WEBVTT - TechStuff Tackles Typewriters 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:12.200 Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from dot com. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.400 Hey everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:19.400 and today I am joined once again by my coworker 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:22.800 and the one of the co hosts of Stuffy miss 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:27.200 in History Class, Holly. Welcome back, Hello, good to be here, Holly. Now, 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.920 last time when you joined us, we talked about sewing 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:36.440 machines and and they're amazing connection to patent wars, which 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:40.560 was incredible. I had never known about that. A few 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:43.920 people associate sewing with like fisticuffs and business anger, but 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.840 in fact we're all tied up together. It's actually quite 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:51.880 well tailored fisticuffs. So this time we're going to talk 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:54.400 again sort of a historical look, but now we're going 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:58.840 to look at typewriters, which actually have a slight connection 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.560 to sewing machines, is it turns out. But in order 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:04.360 to look at this, I thought we'd look at sort 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.479 of the history of type setting. And to do that 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.320 you got to go back to the fifteenth century. Yeah, 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:12.800 we're all the way back, and it's one of those things, uh, 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.400 and we'll talk about it. But I have often heard 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.800 people ask like, why didn't the typewriter happen sooner. Yeah, 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:22.759 we're going to touch on that. Yeah, So way back 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:30.080 in the fifteenth century, that's when uh, Johann Gutenberg, when 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.520 Johann Gutenberg began to experiment with printing techniques, and by 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:37.040 the fourteen fifties he had actually developed the famous printing 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:42.880 press produced the Gutenberg Bible, probably the most famous book 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.959 from the medieval era, simply because it was well medieval 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:48.480 Renaissance era, simply because it was the first one to 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.800 be mass produced in a rapid particularly compared to the 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:57.000 other rapid round. Rapid with air quotes is definitely the 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.480 way to go. But you didn't have to have a 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:04.320 school monks hand illuminating scripts in order to come out 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:09.600 with copies of something, and we wouldn't really need a typewriter. However, 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.680 this was meant to produce things on a mass scale, 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.640 like a single document on a mass scale. It wasn't 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.760 meant to be uh for one off, right, you weren't 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:22.440 going to to type set a letter to your wife, 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.120 dearest wife. How romantic would that be? Though? Right? H 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.359 I employed three clerks in the efforts I make to 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:33.880 write to you to tell you my tub reculosis as 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.480 settled and no, that was not the way things worked. 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:42.160 But one of the reasons why we didn't see a 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:45.200 need for this sort of thing to to creep into 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.120 other areas, like the idea of can we make a 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.040 device like a printing press but for a personal use? 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:56.160 Is that uh? Well, First, until the Industrial Revolution, there 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.040 was no way to create that kind of thing on 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.000 a mass scale, right, And you couldn't really go out 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:05.400 and churn out a dozen typewriters in a day back 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:10.840 in the technology of the mid fifteenth century yet. But 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.799 even if there were. The other part was that labor, 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:18.840 particularly in Europe, was really cheap, and there was not 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.400 really a need to go and find a labor saving 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.280 device for a person because there were plenty of people. 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.200 There were plenty of people who were starving, and you 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:31.800 could pay them a haypenny for them to write down 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.320 what you assuming they could write that, they could write 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:38.120 down what you wanted them to say. So, um, but 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:40.680 it wouldn't it wouldn't be too much longer. I mean 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.240 still pretty early when you look at the first patent 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.680 or patent as the case may be, for a typewriter, 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:51.000 which dates all the way back to seventeen fourteen. Yes, 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:56.440 so we jumped forward like three years, but again nothing, 0:03:56.480 --> 0:04:00.640 an abundance of people very happy to do things in 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:02.760 that time when they were not, you know, stumbling around 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:07.120 dying or or or making one another die. Yeah. And 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.480 then in seventeen fourteen, Uh, there was, as you said, 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.240 the first patent for Henry Mill, and that was issued 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.240 by Queen Anne of Great Britain, of course, and that 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:20.440 patent uh described an artificial machine or method for the 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:25.320 impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively, one after another, 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.359 as in writing, whereby all writings whatsoever, may be engrossed 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.040 in paper or parchment, so that the said machine or 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.560 method maybe of great use in settlements and public records, 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:39.400 the impression being deeper and more lasting than any other writing, 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:44.320 and not to be erased or counterfeited without manifest discovery. Yep. 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.000 That's uh, that's patent language, guys. You can tell that 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.359 that dates from seventeen fourteen, and patents have become no 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:55.760 less obtuse in that time. That's downright clear and brief 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.320 compared to a lot of monetor's. And as is often 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.560 the case, the more words there are, the less we 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.800 know about what actually happened in historical patents. Yeah, in 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:10.600 this case, we have no surviving illustrations or model as 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.960 far as we've known, mill never built one of these things. 