried to come up with a workable design.

Some early typing instruments include,

In 1575,

An Italian printmaker,

Francesco Rampazzetto,

Invented the scrittura tatile,

A machine to impress letters and papers.

In 1714,

Henry Hill obtained a patent in Britain for a machine that,

From the patent,

Appears to have been similar to a typewriter.

The patent shows that this machine was created.

He hath by his great study and plains and expense invented and brought to perfection an artificial machine or method for impressing or transcribing of letters,

One after another,

As in writing,

Whereby all writing whatsoever may be engrossed in paper or parchment,

So neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print,

That the said machine or method may be of great use in settlements and public records,

The impression being deeper and more lasting than any other writing,

And not to be erased or counterfeited without manifest discovery.

In 1802,

Italian Agostino Fantoni developed a particular typewriter to enable his blind sister to write.

Between 1801 and 1808,

Italian Pellegrino Turri invented a typewriter for his blind friend Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano.

In 1823,

Italian Pietro Conti da Cilevegna invented a new model of the typewriter,

The tachigrapho,

Also known as the tachitipo.

In 1829,

American William Austin Burt patented a machine called the typographer,

Which,

In common with many other early machines,

Is listed as the first typewriter.

The London Science Museum describes it merely as the first writing mechanism whose invention was documented,

But even that claim may be excessive since Turri's invention predates it.

By the mid-19th century,

The increasing pace of business communication had created a need to mechanize the writing process.

Stenographers and telegraphers could take down information at rates up to 130 words per minute,

Whereas a writer with a pen was limited to a maximum of 30 words per minute,

The 1853 speed record.

From 1829 to 1870,

Many printing or typing machines were patented by inventors in Europe and America,

But none went into commercial production.

American Charles Thurber developed multiple patents,

Of which his first in 1843 was created as an aid to blind people,

Such as the 1845 Chirographer.

In 1855,

The Italian Giuseppe Ravisa created a prototype typewriter called cembolo scriveno o macchinata scrivere attasti,

Scribe harpsichord,

Or machine for writing with keys.

It was an advanced machine that let the user see the writing as it was typed.

In 1861,

Father Francisco Jao de Azevedo,

A Brazilian priest,

Made his typewriter with basic materials and tools,

Such as wood and knives.

In that same year,

The Brazilian emperor D.

Pedro II presented a gold medal to Father Azevedo for his invention.

Many Brazilian people,

As well as the Brazilian federal government,

Recognize Father Azevedo as the inventor of the typewriter,

A claim that has been the subject of some controversy.

In 1865,

John Jonathan Pratt of Central Alabama built a machine called the tarot type which appeared in an 1867 Scientific American article and inspired other inventors.

Between 1864 and 1867,

Peter Mitterhofer,

A carpenter from South Tyrol,

Then part of Austria,

Developed several models and a fully functioning prototype typewriter in 1867.

By the end of the 20th century,

Notable typewriter manufacturers included E.

Remington & Sons,

IBM,

Godrej,

Imperial Typewriter Company,

Oliver Typewriter Company,

Olivetti,

Royal Typewriter Company,

Smith Corona,

Underwood Typewriter Company,

Facet,

Adler,

And Alipia Work.

After the market had matured under the market dominance of large companies from Britain,

Europe,

And the United States,

But before the advent of the daily wheel and electronic machines,

The typewriter market faced strong competition from less expensive typewriters from Asia,

Including Brother Industries and Silver Psycho Ltd.

Of Japan.

In 1865,

Reverend Rasmus Maling Hansen of Denmark invented the Hansen writing ball which went into commercial production in 1870 and was the first commercially sold typewriter.

It was a success in Europe and was reported as being used in offices on the European continent as late as 1909.

Maling Hansen used a solenoid escapement to return the carriage on some of his models,

Which makes him a candidate for the title of inventor of the first electric typewriter.

The Hansen writing ball was produced with only uppercase characters.

The writing ball was a template for inventor Frank Haven Hall to create a derivative that would produce lettered prints cheaper and faster.

Maling Hansen developed his typewriter further through the 1870s and 1880s and made many improvements,

But the writing had remained the same.

On the first model of the writing ball from 1870,

The paper was attached to a cylinder inside a wooden box.

In 1874,

The cylinder was replaced by a carriage moving beneath the writing head.

