Sholes & Glidden
The first typewriter sold in large numbers – and the QWERTY keyboard we still use.
Christopher Latham Sholes and his collaborators developed the typewriter in Milwaukee, and Remington began selling it in 1874. The machine typed upwards against the underside of the platen, so the typist could not see the text as it was written.
The keyboard was arranged so that common letter pairs were not next to each other and the typebars did not jam. The QWERTY layout has survived into today’s computers and phones.
Materials: Iron, steel, wood; painted decoration
Manufacture: Made by the arms and sewing-machine company E. Remington & Sons in Ilion, New York.
Capitals only – the machine could not type lower case.
The keys in QWERTY order.
Painted flowers on the sides, as on sewing machines of the time.