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:16.880 Perhaps he did, but if he did, there's no record 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.039 of it. So most of the sources I've read have 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:25.000 essentially said there's it was never probably never insisted. So 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.559 but still it shows that people as far back as 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:33.480 the early eighteenth century, we're thinking about creating a machine 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.280 that would allow for the writing of words in a 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:42.080 in a mechanized fashion. Then we moved to forward another 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:47.520 century to eight and we have an Italian inventor, Pellegrino Turi, 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.520 and he creates a typing machine for the Countess Carolina Fantoni. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:56.440 D Well, sorry not da Vivizan. Oh man, my Italian 0:05:56.480 --> 0:06:01.400 is terrible. My Germans only slightly worse. Um, at least 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:03.480 I didn't try and throw in one of those terrible 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.719 like like over the top stereotypical Italian accents, as I 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.440 am wont to do. But it was interesting, you know 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:14.040 he made this for the countess for a specific reason. Yeah, 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:18.920 she could not handwright because she had lost her vision. Yeah, 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.920 so he created this device for her. We don't know 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.920 what this particular device looked like. No model survives, However, 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.120 unlike the case with mill, we know that it existed 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:36.680 because there are still uh examples of the letters that 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:40.200 the Countess wrote on this device. Yeah, I would give 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.560 anything to see how it worked and how it particularly 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:47.159 addressed her lack of vision, like sort of a variant 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.599 almost Braille type situation going on, because there had to 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:54.120 be feel elements to the keys or should to memorize placement. Right, 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.040 we don't even know if there were keys on this device, right, 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.479 We don't know what the mechanism was for it. We 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.200 just know that it was a thing that would allow 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:07.080 her to write, and it's pretty phenomenal. Again, it's it's 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:09.479 sad that that's lost to history because I also would 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:12.680 love to hear about, you know, what actually happened. But 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:16.920 then we get to the point where the Americans get involved. Yeah, 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.200 as we moved deeper into the eighteen hundreds, things really 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:23.240 start cooking. The first one of note is William Austin Burt, 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:25.440 and he was an American engineer and he was issued 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.360 a patent for what he called a typographer, and this 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.240 basically resembled a large chunk of wood and it had 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.720 sort of a clock like face on one side of it, 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:37.640 and according to this pattern, it was twelve by twelve, 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.120 so twelve inches wide, twelve inches tall, and then eighteen 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.680 inches long, so a little bit bigger than an actual 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.360 cube in terms of dimension. And then it was a 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.680 little bit clunky in its actual function because to type 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.760 a single letter, you'd have to rotate this lever, and 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:56.960 then you would press down on it and make that 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.560 letter press against the paper, so you're kind of just 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:04.720 turn this dial. I tried to imagine what it would 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:06.440 be like to like type an email that way, and 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:08.440 it makes me both laughing cringe at the same time. 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:11.600 There are a couple of things. I actually watched the 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.760 video of one of these being used, but it was 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.600 without any helpful narration to explain what was going on, 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:21.600 and I, honestly I could not tell how you could 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.000 make sure you were putting the right letter on the 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.120 right spot on a page. It almost looked like the 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.760 impressions on the page we're going willy nilly. But I've 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:34.599 seen actual letters that were written using the typographer, and 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:39.720 they look like a fairly not the not the neatest 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.760 type letter you've ever seen, but it is obviously a 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.680 type letter and neater than handwriting. Yeah, But however it 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:51.199 was not faster than handwriting, So this particular device never 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:53.960 really took off. Also, there was a big setback. We 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.560 talked about this, I think in our Sewing Machine episode 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:58.480 two we did, and it's actually come up in other 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.160 episodes we've done. And if you missed in history class 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.480 that in UH six there was a huge fire at 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:06.920 the U. S. Patent Office which destroyed a lot of 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:12.320 historical records, including the only existing model of this device. Now, 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:14.960 there was a replica that was built and displayed for 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:19.120 the eight nine three Columbian Exposition in Chicago, So if 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:21.840 you weren't busy getting murdered by H. H. Holmes, you 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:24.760 could have checked out the typographer. I believe that was 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:26.760 the same one as H. H. Holmes being active. I 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:28.800 could be wrong about that, but it seems correct. But 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.760 I would want to well at any rate. Uh, it 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:34.200 just makes me think of The Devil in the White 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.760 City and a fantastic book that everyone should check out 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.280 about the the exposition and also about H. H. Holmes. 