Then,

In 1875,

The well-known tall model was patented,

Which was the first of the writing balls that worked without electricity.

Maling Hansen attended the World Exhibitions in Vienna in 1873 and Paris in 1878 and he received the first prize for his invention at both exhibitions.

The first typewriter to be commercially successful was patented in 1868 by Americans Christopher Latham Scholz,

Frank Haven Hall,

Carlos Glidden,

And Samuel W.

Sowell in Milwaukee,

Wisconsin,

Although Scholz soon disowned the machine and refused to use or even recommend it.

The working prototype was made by clockmaker and machinist Matthias Schwalbach.

Hall,

Glidden,

And Sowell sold their shares in the patent to Densmore and Scholz,

Who made an agreement with E.

Remington & Sons,

Then famous as a manufacturer of sewing machines,

To commercialize the machine as the Scholz and Glidden typewriter.

This was the origin of the term typewriter.

Remington began production of its first typewriter on March 1,

1873,

In Ilion,

New York.

It had a QWERTY keyboard layout,

Which,

Because of the machine's success,

Was slowly adopted by other typewriter manufacturers.

As with most other early typewriters,

Because the type bars strike upwards,

The typist could not see the characters as they were typed.

The index typewriter came into the market in the early 1880s.

The index typewriter uses a pointer or stylus to choose a letter from an index.

The pointer is mechanically linked so that the letter chosen could then be printed,

Most often by the activation of a lever.

The index typewriter was briefly popular in niche markets.

Although they were slower than keyboard type machines,

They were mechanically simpler and lighter.

They were therefore marketed as being suitable for travelers and because they could be produced more cheaply than keyboard machines as budget machines for users who needed to produce small quantities of typed correspondence.

For example,

The Simplex typewriter company made index typewriters for 140th the price of a Remington typewriter.

The index typewriter's niche appeal,

However,

Soon disappeared as,

On the one hand,

New keyboard typewriters became lighter and more portable,

And,

On the other,

Refurbished second-hand machines began to become available.

The last widely available Western index machine was the Minion typewriter,

Produced by AEG,

Which was produced until 1934.

Considered one of the very best of the index typewriters,

Part of the Minion's popularity was that it featured both interchangeable indexes and type,

Allowing the use of different fonts and character sets,

Something very few keyboard machines allowed,

And only at considerable added cost.

Although pushed out of the market in most of the world by keyboard machines,

Successful Japanese and Chinese typewriters are of the index type,

Albeit with a very much larger index and number of type elements.

Embossing tape label makers are the most common index typewriters today,

And perhaps the most common typewriters of any kind still being manufactured.

The Playton was mounted on a carriage that moved horizontally to the left,

Automatically advancing the typing position after each character was typed.

The carriage return level at the far left was then pressed to the right to return the carriage to its starting position,

And rotating the Playton to advance the paper vertically.

A small bell was struck a few characters before the right-hand margin was reached to warn the operator to complete the word,

And then use the carriage return lever.

Other typewriters.

1884 Hammond Ideal Typewriter with Case by Hammond Typewriter Company Limited,

United States.

Despite an unusual curved keyboard,

The Hammond became popular because of its superior print quality and changeable typeface.

Invented by James Hammond of Boston,

Massachusetts in 1880,

And commercially released in 1884,

The type is carried on a pair of interchangeable rotating sectors,

One controlled by each half of the keyboard.

A small hammer pushes the paper against the ribbon and type sector to print each character.

The mechanism was later adapted to give a straight qwerty keyboard and proportional spacing.

1891 Fitch Typewriter No.

3287 Type Bar Class on a baseboard.

Made by the Fitch Typewriter Company UK in London.

Operators of the early typewriters had to work blind.

The type text emerged only after several lines had been completed.

The Fitch was one of the first machines to allow prompt correction of mistakes.

It was said to be the second machine operating on the visible writing system.

The type bars were positioned behind the paper and the writing area faced upwards so that the result could be seen instantly.

A curved frame kept the emerging paper from obscuring the keyboard,

But the Fitch was soon eclipsed by machines in which the paper could be fed more conveniently at the rear.

1893 Gardner Typewriter This typewriter,

Patented by Mr.

J.

Gardner in 1893,

Was an attempt to reduce the size and cost.

