All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

CHAPTER VIII The Romance of the Typewriter How many people would consider it possible for one of the greatest inventions of the latter part of the nineteenth century—one which has wrought a com- plete change in our complex social and commercial life—to have been brought about by a chance re- mark during conversation ? Yet this was actually the case with the typewriter such as we know to-day, which now forms an indispensable friend to the office, counting-house, and library. The typewriter has wrought a big change in our social conditions, because it heralded a new and vast field of promise for women, providing them with the means of entering the business world to profit- able advantage. Moreover, it contributed in no un- certain manner to the rapid and remarkable expansion of commerce, which has formed such a conspicuous feature of the past few decades of the world’s history. It was the winter of 1866. The Great Lakes of North America were tightly gripped by King Frost, and the maritime traffic of the port of Milwaukee had settled down to its six months’ hibernation. Naturally, under these conditions, the official duties of the Collector of Customs for the port were not exacting. As a matter of fact, the post was some- what of a sinecure during the winter months in those 172