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.400 But uh, yeah, so at least there was this replica built, 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:47.520 and I think it was the replica of the Smithsonian 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.520 I believe holds the actual replica today. And um I 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:53.760 saw the video of it being used in action, and 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.559 again it didn't have any helpful narration. The patent itself 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.880 describes how it works, but again it's using such obtuse 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:05.560 language that I could not get the meaning from the description. Yeah, 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:06.880 it's kind of one of those things where if you 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:08.760 had the machine in the patent in hand and you 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:10.760 could like step through the steps and look it out, 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.200 it would probably become click crystal clear, right, I could 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.120 be like two elements of the key together. You cannot 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.479 crack the code exactly. Yeah, it was. It was completely 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.360 obscured from me. Now, in eighteen forty three, we have 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.400 another inventor, Charles Thurber, who incorporates two things that become 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:34.000 very important in later implementations of typewriters. He incorporates a 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.720 movable carriage that's the part that holds the paper, and 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.360 the carriage itself moves as opposed to having to move 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.000 the device around the paper in order to print the 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.720 next letter. So you type a letter, the carriage moves 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.320 a space so that you can type the next letter, 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:51.520 and then eventually you have to do a carriage return 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.320 so that you can start typing again. Any of you 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.200 guys out there who never used a typewriter, and I 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.439 assume there's probably more of you than there than otherwise, 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.520 since typewriters are rarely used at all these days, you 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:04.559 might not appreciate that. But of course, you get to 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:06.720 the end of a line in a piece of paper 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.680 and you have to move down and across to the 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:11.559 to get to the next line, and that's what the 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:15.959 character turn was all about. He also implemented metal levers 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.760 that stamped the letters or numbers onto paper into his 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.000 typing apparatus, and it was also considered to be really 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:24.400 slow and clunky and cumbersome, so it never took off 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:27.400 in the market. But those metal levers would become important. 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.280 The mechanical action of moving a lever up to press 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.600 against some sort of inked piece of paper or maybe 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.600 carbon paper, to then make an impression against a blank 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:40.040 sheet of paper, so that you stamp whatever letter it 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:44.840 is onto the sheet. Yeah, those carried on for many, many, 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:48.120 many many moons after that. Yeah, it was. And this 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:50.600 seems like a good time to just mention we're really 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:54.000 looking at the early years of the typewriter, and we're 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:59.640 talking specifically about mechanical ones. We could continue that discussion 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.719 and get into things like, uh, you know, electro mechanical 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:08.600 and electric typewriter. That's that's an entirely like that would 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:10.800 that would make a two hour podcast. So we're really 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:15.160 focusing on the mechanical ones here. But eighteen sixty seven 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.280 is when we meet a very important person in the 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.360 way typewriters turned out. Yeah, and we're going to give 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:22.880 a little bit of backstory on him because he is 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.280 such a pivotal figure. So Christopher Latham Shoals was a 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:30.679 US inventor. He was actually born in eighteen nineteen, so 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:32.840 by the time he was really kind of becoming a 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.040 figure on the scene of typewriters, he was pretty mature. 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.680 He had apprenticed for a printer for several years before 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.800 he eventually became an editor at the Wisconsin Inquirer, which 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.839 was based out of Madison, Wisconsin, and then he went 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:46.800 on to work at other newspapers as well and had 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:48.960 them out and he even had a little bit of 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:53.240 a for a into a political career. He served in 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:57.839 the state legislature and then he left his newspaper time 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.760 because someone very importank sort of came into his life, 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:05.200 and that was President Lincoln, who appointed him as collector 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.200 at the Port of Milwaukee. Huh. And so in case 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.240 anyone does not know what a collector at a port is, 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:14.560 that's the person who is responsible for collecting import duties 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:16.800 and taxes on goods that are entering the port, and 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.200 they can oversee all those people that go and do 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.400 those things. I thought he was like a Somalia, that 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:27.760 kind of port collector if only yeah, okay, Well, he 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:31.440 ended up making friends with a fellow, Samuel soul Uh, 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:33.920 and in eighteen sixty four, they were issued a patent 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:37.840 for a machine that would number pages. So it was 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.000 an idea. The idea was that would sequentially number pages 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:43.839 for like a book, So you would press this button 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:45.920 and you get three, and then four and then five. 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.640 And it was considered to be a labor saving device. 