Although it prints 84 symbols,

It has only 18 keys and two change case keys.

Several characters are indicated on each key and the character print is determined by the position of the case keys,

Which choose one of six cases.

1897 Underwood One Typewriter 10 Pica 990 This was the first typewriter with a typing area fully visible to the typist until a key is struck.

These features,

Copied by all subsequent typewriters,

Allowed the typist to see and,

If necessary,

Correct the typing as it proceeded.

The mechanism was developed in the U.

S.

By Franz X.

Wagner from about 1892 and taken up in 1895 by John T.

Underwood,

A producer of office supplies.

By about 1910,

The manual or mechanical typewriter had reached a somewhat standardized design.

There were minor variations from one manufacturer to another,

But most typewriters followed the concept that each key was attached to a type bar that had the corresponding letter molded,

In reverse,

Into its striking head.

When a key was struck briskly and firmly,

The type bar hit a ribbon,

Usually made of inked fabric,

Making a printed mark on the paper,

Wrapped around a cylindrical platen.

The platen was mounted on a carriage that moved horizontally to the left,

Automatically advancing the typing position after each character was typed.

The carriage return lever at the far left was then pressed to the right to return the carriage to its starting position and rotating the platen to advance the paper vertically.

A small bell was struck a few characters before the right-hand margin was reached to warn the operator to complete the word.

And then use the carriage return lever.

Typewriters for languages written right-to-left operate in the opposite direction.

In most of the early typewriters,

The type bars struck upward against the paper,

Pressed against the bottom of the platen so the typist could not see the text as it was typed.

What was typed was not visible until a carriage return caused it to scroll into view.

The difficulty with any other arrangement was ensuring the type bars fell back into place reliably when the key was pressed.

This was eventually achieved with various ingenious mechanical designs and so-called visible typewriters,

Which used front-striking,

In which the type bars struck forward against the front side of the platen,

Became a standard.

One of the first was the Doherty Visible,

Introduced in 1893,

Which also introduced the four-bank keyboard that became standard,

Although the Underwood,

Which came out two years later,

Was the first major typewriter with these features.

A significant innovation was the shift key,

Introduced with the Remington No.

2 in 1878.

This key physically shifted either the basket of type bars,

In which case the typewriter is described as basket shift,

Or the paper-holding carriage,

In which case the typewriter is described as carriage shift.

Either mechanism caused a different portion of the type bar to come in contact with the ribbon platen.

The result is that each type bar could type two different characters,

Cutting the number of keys and type bars in half and simplifying the internal mechanisms considerably.

The obvious use for this was to allow letter keys to type both upper and lowercase,

But normally the number keys were also duplexed,

Allowing access to special symbols such as percent and ampersand.

Before the shift key,

Typewriters had to have a separate key and type bar for uppercase letters.

In essence,

The typewriter had two keyboards,

One above the other.

With the shift key,

Manufacturing costs and therefore purchase price were greatly reduced,

And typist operation was simplified.

Both factors contributed greatly to mass adoption of the technology.

Three bank typewriters.

Certain models further reduced the number of keys and type bars by making each key perform three functions.

Each type bar could type three different characters.

These little three-row machines were portable and could be used by journalists.

Such three-row machines were popular with World War I journalists because they were lighter and more compact than four bank typewriters,

While they could type just as fast and use just as many symbols.

Such three-row machines such as the Barlett and the Corona No.

3 typewriter have two separate shift caps,

A cap shift for uppercase and a fig shift for numbers and symbols.

The Murray Code was developed for a teletypewriter with a similar three-row typewriter keyboard.

To facilitate typewriter use in business settings,

A tabulator key was added in the late 19th century.

Before using the key,

The operator had to set mechanical tab stops,

Pre-designed locations to which the carriage would advance when the tab key was pressed.

This facilitated the typing of columns of numbers,

Freeing the operator from the need to manually position the carriage.

The first models had one tab stop and one tab key.

Later ones allowed as many stops as desired and sometimes had multiple tab keys,

Each of which moved the carriage a different number of spaces ahead of the decimal point,

The tab stop,

To facilitate the typing of columns with numbers of different lengths,

One dollar,

Ten dollars,

One hundred dollars,

Etc.

Languages such as French,

Spanish,

And German required diacritics,

Special signs attached to or on top of the base letter.

