History of the Typewriter

— 9 — INTRODUCTION. IT has been estimated, although the material for such purpose is generally admitted to be more or less obscure, that between two and three hundred thou- sand persons in Great Britain are able to earn a sufficient living wage by means of the typewriter. To this number may be added those (even more difficult to accurately enumerate) who employ writing machines for private purposes, either as ministers of religion, authors, journalists, travellers, and so on. Then, to increase the total, there are the salesmen and others engaged in the dissemination of the machine, and the necessary office, warehouse and mechanical staffs engaged by the various companies. Furthermore, the literature which this vast army of type- writer people calls into demand, finds employment, more or less constant, to very many other persons, so that, taking it all round, it is fairly safe to assume that no less than five hundred thousand of the total population of Great Britain are more or less connected with, or earn a living by, the writing machine. Yet thirty years ago the typewriter was, to all intents and purposes, unknown in these realms. It was merely trying to get on its feet in what we may call—though as we shall see, with more courtesy than regard for the rigid truth—its own country. Now what a contrast is to be seen ! Day by day fresh converts are made, week by week the number of offices increases in which the merry though often nerve-distracting click of the typewriter may be heard. It is gradually overcoming all obstacles, and the end is still far away. Those who are best in a position to judge, have been heard to declare that even in America the typewriter is yet in its infancy. As commerce develops, and the tense nervous strain of city life increases, more machines than ever will be required to lighten the labours of those engaged in clerical work. And it is a strange sequence