Christopher Sholes is known as the father of the typewriter. He was born on a farm in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania, on February 14, 1989. As a young man, Sholes served a four-year printing apprenticeship before moving with his parents to Wisconsin. He went to work as a printer, then became editor of his brother's newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Enquirer. After marrying in 1841, Sholes moved to Southport (now Kenosha), Wisconsin, and served as editor of the Southport Telegraph for the next four years. He became a local postmaster and in the 1850s served in the state legislature. In 1860 he moved to Milwaukee, Wiscinsin, and returned to newspaper editing, which he quit once again when President Lincoln (1809-1865) appointed him collector of the port of Milwaukee. Sholes found enough spare time to pursue his interest in inventing.

Having already designed a way to address newspapers mechanically for mailing, he began to...