For example,

A combination of the acute accent plus e produced acute accent e.

Tilde plus n produced the enya.

In metal typesetting,

Acute accent e,

Enya,

And others were separate sorts.

With mechanical typewriters,

The number of whose characters,

Sorts,

Was constrained by the physical limits of the machine.

The number of keys required was reduced by the use of dead keys.

Diacritics,

Such as acute accent,

Would be assigned to a dead key,

Which did not move the platen forward,

Permitting another character to be imprinted at the same location.

Thus,

A single dead key,

Such as the acute accent,

Would be combined with a,

E,

I,

O,

And u to produce acute accents over a,

E,

I,

O,

And u,

Reducing the number of sorts needed from five to one.

The type bars of normal characters struck a rod as they moved the metal character desired toward the ribbon and platen,

And each rod depression moved the platen forward with the width of one character.

Dead keys had a type bar shape so as not to strike the rod.

In English-speaking countries,

Ordinary typewriters printing fixed-width characters were standardized to print six horizontal lines per vertical inch,

And had either of two variants of character width,

One called pica for 10 characters per horizontal inch and the other elite for 12.

This differed from the use of these terms in printing,

Where pica is a linear unit,

Approximately one-sixth of an inch,

Used for any measurement,

The most common one being the height of a typeface.

Some ribbons were inked in black and red stripes,

Each being half the width and running the entire length of the ribbon.

A lever on most machines allowed switching between colors,

Which was useful for bookkeeping entries,

Where negative amounts were highlighted in red.

The red color was also used on some selected characters in running text for emphasis.

When a typewriter had this facility,

It could still be fitted with a solid black ribbon.

The lever was then used to switch the fresh ribbon when the first stripe ran out of ink.

Some typewriters also had a third position which stopped the ribbon being struck at all.

This enabled the keys to hit the paper unobstructed and was used for cutting stencils for stencil duplicators.

In the early part of the 20th century,

A typewriter was marketed under the name Noiseless and advertised as Silent.

It was developed by Wellington Parker Kidder,

And the first model was marketed by the Noiseless typewriter company in 1917.

Noiseless portables sold well in the 1930s and 1940s,

And Noiseless standards continued to be manufactured until the 1960s.

In a conventional typewriter,

The type bar reaches the end of its travel simply by striking the ribbon and paper.

A Noiseless typewriter has a complex lever mechanism that decelerates the type bar mechanically before pressing it against the ribbon and paper,

In an attempt to dampen the noise.

Although electric typewriters would not achieve widespread popularity until nearly a century later,

The basic groundwork for the electric typewriter was laid by the universal stock ticker,

Invented by Thomas Edison in 1870.

This device remotely printed letters and numbers on a stream of paper tape from input generated by a specially designed typewriter at the other end of a telegraph line.

Some electric typewriters were patented in the 19th century,

But the first machine known to be produced in series is the Cahill of 1900.

Another electric typewriter was produced by the Blickensderfer Manufacturing Company of Stamford,

Connecticut in 1902.

Like the manual Blickensderfer typewriters,

It used a cylindrical type wheel rather than individual type bars.

The machine was produced in several variants,

But apparently it was not a commercial success,

For reasons that are unclear.

The next step in the development of the electric typewriter came in 1910,

When Charles and Howard Crum filed a patent for the first practical teletypewriter.

The Crum's machine,

Named the Morcrum printing telegraph,

Used a type wheel rather than individual type bars.

This machine was used for the first commercial teletypewriter system on postal telegraph company lines between Boston and New York City in 1910.

James Field Smathers of Kansas City invented what is considered the first practical power-operated typewriter in 1914.

In 1920,

After returning from army service,

He produced a successful model and in 1923 turned it over to the Northeast Electric Company of Rochester for development.

Northeast was interested in finding new markets for their electric motors,

And developed Smathers' design so that it could be marketed to typewriter manufacturers.

And from 1925,

Remington electric typewriters were produced,

Powered by Northeast Motors.

After some 2,

500 electric typewriters had been produced,

Northeast asked Remington for a firm contract for the next batch.

However,

Remington was engaged in merger talks,

Which would eventually result in the creation of Remington Rand,

And no executives were willing to commit to a firm order.

