Today in Technology History
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March 1
The computer keyboard in front of you owes its design to a politician and a gun company.
Christopher Latham Sholes was born in Pennsylvania in 1819. He learned the printer's trade by working as an apprentice for four years on a local newspaper; at the end of that time, he moved with his parents to Wisconsin.
Sholes went into business as a printer, and eventually landed a job printing the journals of the Wisconsin legislature. The proximity to so many politicians clearly influenced him, for he moved into journalism and eventually into politics. He edited several newspapers, served as a town postmaster, and was elected to three terms in the state legislature.
In the 1860s, President Lincoln appointed Sholes to serve as the customs collector for the port of Milwaukee. This position gave him sufficient leisure time to pursue a hobby -- inventing -- for which he had theretofore been too busy. With the help of two inventor friends, Sholes spent a few years building and patenting a machine for numbering the pages of books.
Sholes and his partners realized that their page-numbering machine could also put letters on paper. By 1868, they had patented the typewriter. Sholes spent the next five years unsuccessfully trying to market the invention; in the meantime, he made several improvements, including the "QWERTY" key layout in front of you.
On March 1, 1873, Sholes sold the rights to his typewriter patent to the Remington Arms Company for $12,000. The gunmaker perfected the design and began to sell the enormously successful Remington typewriter.
Sholes continued to tinker with various inventions until his death in 1890.
Related links:
Click here and here to visit other sites that discuss Sholes.
Click here to read a newspaper article about Sholes.
Click here to see a picture of an 1875 Remington typewriter.
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