WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Tackles Typewriters 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.880 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.239 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:20.520 a lot of all things tech. It is time for 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:25.040 a tech Stuff plastic episode. This episode originally published on 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:30.720 December twenty second, two thousand fourteen, and it's very alliterative. 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:37.240 The title is text Stuff Tackles Typewriters. So this time 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.160 we're going to talk again sort of a historical look, 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.000 but now we're going to look at typewriters, which actually 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.120 have a slight connection to sewing machines as it turns out. 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.200 But in order to look at this, I thought we'd 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:52.960 look at sort of the history of type setting. And 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:54.800 to do that you got to go back to the 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.040 fifteenth century. Yeah, we're all the way back, and it's 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:00.880 one of those things, uh, and we'll talk about it. 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.160 But I have often heard people ask like, why didn't 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.880 the typewriter happen sooner? Yeah, we're going to touch on that. Yeah, 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.679 so way back in the fifteenth century, that's when uh, 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:19.600 John Gutenberg, when Johann Gutenberg began to experiment with printing techniques, 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.280 and by the fourteen fifties, he had actually developed the 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:27.480 famous printing press produced the Gutenberg Bible, probably the most 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:31.640 famous book from the medieval era, simply because it was 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.600 well medieval Renaissance era, simply because it was the first 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:39.000 one to be mass produced in a rapid particularly compared 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:43.319 to the other round. Rappid with air quotes is definitely 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:45.119 the way to go. But you didn't have to have 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:50.200 a school of monks hand illuminating scripts in order to 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.520 come out with copies of something, and we wouldn't really 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:57.600 need a typewriter. However, this was, you know, meant to 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.200 produce things on a mass scale, like a single document 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.760 on a mass scale. It wasn't meant to be uh, 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:07.400 for one off, right, you weren't going to to type 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.920 set a letter to your wife, dearest wife. How romantic 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:15.960 would that be? Though? Right? H I employed three clerks 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:18.600 in the efforts I make too right to you to 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.000 tell you my tub regulosis as settled. And no, that 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.320 was not the way things worked. But one of the 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:29.880 reasons why we didn't see a need for this sort 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.280 of thing to to creep into other areas, like the 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.040 idea of can we make a device like a printing press. 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:40.760 But for a personal use is that? Uh, Well, First, 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:43.680 until the Industrial Revolution, there was no way to create 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:45.880 that kind of thing on a mass scale, right, And 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:49.280 you couldn't really go out and churn out a dozen 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.840 typewriters in a day back in the technology of the 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:59.200 mid century yet. But even if there were. The other 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:03.600 part was that late particularly in Europe, was really cheap 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.280 and there was not really a need to go and 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:11.880 find a labor saving device for a person because there 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:14.160 were plenty of people. There were plenty of people who 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.160 were starving, and you could pay them a haypenny for 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.040 them to write down what you assuming they could write that, 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:24.400 they could write down what you wanted them to say. So, um, 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:27.079 but it would it wouldn't be too much longer. I mean, 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.639 still pretty early when you look at the first patent 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.079 or patent as the case may be, for a typewriter, 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:37.400 which dates all the way back to seventeen fourteen. Yes, 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:42.320 so we jumped forward like three hundred years, but again 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:46.520 nothing still an abundance of people very happy to do 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:48.440 things in that time when they were not you know, 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:53.240 stumbling around dying or or or making one another die. Yeah. 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.880 And then in seventeen fourteen. H there was, as you said, 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:59.600 the first patent for Henry Mill, and that was issued 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.640 by Queen Nan of Great Britain, of course, and that 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.840 patent uh described an artificial machine or method for the 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:11.680 impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively, one after another, 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:15.760 as in writing, whereby all writings whatsoever may be engrossed 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.440 in paper or parchment, so that the said machine or 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:21.920 method maybe of great use in settlements and public records, 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.799 the impression being deeper and more lasting than any other writing, 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:30.719 and not to be erased or counterfeited without manifest discovery. Yep, 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.400 that's uh. That's patent language, guys. You can tell that 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.760 that dates from seventeen fourteen, and patents have become no 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:42.120 less obtuse in that time. That's downright clear and brief 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.719 compared to a lot of modernor's. And as is often 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.960 the case, the more words there are, the less we 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.160 know about what actually happened in historical patents. Yeah, in 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:57.000 this case, we have no surviving illustrations or model. As 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:00.359 far as we know. Mill never built one of these things. 