Northeast instead decided to enter the typewriter business for itself,

And in 1929 produced the first electromatic typewriter.

In 1928,

Delco,

A division of General Motors,

Purchased Northeast Electric,

And the typewriter business was spun off as Electromatic Typewriters,

Inc.

In 1933,

Electromatic was acquired by IBM,

Which then spent $1 million on a redesign of the electromatic typewriter,

Launching the IBM Electric Typewriter Model 01.

In 1931,

An electric typewriter was introduced by Verityper Corporation.

It was called the Verityper because a narrow cylinder-like wheel could be replaced to change the font.

In 1941,

IBM announced the Electromatic Model 4 electric typewriter,

Featuring the revolutionary concept of proportional spacing.

By assigning varied rather than uniform spacing to different sized characters,

The Type 4 recreated the appearance of a typeset page,

An effect that was further enhanced by including the 1937 innovation of carbon film ribbons that produced clearer,

Sharper words on the page.

IBM introduced the IBM Selectric typewriter in 1961,

Which replaced the type bars of a spherical element or typeball,

Slightly smaller than a golf ball,

With reverse image letters molded into its surface.

The Selectric used a system of latches,

Metal tapes,

And pulleys driven by an electric motor to rotate the ball into the correct position and then strike it against the ribbon and platen.

The typeball moved laterally in front of the paper instead of the previous designs using a platen-carrying carriage,

Moving the paper across a stationary print position.

Due to the physical similarity,

The typeball was sometimes referred to as a golf ball.

The typeball design had many advantages,

Especially the elimination of jams when more than one key was struck at once and the type bars became entangled,

And in the ability to change the typeball,

Allowing multiple fonts to be used in a single document.

The IBM Selectric became a commercial success,

Dominating the office typewriter market for at least two decades.

IBM also gained an advantage by marketing more heavily to schools than did Remington,

With the idea that students who learned to type on a Selectric would later choose IBM typewriters over the competition in the workplace as businesses replaced their old manual models.

Later models of IBM Executives and Selectrics replaced ink fabric ribbons with carbon film ribbons that had a dry black or colored powder on a clear plastic tape.

These could be used only once,

But later models used a cartridge that was simple to replace.

A side effect of this technology was that the text typed on the machine could be easily read from the used ribbon,

Raising issues where the machines were used for preparing classified documents.

Ribbons had to be accounted for to ensure that typists did not carry them from the facility.

A variation known as correcting Selectrics introduced a correction feature,

Later imitated by competing machines,

Where a sticky tape in front of the carbon film ribbon could remove the black powdered image of a typed character,

Eliminating the need for little bottles of white dab-on correction fluid and for hard erasers that could tear the paper.

These machines also introduced selectable pitch so that the typewriter could be switched between pica type 10 characters per inch and elite type 12 per inch even within one document.

Even so,

All Selectrics were monospaced.

Each character and letter space was allotted the same width on the page from a capital W to a period.

IBM did produce a successful type bar based machine with five levels of proportional spacing called the IBM Executive.

The only fully electromechanical Selectric typewriter with fully proportional spacing and which used a Selectric type element was the expensive Selectric Composer,

Which was capable of right margin justification.

Typing each line twice was required,

Once to calculate and again to print,

And was considered a typesetting machine rather than a typewriter.

Composer type balls physically resembled those of the Selectric typewriter but were not interchangeable.

In addition to its electronic successors,

The magnetic tape Selectric Composer,

MTSC,

The MagCard Selectric Composer,

And the electronic Selectric Composer,

IBM also made electronic typewriters with proportional spacing using the Selectric element that were considered typewriters or word processors instead of typesetting machines.

The first of these was the relatively obscure MagCard Executive,

Which used 88 character elements.

Later,

Some of the same type styles used for it were used on the 96 character elements used on the IBM Electronic Typewriter 50 and the later models 65 and 85.

By 1970,

As offset printing began to replace letterpress printing,

The Composer would be adapted as the output unit for a typesetting system.

The system included a computer-driven input station to capture the keystrokes on magnetic tape and insert the operator's format commands,

And a Composer unit to read the tape and produce the formatted text for photo reproduction.

The IBM 2741 terminal was a popular example of a Selectric-based computer terminal,

And similar mechanisms were employed as the console devices for many IBM System 360 computers.

