Editing Typographer (typewriter)

{{short description|America's first typewriter}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2018}}

The '''typographer''' was an early [[typewriter]] invented by [[William Austin Burt]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wyckoff |first1=W. O. |last2=Jones |first2=R. McKean |chapter=Typewriters |title= Universal Cyclopaedia, Vol. 12| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_y_mAAAAMAAJ |date= 1900|publisher= D. Appleton |oclc=861656957 |page=7}}</ref> Intended to aid in office work, the machine worked by using a lever to press characters onto paper one at a time.<ref name="Cyclopaedia">{{cite book |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |chapter=Burt, William Austin |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vPEpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA375 |year=1922 |volume=18 |publisher=[[James Terry White|J. T. White]] |oclc=164589128 |pages=367–368}}</ref><ref name=Sheboygan/> It was the first typewriting machine to be patented in the United States, although [[Pellegrino Turri]] had made one in Italy in 1808.<ref>{{cite book |last=Revett |first=Kenneth |date=September 15, 2008 |title=Behavioral Biometrics: A Remote Access Approach |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WCuSUufRewoC&q=pellegrino+turri+typewriter&pg=PA222 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |page=222 |isbn=978-0470997932 |access-date=June 28, 2014 }}</ref> Perhaps because of its slow speed, or because there was not yet a wide market for typewriters, it was not a commercial success.<ref name="Cyclopaedia"/><ref name=Sheboygan>{{cite news |first=Gary |last=Peters|title= World's First Writing Machine |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54846887/the-sheboygan-press/ |work= The Sheboygan Press| page= 47|location=Sheboygan, Wisconsin|date= October 24, 1979 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] {{open access}} }}</ref>

The working model that Burt constructed for his 1829 patent was destroyed in the [[1836 U.S. Patent Office fire|1836 Patent Office fire]].<ref name="Cyclopaedia"/><ref name=FirstLetter>{{cite news |title= First Letter Ever Written on a Typewriter Finds its Way Here |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55580943/  |work= The Gazette|page= 5 |location= Cedar Rapids, Iowa|date=July 10, 1922 |via =[[Newspapers.com]] {{open access}} }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|last=Adler|first=Michael H.|title=The Writing Machine, A History of the Typewriter|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=uQB5QgAACAAJ|year=1973|publisher= George Allen & Unwin Ltd|isbn=0-04-652004-X}}  
*{{cite book|last=Linnoff|first=Victor M.|title=The Typewriter, an illustrated history |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=sT2_wAEACAAJ |year=2000|publisher=Dover Publications|isbn=0-486-41237-7}} 

[[Category:American inventions]]
[[Category:Typewriters]]