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:54.959 But then another fellow, Carlos Carlos Glidden, who was also 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.200 a fellow inventor, you know, someone who liked to work 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.360 with this kind of stuff, looked this and said, huh, 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:04.440 what if you were to, I don't know, take the 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.600 same principle that you created, but make it so that 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.439 you could type, you know, letters onto a piece of paper. 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:13.360 So you're using essentially the same approach that you're using here, 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.000 but now you can actually type in words and make 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:23.480 a mechanical typewriter. Yeah, that suggestion pretty much change shoals 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:27.560 life forever was. He then focused almost exclusively on the 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:29.960 typewriter for the rest of his career. And so he 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.280 produced a prototype This is around eighteen sixty eight, but 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.800 it could only print the letter w It was just 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.080 really to show a proof of concept, and not to 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.920 my dearest woo. It wasn't like that, um, but it 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.160 was to see if he could actually do it, and 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:48.960 he did, and then they said, all right, let's let's 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:54.160 devote more effort into creating this, uh, this typewriter and 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:56.920 to try and make one that we can end up 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:00.640 marketing and patenting. Um. So in eighteen sixty eight they 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:04.440 had a typewriter patent issue to them two Sholes, Glidden 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:08.600 and Soul collectively, and Shoals was the primary person on 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:12.400 that patent. And uh, yeah, I love that the note 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:14.320 you have here that the first prototype was similar to 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:16.720 a telegraph key. That exactly is what it was like. 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.040 You pressed down you get that little W and you're like, 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:22.080 just send all the W you want now. Granted, if 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:23.800 you if you get the letter upside down, you think 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:27.360 it's just like we had a really good if you 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:29.480 flipped your page a lot, it's about it. And they 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.320 did end up getting two more patents issued in the 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.560 following years because you know, they were all inventors and 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.240 tin careers, as we've said, so they were constantly trying 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:43.000 to improve upon it. So in eighteen seventy we get 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:50.640 one of the coolest, weirdest typewriters ever, Rasmus molly Hanson 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:54.720 invented what is called the writing ball. And you guys, 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:56.720 you need to if you don't know what this looks like, 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.760 you've got to go on a on a Google image 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.360 so or something, pull up a picture of the Rasmus 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:06.120 maulling Henson writing ball or typewriter ball. If that that 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.520 will probably bring it up to It looks like it 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.320 could come right out of like a Clive Barker hell 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:19.320 razor kind. Yeah, it's like Pinhead's cousin, you know, Keyhead. Yeah, 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.840 maybe that could be it. Uh So, yeah, you look 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.120 at this thing. It looks like it's it's a sphere 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:26.680 that's been cut in half, and it's got all the 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.840 little keys that stick out of it. Um and the 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:35.560 Malling Hanson Society, which by the way, is more than 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:41.239 a little biased, they call it the world's first commercially 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:46.080 produced typewriter, and Mulling Hanson received lots of different prizes 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:48.640 and recognition at various events around the world, mainly in 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.640 Europe but also in the United States for producing this 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:56.720 this particular piece of technology, and his version would evolve 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.240 over time. It wasn't just you know, it wasn't one 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:02.080 set and then it stayed that way, but it always 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:06.560 retained that strange kind of ball shape. And the society 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.680 also claims that the key layout on the writing ball 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.520 allowed for much faster typing than the quirty based keyboards 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:15.800 that would soon follow. So we still haven't gotten to 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.000 the point where the quirty keyboard is a thing that's 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:23.000 coming pretty soon. But the society is like, well, that 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.600 keyboard is slow and and and laborious. This thing you 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:30.520 could type really really quickly. Now, each key was connected 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.120 to a piston, and the piston would stamp a piece 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.399 of paper, either through a carbon paper or InCD ribbon. 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.919 The paper itself was on kind of this curved um 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.120 uh setting like you would you would put it. There 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:45.479 was these long sheets of paper and they fit on 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:50.720 this little curve platform that would ratchet up by by 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:55.920 piece by piece. So if you're typing, like facing the object, Uh, 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.240 it's almost like it's at a ninety degree angle the 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.600 way that the paper is being typed. So you wouldn't 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.000 type this like you would on a typewriter where you could, 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:06.879 especially a modern typewriter where you can actually see what 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:10.359 you've just typed. You type out a line and it 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.560 would it would be like it would look like it's 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.200 going vertically across the page to you, but it's because 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.159 the entire page is ninety degrees from you. So it's 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:22.800 a really odd thing. Uh. And Terry Gillium like, that's 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.160 that's a very Terry Gilliam historical film kind of piece 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.840 you would see. I would completely expect to see this 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.040 in the background during Brazil, for example. It would fit 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:33.880 in exact. In fact, when I saw it, I thought, 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:36.880 this looks like something from Brazil or maybe twelve Monkeys. 