page_title: Sholes and Glidden typewriter
section_title: Start of an industry
hierarchical_section_title: Sholes and Glidden typewriter / History / Start of an industry
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Schreibmaschine Sholes-Glidden 1874, New York; Exponat im Technischen Museum Wien
context_page_description: The Sholes and Glidden typewriter was the first commercially successful typewriter. Principally designed by the American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes, it was developed with the assistance of fellow printer Samuel W. Soule and amateur mechanic Carlos S. Glidden. Work began in 1867, but Soule left the enterprise shortly thereafter, replaced by James Densmore, who provided financial backing and the driving force behind the machine's continued development. After several short-lived attempts to manufacture the device, the machine was acquired by E. Remington and Sons in early 1873. An arms manufacturer seeking to diversify, Remington further refined the typewriter before finally placing it on the market on July 1, 1874.
  During its development, this typewriter evolved from a crude curiosity into a practical device, the basic form of which became the industry standard. The machine incorporated elements which became fundamental to typewriter design, including a cylindrical platen and a four-rowed QWERTY keyboard. Several design deficiencies remained, however.
context_section_description: Following a demonstration at Remington's offices in New York, the company contracted on March 1, 1873, to manufacture 1,000 machines, with the option to produce an additional 24,000. Although the agreement required Densmore to give Remington $10,000 and royalty rights, a marketing firm to be formed by Densmore and Yost was allowed to serve as the exclusive sales agent. Remington dedicated a wing of its factory to the typewriter, and spent several months retooling and re-engineering the device; production began in September and the machine entered the market on July 1, 1874. Typewriter production was largely overseen by Jefferson Clough and William K. Jenne, manager of Remington's sewing machine division. The redesigned machine was sturdier and more reliable than Sholes' model, but it had taken on some of the characteristics of a sewing machine, including a japanned case with floral ornamentation and a stand with a treadle to operate the carriage return. The typewriter, however, had been rushed into production with insufficient testing, and early models were soon returned for adjustments and repair.
  By December 1874, only 400 typewriters had been sold, due in part to their high price and poor reliability. As businesses were slow to adopt the machine, authors, clergymen, lawyers and newspaper editors were the targeted customers. Individuals, however, generally did not write enough to justify the machine's price of about $125, the average annual income per person at the time. There were exceptions, however; Mark Twain was among the first to purchase the machine, which he termed a "curiosity breeding little joker". Although the machine was exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, it was overshadowed by Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. Several design and manufacturing improvements followed—including replacing the treadle with a hand lever—and 4,000 machines had been sold by 1877. In 1878, Remington outsourced marketing to E. & T. Fairbanks & Company, a scale manufacturer, as marketing to that point had produced only lackluster sales.
  An improved model, the Remington No. 2, was also introduced in 1878. The new machine was able to type upper and lowercase characters, thus remedying a significant drawback of its predecessor. As the only typewriter manufacturer, Remington maintained a monopoly position until the American Writing Machine Company introduced a typewriter to compete with the Remington machines in 1881. In response to the new competition, Remington lowered the price of the Sholes and Glidden (referred to in sales literature as the Remington No. 1) to $80, and negotiated an agreement with the marketing firm Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict to take all the machines produced. The arrangement marked the beginning of the typewriter's commercial success, as the agency's marketing prowess led to the sale of 1,200 machines in its first year. By 1884, more competitors had appeared, including the Hammond Typewriter Company, the Crandall Type-Writer Company and the Hall Typewriter Company; in the decade since the introduction of the Sholes and Glidden, a "thriving typewriter industry" had developed.
caption: A redesign incorporated floral ornamentation, a characteristic from Remington's sewing machine division.
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