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The typewriter is a machine for printing letters singly on paper which is traversed and moved forward so as to allow writing to be performed. The first patent for a typewriter was filed in 1714 by the Englishman Henry Mills, but the first practical typewriter wasn't invented until 1843 by Charles Thurber. The modern typewriter owes much to the machines produced by Charles Latham Sholes which were adopted by the Remington and Son company of New York, their first machine going on sale in 1874. By the end of the 20th century the typewriter was obsolete, replaced by computerised word processing applications.
Remington's typewriter sold in 1874 had the type-bars pivoted about a horizontal ring, the arms of the type-bars being connected by vertical rods to the levers leading to the keyboard. A rubber cylinder moved the paper, and the impression of the type was supplied by an inked ribbon which unwound automatically from a spool. The pressing down and release of each key in turn moved the paper-carrying cylinder along one space by means of a spring. The roller was moved back and turned ready for the following line by hand. In the original machine each type-bar carried only one character, but later two were introduced on each, and in later machines still three. A shift key enabled any set of characters required to come into operation. By thus economy of keys one set was enabled to print capital and small letters, figures and certain standard punctuation marks, etc. without unduly enlarging the keyboard.
The Remington typewriter was followed by others embodying various new ideas and improvements. The keyboard became standardised, and various standard improvements were introduced such as a back spacing key which enabled the carriage to be reversed one space as necessary to retype a letter; two and three colour ribbons, etc.
Some early typewriters used an ink-pad, the type-bar being pressed against the ink pad before being brought into contact with the paper, but by the later 20th century these were extinct and all typewriters, whether manual or electric were using an inked ribbon.
Quite early some typewriters had their characters arranged on the circumference of a small wheel or small cylinder, which were automatically rotated as the type-key was depressed. Some later typewriters had their characters arranged around a small ball. Many typewriters had the capacity for the entire set of type-bars or type wheel to be interchanged, allowing different sets of characters to be printed.
 Research Typewriter
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