These mechanisms used ruggedized designs compared to those in standard office typewriters.

Some of IBM's advances were later adopted in less expensive machines from competitors.

For example,

Smith Corona Electric typewriters introduced in 1973 switched to interchangeable coronamatic SCM-patented ribbon cartridges,

Including fabric,

Film erasing,

And two-color versions.

At about the same time,

The advent of photocopying meant that carbon copies,

Correction fluid,

And erasers were less and less necessary.

Only the original need be typed,

And photocopies made from it.

The final major development of the typewriter was the electronic typewriter.

Most of these replaced the typeball with a plastic or metal daisy wheel mechanism,

A disc with the letters molded on the outside edge of the pedals.

The daisy wheel concept first emerged in printers developed by Diablo Systems in the 1970s.

The first electronic daisy wheel typewriter marketed in the world in 1976 is the Olivetti TES-501,

And subsequently in 1978 the Olivetti ET-101 with function display,

And Olivetti TES-401 with text display and floppy disk for memory storage.

This has allowed Olivetti to maintain the world record in the design of electronic typewriters,

Proposing increasingly advanced and performing models in the following years.

Unlike the Selectrics and earlier models,

These really were electronic and relied on integrated circuits and electromechanical components.

These typewriters were sometimes called display typewriters,

Dedicated word processors,

Or word processing typewriters,

Though the latter term was also frequently applied to less sophisticated machines that featured only a tiny,

Sometimes just single row display.

Sophisticated models were also called word processors,

Though today that term almost always denotes a type of software programming.

Manufacturers of such machines included Olivetti TES-501,

First totally electronic Olivetti word processor with daisy wheel and floppy disk in 1976.

TES-621 in 1979,

Etc.

Brother,

Brother WP-1,

And WP-500,

Etc.

,

Where WP stood for word processor.

Cannon,

Cannon Cat,

Smith Corona,

PWP,

I.

E.

Personal word processor line,

And Phillips Magnavox video writer.

The pace of change was so rapid that it was common for clerical staff to have to learn several new systems,

One after the other in just a few years.

While such rapid change is commonplace today and is taken for granted,

This was not always so.

In fact,

Typewriting technology changed very little in its first 80 or 90 years.

Due to its falling sales,

IBM sold its typewriter division in 1991 to the newly formed Lexmark,

Completely exiting from a market it once dominated.

The increasing dominance of personal computers,

Desktop publishing,

The introduction of low-cost,

Truly high-quality laser and inkjet printer technologies,

And the pervasive use of web publishing,

Email,

Text messaging,

And other electronic communication techniques have largely replaced typewriters in the United States.

Still,

As of 2009,

Typewriters continued to be used by a number of government agencies and other institutions in the U.

S.

,

Where they are primarily used to fill pre-printed forms.

According to a Boston typewriter repairman quoted by the Boston Globe,

Every maternity ward has a typewriter,

As well as funeral homes.

A rather specialized market for typewriters exists due to the regulations of many correctional systems in the U.

S.

,

Where prisoners are prohibited from having computers or telecommunication equipment but are allowed to own typewriters.

The Swintech Corporation,

Headquartered in Monachie,

New Jersey,

Which as of 2011 still produced typewriters at its overseas factories in Japan,

Indonesia,

And or Malaysia,

Manufactures a variety of typewriters for use in prisons,

Made of clear plastic to make it harder for prisoners to hide prohibited items inside it.

As of 2011,

The company had contracts with prisons in 43 U.

S.

States.

In April 2011,

Godrej and Boyce,

A Mumbai-based manufacturer of mechanical typewriters,

Closed its doors,

Leading to a flurry of news reports that the world's last typewriter factory had shut down.

The reports were quickly contested,

With opinions settling to agree that it was indeed the world's last producer of manual typewriters.

Reviews

I needed to sleep after this dark day for our country, Benjamin. So I looked through your podcasts for comfort... found a new one to listen to...typewriter. Thank you, I was asleep in minutes. Your podcasts are so helpful.

Thank you Ben! Your voice is like Fred Rodger’s when I was little and Bob Ross when I was a little older- soothing balm to my soul! As always, right to sleep 😴

Supremely boring! It did the trick! Thank you Benjamin! 🤗🤗🤗

Awesomely boring. I had a typewriter when I went to college.