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.279 Perhaps he did, but if he did, there's no record 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.440 of it. So most of the sources I've read have 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:11.400 essentially said there's there. It was never probably never in so, 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.960 but still it shows that people as far back as 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:19.880 the early eighteenth century we're thinking about creating a machine 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:23.680 that would allow for the writing of words in a 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:28.440 in a mechanized fashion. Then we moved to forward another 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.840 century to eight and we have an Italian inventor, Pellegrin 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:35.919 no Turi, and he creates a typing machine for the 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:42.240 Countess Carolina Fantoni. D Well, sorry not daz vivizan o man. 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:47.320 My Italian is terrible. My Germans only slightly worse. Um, 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:49.000 at least I didn't try and throw in one of 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.880 those terrible like like over the top stereotypical Italian accents, 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:55.560 as I am wont to do. But it was interesting. 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:58.440 You know. He made this for the countess for a 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:04.240 specific reason. Yeah, she could not handwrite because she had 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.960 lost her vision. Yeah, so he created this device for her. 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.479 We don't know what this particular device looked like. No 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:16.520 model survives. However, unlike the case with mill we know 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:22.279 that it existed because there are still uh examples of 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:26.040 the letters that the countess wrote on this device. Yeah, 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.560 I would give anything to see how it worked and 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.840 how it particularly addressed her lack of vision, like if 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:35.039 it was a sort of a variant almost Braille type 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.039 situation going on, because there had to be feel elements 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:40.680 to the keys or should to memorize placement. Right, we 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.440 don't even know if there were keys on this device, right, 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:45.880 We don't know what the mechanism was for it. We 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:48.599 just know that it was a thing that would allow 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:53.440 her to write, and it's pretty phenomenal. Again, it's it's 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:55.880 sad that that's lost to history because I also would 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.080 love to hear about, you know, what actually happened. But 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:03.279 then we get to the point where the Americans get involved. Yeah, 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:05.599 as we moved deeper into the eighteen hundreds, things really 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:09.640 start cooking. The first one of note is William Austin Burt, 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:11.840 and he was an American engineer, and he was issued 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:14.760 a patent for what he called a typographer. And this 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:17.600 basically resembled a large chunk of wood and it had 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.080 sort of a clock like face on one side of it. 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.040 And according to this pattern, it was twelve by twelve, 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:26.520 so twelve inches wide, twelve inches tall, and then eighteen 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.080 inches long, so a little bit bigger than an actual 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.720 cube in terms of dimension. And then it was a 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.040 little bit clunky in its actual function because to type 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.160 a single letter, you'd have to rotate this lever and 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:43.320 then you would press down on it and make that 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.000 letter press against the paper, So you're kind of just 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:50.880 turning this dial to I try to imagine what it 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:52.720 would be like to like type an email that way, 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:54.800 and it makes me both laughing cringe at the same time. 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.000 There were a couple of things. I actually watched the 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.160 video of one of these being used, but it was 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.000 without any helpful narration to explain what was going on, 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.000 and I, honestly I could not tell how you could 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.400 make sure you were putting the right letter on the 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.520 right spot on a page. It almost looked like the 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.160 impressions on the page we're going willy nilly. But I've 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:21.000 seen actual letters that were written using the typographer, and 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:26.080 they look like a fairly not the not the neatest 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.160 type letter you've ever seen. But it is obviously a 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:33.080 typed letter, but neater than handwriting. Yeah, But however, it 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:37.600 was not faster than handwriting, so this particular device never 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.360 really took off. Also, there was a big setback we 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.960 talked about this, I think in our Sewing Machine episode 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:44.880 two we did, and it's actually come up in other 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:47.520 episodes we've done and stuff you missed in history class 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.880 that in UH six there was a huge fire at 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.280 the U. S. Patent Office which destroyed a lot of 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:58.719 historical records, including the only existing model of this device. Now, 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.360 there was a replica that was bilt and displayed for 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.640 the eighteen ninete Colombian Exposition in Chicago, So if you 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.520 weren't busy getting murdered by HH. Holmes, you could have 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.480 checked out the typographer. I believe that was the same 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:13.440 one as H. H. Holmes being active. I could be 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:15.520 wrong about that, but it seems correct, but I would 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.680 want to well at any rate. It just makes me 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:21.560 think of the Devil in the White City and a 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.480 fantastic book that everyone should check out about the the 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:29.800 exposition and also about H. H. Holmes. But yeah, so 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:32.080 at least there was this replica built, and I think 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:34.760 it was the replica of the Smithsonian I believe holds 