The Typewriter
Christopher Latham Sholes
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Milwaukee newspaperman Christopher Latham Sholes spent the late 1860s tinkering with a writing machine, and in 1868 patented a typewriter with his partners Glidden and Soule. The machine jammed when typists went fast — so Sholes rearranged the keys to separate commonly paired letters, creating the QWERTY layout. In 1873 the gunmaker E. Remington & Sons agreed to manufacture it.
The Remington No. 1, sold from 1874 as the Sholes & Glidden Type-Writer, ended handwriting's monopoly on business. Employers hired typists — overwhelmingly women — and the clatter of keys became the sound of the modern office. Mark Twain submitted the first typewritten book manuscript, Life on the Mississippi, in 1883, and boasted about the machine.
Electric typewriters, word processors, and laptops all kept Sholes's keyboard. QWERTY survived every challenger layout for a century and a half, because millions of fingers had already learned it.
Frequently asked
Why is the keyboard arranged QWERTY?
Sholes arranged the keys to separate commonly paired letters so the type bars would not jam when typists typed fast — and the layout stuck because millions of fingers learned it.
Who invented the typewriter?
Milwaukee newspaperman Christopher Latham Sholes, who patented his machine in 1868; the gunmaker Remington manufactured it from 1873.
How did the typewriter change women's work?
It created the typist — a vast new respectable office profession for women — and the clatter of keys became the sound of the modern office.
Why it matters today
You are reading this on Sholes's keyboard — QWERTY has survived 150 years of challengers, from type bars to touchscreens, because the Victorian office taught the world's fingers where the letters live.
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