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.880 But Molling Hanson died when he was only fifty five 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:45.040 years old in eight and he had an outstanding order 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:49.080 for one writing balls from a manufacturer, and the manufacturer 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:52.200 you know, canceled it because the guy died, and since 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:55.000 that point no one ever made any more of them. 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:58.199 They are collector's items. I think one sold for like 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:00.439 a hundred thousand euros in an aux, and not too 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:03.000 long ago there are a few in museums. They are 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:08.720 considered to be uh, really lovely pieces for people who 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.040 have lots and lots of money, not highly coveted. In 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:17.520 the typewriter aficionado heard yeah and who knew there is one? Oh? Yeah, 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:21.160 I actually I own a good old uh. I think 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.440 it's a own a Rimington's and an Underwood and old. 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:27.719 Both of them are pretty old um that I just 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.880 happened to find it like a h an old uh 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.639 secondhand shop, and I was very proud of them. They are, 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:36.160 by the way, some of the heaviest pieces of technology 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:38.200 I've ever had to carry. Yeah, we have an Underwood 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.800 number five that has been in my husband's family forever 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:44.240 and it needs some work, but it's that's a backbreaker 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.280 to hook it around there. Well. One interesting thing about 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.600 the writing ball, apart from its strange shape and the 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.560 fact that it's supposedly was much more easy to type 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:56.959 on than the quirty keyboards. Was that a famous person 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:01.439 owned one, Friedrich Nietici. Did I hear that it was 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.000 a gift from his sister and his mother. That's what 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:09.199 I had originally read, although I never substantiated it. I 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.720 couldn't find a ductual sources that said that was true. 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:14.760 That's what I heard, But I also heard that Molly 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.159 Hansen delivered it in person to Nietici, so it may 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.520 be that it was arranged by his mother and sister. 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:25.119 Is we enter the realm of myth occasionally, and I 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:27.520 think this is one of those times. So Nietchie his 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:30.199 vision was failing, so he needed to have something to 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:32.720 help him right. He wanted to continue writing, but he 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:36.480 could not really see to write out things Longhand. And 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.119 what's really cool to me is that there are scholars 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.400 who talk about how Nietchie's writing the style of Nichi's 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:46.639 writing changed when he switched over to typing on the 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:49.080 writing ball as opposed to trying to write in Longhand. 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:52.080 And you might argue that that style could have been 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:54.360 affected by the fact that he could no longer really see, 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:57.400 but most people said that it was the actual mechanical 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:01.040 process of typing on the keys that change the tone 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:04.959 of his writing, and Nietzche's response to this was actually 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:08.280 that he agreed. He said, our writing equipment takes part 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.600 in the forming of our thoughts. So the way that 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:15.480 we are expressing ourselves, the medium through which we do it, 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.520 impacts the way we we expressed that thought. And if 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:21.560 we're writing, longhand, we're going to do it in a 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:23.640 different way than if we're typing. I think a lot 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:26.240 of people would actually agree with that. But it's kind 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:29.879 of fascinating those this early on in the birth of 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:33.920 the typewriter that we see someone make that observation. Wouldn't 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:40.520 he be fascinated by texting? Probably? Omg uh. And I 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.480 mean I completely subscribe to that mode of thought because 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.720 I know even if I change pens, my handwriting changes, 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:51.200 and the tone of my writing will change based on that. 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:53.919 If I have to write and pen, the tone changes 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:56.359 so that I write as brief message as I possibly 0:21:56.400 --> 0:21:59.240 can because I'm left handed, so I smudge a lot. 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:03.320 But at any rate, getting back to in eighteen seventy three, 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:08.679 back to shoals And and his fully functional typewriter. Now, uh, 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:12.639 it was finally a real improvement here in the United 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:15.520 States over just writing things out with a pen. It 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.639 was it was faster, it was easier. And that's where 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.719 we get to the Shoals and Glitten typewriter. Yeah, as 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:24.720 we mentioned sort of where we left off with these 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:29.040 guys before we went to the ball, they were they 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:32.800 had additional patents. They had really sort of started to 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:35.119 refine and develop this thing, but they were having some 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:38.199 very serious money problems. They just did not have the 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:40.800 capital to start churning these things out on their own. 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:44.639 So they sold the patent rights for twelve thousand dollars 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:47.960 in eighteen seventy three, some serious money in eighteen Yeah, 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:50.879 that is not jump change. And the company that bought 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:55.240 those rights was the Remington's Arms Company. Wait like like 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:58.199