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.679 the actual replica today and um I saw the video 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:40.920 of it being used in action, and again it didn't 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:46.640 have any helpful narration. The patent itself describes how it works, 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.280 but again it's using such obtunsee language that I could 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.280 not get the meaning from the description. Yeah, it's kind 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:53.600 of one of those things where if you had the 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:55.520 machine in the patent in hand and you could like 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:57.440 step through the steps and look it out, it would 0:09:57.440 --> 0:09:59.800 probably become click crystal clear, right, I could be like 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:02.880 two elements of the key together. You cannot crack the 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:08.199 code exactly my it was. It was completely obscured from me. Now, 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.439 in eighteen forty three, we have another inventor, Charles Thurber, 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:15.880 who incorporates two things that become very important in later 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:21.840 h implementations of typewriters. He incorporates a movable carriage, that's 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.960 the part that holds the paper, and the carriage itself 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.079 moves as opposed to having to move the device around 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.200 the paper in order to print the next letter. So 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.280 you type a letter, the carriage moves a space so 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:36.560 that you can type the next letter, and then eventually 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:38.800 you have to do a carriage return so that you 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.200 can start typing again. Any of you guys out there 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:43.680 who never used a typewriter, and I assume there's probably 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.040 more of you than there than otherwise, since typewriters are 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.040 rarely used at all these days. You might not appreciate that, 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:51.520 but of course, you get to the end of a 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.120 line in a piece of paper and you have to 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.760 move down and across to the to get to the 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:59.240 next line, and that's what the character turn was all about. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.840 Also implemented metal levers that stamped the letters or numbers 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.480 onto paper into his typing apparatus, and it was also 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.120 considered to be really slow and clunky and cumbersome, so 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.560 it never took off in the market, but those metal 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.960 levers would become important. The mechanical action of moving a 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.880 lever up to press against some sort of inked piece 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:22.800 of paper or maybe carbon paper, to then make an 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.480 impression against a blank sheet of papers that you stamp 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:30.360 whatever letter it is onto the sheet. Yeah, those carried 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:32.880 on for many, many, many many moons after that. Yeah, 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:35.640 it was. And this seems like a good time to 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.160 just mention we're really looking at the early years of 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:43.559 the typewriter and we're talking specifically about mechanical ones. We 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:48.679 could continue that discussion and get into things like, uh, 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.319 you know, electro mechanical and electric typewriter. That's that's an 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.800 entirely there like that would that would make a two 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:58.880 hour podcast. So we're really focusing on the mechanical ones here. 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.720 But uh, eighteen sixty seven is when we meet a 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:07.120 very important person and the way typewriters turned out. Yeah, 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:08.640 and we're going to give a little bit of backstory 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:10.640 on him because he is such a pivotal figure. So 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.120 Christopher Latham Shoals was a US inventor. He was actually 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:18.120 born in eighteen nineteen, so by the time he was 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.599 really kind of becoming a figure on the scene of typewriters, 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.400 he was pretty mature. He had apprenticed for a printer 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:26.840 for several years before he eventually became an editor at 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.760 the Wisconsin Inquirer, which was based out of Madison, Wisconsin. 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:32.479 And then he went on to work at other newspapers 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:34.679 as well and had them out and he even had 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:38.320 a little bit of a for a into a political career. 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:43.200 He served in the state legislature, and then he left 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:47.480 his newspaper time because someone very important sort of came 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.160 into his life, and that was President Lincoln who appointed 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:54.199 him as collector at the Port of Milwaukee. And so 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.000 in case anyone does not know what a collector at 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.120 a port. Is that's the person who is responsible for 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.720 collected import duties and taxes on goods that are entering 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.280 the port, and they oversee all those people that go 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:07.680 and do those things. I thought he was like a Somalia, 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:13.200 that kind of port collector, if only yeah, okay, Well 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.920 he ended up making friends with a fellow, Samuel soul 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:19.880 uh In. In eighteen sixty four, they were issued a 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:24.080 patent for a machine that would number pages. So it 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:26.959 was an idea. The idea was that would sequentially number 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.920 pages for like a book, So you would press this 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.319 button and you get three and then four and then five, 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:36.040 and it was considered to be a labor saving device. 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:41.360 But then another fellow, Carlos Carlos Glidden, who was also 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.600 a fellow inventor, you know, someone who liked to work 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.960 with this kind of stuff, looked at this and said, huh, 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:50.840 what if you were to, I don't know, take the 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.000 same principle that you created, but make it so that 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.880 you could type, you know, letters onto a piece of paper. 