Typewriter

a device for printing texts by making standard representations of symbols such as letters and numbers. In most typewriters, the printed character is produced when the paper is struck through an inked ribbon by a type-bar or spherical or cylindrical head covered with raised (convex) characters. The maximum typing speed, which is limited by human physical capabilities, ranges from seven to ten characters per second.

Typewriters are classified as office machines. There are several kinds of typewriters, categorized according to their purpose: travel, portable, office, composing, and special typewriters. Used primarily by journalists, travel typewriters are small and lightweight. Portable typewriters, which are larger than travel typewriters, are designed for general use. Office typewriters are used for high-volume, professional typing of texts and tables. Unlike office typewriters, composing typewriters have a typeface that resembles print, and they are equipped with variable spacing and with a mechanism that widens or compresses the spaces between letters. Composing typewriters are used to prepare texts for duplication by small-job printing equipment. Special typewriters include machines with several typefaces—single-keyboard machines with changeable typefaces (for example, the Russian, Latin, or Greek alphabet) and double-keyboard machines with basic and supplementary (interchangeable) typefaces. Also among the special typewriters are flat-bed machines for printing characters on drawings or texts in already bound documents. In addition, there are typewriters for printing special symbols—for example, stylized typefaces for computers, musical symbols, and the raised or embossed characters of the Braille alphabet for the blind. Stenographic machines are also classified as special typewriters.

The principal components of the typewriter are the printing mechanism and the keyboard. Depending on how they are powered, typewriters are classified as manual (mechanical) or electric. The printing mechanism is operated by means of a keyboard equipped with keys for letters, numbers, punctuation marks, mathematical symbols (+, %, =), and auxiliary characters (brackets, fractions, and hyphen, for example), as well as keys that control the register (the shift key), the tabulator, and the shifting of the carriage (left and right). The most frequently used keys are usually placed in the center of the keyboard. The number of keys and the kind of characters depend on the purpose of the machine. Thus, a typewriter for Braille includes six to ten characters; a Russian- or Latin-alphabet typewriter, 42–46 characters; and a Japanese or Chinese typewriter, several thousand ideographs.

The typewriter has a carriage with a roller (platen) to set and secure the paper, a spacing mechanism to shift the carriage or printing head the width of a single character, a mechanism for shifting from lowercase to uppercase (and vice versa), and a mechanism for moving the ribbon. The tabulator, which makes it possible to move the carriage automatically to certain points relative to the printing mechanism, is useful in typing tables.

As early as the 16th century, there were attempts to mechanize writing. The first patent for a writing machine was issued to the English inventor H. Mill in 1714, but the first writing machine was built in 1867 by C. L. Sholes, S. W. Soule, and C. Glidden (USA). On the basis of this machine, the Remington Company (USA) began the batch production of typewriters in 1873. In 1903 the Underwood Company (USA) developed a typewriter that was highly convenient for production and use— the prototype of the modern typewriter. The first Soviet typewriters, the Ianalif’s, went into batch production in 1928. During the 1960’s and 1970’s several hundred models of manual and electric typewriters of various brands were in production all over the world: in the USSR, the Moskva, Ukraina, Bashkiriia, Gorizont, and MPK-1; in the German Democratic Republic, the Optima, Optima-electrik, and Erika; in Czechoslovakia, the Konsul; in Bulgaria, the Maritsa; in the USA, Remington, Underwood, IBM, and Smith-Corona; in Italy, Olivetti; in Switzerland, Facit; and in the Federal Republic of Germany, Olympia, Adler, and Triumph. Automatic typewriters were developed in the 1950’s.

Improvements in typewriters, which were stimulated primarily by a desire to increase the labor productivity of typists and improve the quality of typing, took a new direction with the development of computer technology. Many electronic computers are equipped with data input and output devices based on typewriters. World production of typewriters is growing steadily, with a trend toward the manufacture of an increasing proportion of electric typewriters.