Technology enthusiasts embrace the concept of obsolescence—the idea that new things will render older things useless. More often than not, though, these bold predictions of extinction prove premature.
Invented in 1867 by the American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes, the first practical typewriter hit the market in 1874. Mr. Sholes teamed up with the gunsmiths E. Remington and Sons to manufacture the machines. Under the Remington name, typewriters began to proliferate.
In 1895, a competing model called the Underwood was introduced and helped to define the classic typewriter aesthetic. In 1933, IBM purchased a company called Electromatic Typewriters and became the early leader in electric typewriters. Companies like Apple took the successor to the typewriter, the personal computer, in new and sometimes ugly directions. Apple's Lisa was the first PC to have a detachable keyboard. And today, wireless typing devices are small enough to rest in one's palm.
Radios, regular phones, and print publishing are still alive and well. And, just as the typewriter never eradicated the trusty pen, speech recognition software won't eliminate the keyboard.
Start
Founders' Note
Dateline
Dispatches about the interaction
of culture and technology.
Through a lens
People use cameras to answer
a question.
Backlash
Killthedot.com
Translator
Software interprets the classics
Send-up
Satire and ridicule.
Features
Silicon Valley
The Enigmatic Craig McCaw
Finish
Fiction
"Cyber-sized"
History of...
the typewriter.
The Watch
Reviews and commentary
Wind-up
Physicist Carver Mead explains why innovation requires courage and luck.
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