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.760 So you're using essentially the same approach that you're using here, 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.400 but now you can actually type in words and make 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:09.360 a mechanical typewriter yeah, and that suggestion pretty much change 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.839 shoals life forever. Was He then focused almost exclusively on 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:16.160 the typewriter for the rest of his career. And so 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.560 he produced a prototype this is around eighteen sixty eight, 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.960 but it could only print the letter W. It was 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.320 just really to show a proof of concept, and not 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:31.080 to my dearest woo. It wasn't like that, um, but 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.400 it was to see if he could actually do it. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.080 And he did. And then they said, all right, let's 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:40.360 let's devote more effort into creating this, uh, this typewriter 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.080 and to try and make one that we can end 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:46.760 up marketing and patenting. Um. So in eighteen sixty eight 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.440 they had a typewriter patent issue to them two Shoals, 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:54.760 Glidden and Soul collectively, and Shoals was the primary person 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.560 on that patent. And uh, yeah, I love that the 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:00.200 note you have here that the first protes it was 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:02.840 similar to a telegraph key. That exactly is what it 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:04.720 was like. You pressed down, you get that little W 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.280 and you're like, just send all the ws you want now. Granted, 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:10.040 if you if you get the letter upside down, you 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:12.160 think it's just there. You go like, we had a 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:15.160 really good if you flipped your page a lot, it's 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:17.200 about it. And they did end up getting two more 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:20.960 patents issued in the following years because you know, they 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.600 were all inventors and tin careers, as we've said, so 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:26.720 they were constantly trying to improve upon it. We're gonna 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:29.080 take a quick break, but we'll be right back with 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:41.400 more about typewriters after these messages. So in eighteen seventy 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:48.440 we get one of the coolest, weirdest typewriters ever, Rasmus 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:53.040 molly Hanson invented what is called the writing ball. And 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:55.080 you guys, you need to if you don't know what 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.880 this looks like, you've got to go on a on 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.640 a Google image search or something pull up picture of 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:04.600 the Rasmus Mulling Henson writing ball or typewriter ball. If 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.160 that that will probably bring it up to It looks 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:09.640 like it could come right out of like a Clive 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:18.240 Barker hell razor Kin. Yeah, it's like Pinhead's cousin, you know, Keyhead. Yeah, 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.760 maybe that could be it. Uh So, Yeah, you look 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.040 at this thing. It looks like it's it's a sphere 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:25.600 that's been cut in half and it's got all the 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.760 little keys that stick out of it um and the 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:34.440 Malling Hanson Society, which by the way, is more than 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:40.120 a little biased, they call it the world's first commercially 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:45.000 produced typewriter, and Mulling Hanson received lots of different prizes 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:47.560 and recognition at various events around the world, mainly in 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.560 Europe but also in the United States were producing this 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:55.640 this particular piece of technology, and his version would evolve 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.120 over time. It wasn't just you know, it wasn't one 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:01.040 set and then it stay that way, but it always 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:05.480 retained that strange kind of ball shape. And the society 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.600 also claims that the key layout on the writing ball 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.400 allowed for much faster typing than the Quarty based keyboards 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:14.720 that would soon follow. So we still haven't gotten to 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:17.920 the point where the Quarty keyboard is a thing that's 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.920 coming pretty soon. But the society is like, well, that 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.480 keyboard was slow and and and laborious. This thing you 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.440 could type really really quickly. Now, each key was connected 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.040 to a piston, and the piston would stamp a piece 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:35.320 of paper, either through a carbon paper or InCD ribbon. 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.840 The paper itself was on kind of this curved um 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.040 uh setting like you would you would put it there 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:44.359 was these long sheets of paper and they fit on 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:49.600 this little curve platform that would ratchet up by by 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:54.800 piece by piece. So if you're typing, like facing the object, uh, 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.159 it's almost like it's at a ninety degree angle the 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.520 way that the paper is being typed. So you wouldn't 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.920 type this like you would on a typewriter where you could, 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.800 especially a modern typewriter where you can actually see what 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:09.280 you've just typed. You type out a line and it 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:11.480 would it would be like it would look like it's 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.119 going vertically across the page to you, but it's because 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:17.080 the entire page is ninety degrees from you. So it's 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:22.280 a really odd thing. And Terry Gilliam like, that's it's 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.240 a very Terry Gilliam historical film kind of piece you 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.040 would see. I would completely expect to see this in 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:31.680 the background during Brazil, for example. It would fit in exact. 