Overview

Prior to the nineteenth century, almost all letters, business records, and other documents were written by hand. The only practical alternative was to have them printed on a printing press—an expensive process if only a few copies were needed. Thus, almost all documents, whether business, legal, or personal, were handwritten. During the 1860s, three American inventors, Christopher Latham Sholes (1819-1890), Samuel W. Soulé, and Carlos Glidden, developed an automatic writing machine called the typewriter. Within two decades, a modified version of this machine would soar in popularity and revolutionize business practices around the world.

Background

Various kinds of automatic writing machines were invented in the early nineteenth century. Many were large and difficult to use, and most printed words much more slowly than a person could write by hand. It...