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:33.160 In fact, when I saw it, I thought, this looks 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:37.080 like something from Brazil, or maybe twelve Monkeys. But Molly 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.320 Hanson died when he was only fifty five years old 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:44.480 in eight and he had an outstanding order for one 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.199 writing balls from a manufacturer, and the manufacturer, you know, 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:51.680 canceled it because the guy died and since that point 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:54.399 no one ever made any more of them. They are 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.600 collector's items. I think one sold for like a hundred 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.399 thousand euros at an auction not too long ago. There 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.600 are a few in museums. They are considered to be uh, 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:08.600 really lovely pieces for people who have lots and lots 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.119 of money, so not highly coveted in the typewriter aficion 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:16.400 auto herd. Yeah, and who knew there is one? Oh? Yeah, 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:20.040 I actually I own a good old uh. I think 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.600 it's a owned a Rimington's and an Underwood and old. 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.600 Both of them are pretty old um that I just 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.439 happened to find it like a h an old uh 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.560 secondhand shop, and I was very proud of them. They are, 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.080 by the way, some of the heaviest pieces of technology 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.120 I've ever had to carry. Yeah, we have an Underwood 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:39.679 number five that has been in my husband's family forever 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.160 and it needs some work, but it's that's a backbreaker 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:46.160 to hook it around there. Well. One interesting thing about 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.520 the writing ball, apart from its strange shape and the 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:52.480 fact that it's supposedly was much more easy to type 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.879 on than the quirty keyboards, was that a famous person 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:00.359 owned one Friedrich Nietici. Did I hear the it was 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.879 a gift from his sister and his mother. That's what 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.119 I had originally read, although I never substantiated it. I 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:11.600 couldn't find a actual sources that said that was true. 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:13.680 That's what I heard, But I also heard that Molly 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.080 Hanson delivered it in person to Nietici, so it may 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:19.440 be that it was arranged by his mother and sister. 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:24.040 Is we enter the realm of myth occasionally, and I 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.439 think this is one of those times. So Nietzie his 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.119 vision was failing, so he needed to have something to 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.640 help him right. He wanted to continue writing, but he 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.400 could not really see to write out things Longhand. And 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.000 what's really cool to me is that there are scholars 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.320 who talk about how Nietchie's writing. The style of Nizi's 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:45.560 writing changed when he switched over to typing on the 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.000 writing ball as opposed to trying to write in Longhand. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.000 And you might argue that that style could have been 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:53.280 affected by the fact that he could no longer really see, 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:56.320 but most people said that it was the actual mechanical 0:20:56.400 --> 0:21:00.240 process of typing on the keys that changed the tone 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.879 of his writing, and Niechee's response to this was actually 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.240 that he agreed. He said, our writing equipment takes part 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.520 in the forming of our thoughts. So the way that 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:14.400 we are expressing ourselves, the medium through which we do it, 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:18.440 impacts the way we we expressed that thought. And if 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:20.480 we're writing, longhand, we're going to do it in a 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:22.520 different way than if we're typing. I think a lot 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.160 of people would actually agree with that. But it's kind 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:28.800 of fascinating those this early on in the birth of 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:32.840 the typewriter that we see someone make that observation. Wouldn't 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:39.439 he be fascinated by texting? Probably? Omg uh. And I 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:42.400 mean I completely subscribed to that mode of thought because 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:45.640 I know even if I change pens, my handwriting changes, 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:50.120 and the tone of my writing will change based on that. 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:52.840 If I have to write and pen, the tone changes 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:55.280 so that I write as brief message as I possibly 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:58.160 can because I'm left handed, so I smudge a lot. 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:02.200 But at any rate, getting back to in eighteen seventy three, 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:07.600 back to shoals And and his fully functional typewriter. Now, uh, 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:11.560 it was finally a real improvement here in the United 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.639 States over just writing things out with a pen. It was, 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:17.760 it was faster, it was easier. And that's where we 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:21.800 get to the Shoals and Glitten typewriter. Yeah, as we 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:24.000 mentioned sort of where we left off with these guys 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:28.240 before we went to the ball, they were they had 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.119 additional patents. They had really sort of started to refine 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.280 and develop this thing, but they were having some very 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:37.680 serious money problems. They just did not have the capital 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:40.320 to start churning these things out on their own. So 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:43.639 they sold the patent rights for twelve thousand dollars in 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:47.119 eighteen seventy three, some serious money in eighteen Yeah, that 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:50.000 is not jump change. And the company that bought those 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:54.280 rights was the Remington's Arms Company. Wait like like like 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:57.280 the gun. Uh, Well they did a lot of they 0:22:57.280 --> 0:22:59.800 had their hands in many many pies. Uh. And so 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:04.080