Miss Industry = Sholes & Glidden
The American Latham Sholes is not the inventor of the first
typewriter. He is the one who puts all the right elements together in one
machine. And has the (mis)fortune to be pushed to the limits of his ability by
Densmore, a financier who believes more in Sholes' typewriter than he does
himself. Together, they make the blueprint of the typewriter that will change
office life forever and establish a powerful branch of industry: the typewriter
industry.
1867, Milwaukee, US
In
Kleinstube's machine workshop German craftsmen who are immigrants, give their
best as metal and bronze casters, engravers, stencil makers, sewing machine
repairers and so forth. It is also a meeting place for amateur inventors. In the
summer of 1867, three friends put their heads together: Carlos Glidden (lawyer),
Soule (civil engineer) and Latham Sholes (publisher and politician).
The latter is busy working on a machine with which to number pages when Glidden
pushes an article from 'Scientific American' under his nose. This carries the
story of the Pterotype,
typewriter prototype. Sholes' eyes light up.
WWW
Sholes must have
been a visionary as the first letters he types are: WWW. He strikes these
letters on a converted telegraph key at the bottom of a sheet of paper with the
aid of a borrowed piece of carbon paper. However, the 'proof of concept' is
given. After which they saw a round hole in the kitchen table to see if it also
succeeds with more letters. It does!
Financier? Densmore!
But what now? You need a fully working model for a patent application. Sholes
and Glidden have already run up debts for the hours that Kleistube's workers
have put in. Sholes starts hastily searching for investors and also sends a -
typed - letter to a man he met twenty years earlier: James Densmore. He
describes his invention in the letter and ends with Shakespeare: There is a
tide in the affairs of men - Which, taken at the flood, leads on to Fortune.
A
word is enough to the wise. Densmore jumps at the proposal, even without having
seen the machine.
He pays the six hundred dollar debt and also all the money that will be
needed for the machine to grow to full stature, in exchange for a quarter of the
proceeds.
How could Sholes know that Densmore has just decided to put his whole fortune
on the line?
Laurel en Hardy
When Densmore sees the 'machine' for the first time, he cannot believe his
eyes. He discovers one mistake after the other in Sholes' 'finished' model. And
that goes on for another five years! They are just like Laurel and Hardy: the
melancholy, careful Sholes with his fine, gray beard who all too often wants to
give up. And the blustering Densmore with a fiery red beard who always gets what
he wants and chases after Sholes to finally deliver a machine that works. That
is, however, not possible in Kleinstube's workplace: "It's as if they're trying
to make a watch in a smithy".

Densmore rents an old mill, but he does not succeed in making a standardized
machine without the help of machines and specialized workers. A few commercial
attempts fizzle out. Densmore is desperate as he has already thrown 31.000
dollars into a bottomless pit. Yet he staunchly goes on believing in success!
Much more than Sholes, whose daughter Lillian is using the huge typewriter in
this engraving.
Promotor? Yost!
In 1872
Densmore receives a visit from George Washington Newton Yost. A well-spoken man
with an aristocratic appearance, but very astute - he could sell an icebox to an
Eskimo. At the beginning of 1873 he gets the Remington family enthusiastic for
the production of Sholes and Densmore's 'Type-Writer'. Remington is a major
armorer searching for diversification of his production line after the American
Civil War. They already make sewing machines, so why not typewriters? They
already have excellent engineers, Clough and Jenne, who free the machines from
top to bottom of any imperfections.
Manufacturer?
Remington!
The first machine rolls off the conveyor belt in April 1874 at Remington, and
has 'The Sholes & Glidden Type Writer, Manufactured by R. Remington & Sons,
Ilion, N.Y.' printed on it.
That is undeserved as Glidden only played a minor role in its development.
The machine should really have been named: Sholes & Densmore'. Or to be
completely truthful: 'Densmore & Sholes'.
Success fails to come
After years of painstaking work ... disillusionment. The typewriter leaves
the potential buyers completely cold. The machine breaks down too often and is
terribly expensive (125 dollars - in the days that an office clerk earns 6
dollars a week). But there is more: a typed letter is seen as impolite, a
polished hand-written letter as courteous.
By the way, the Sholes & Glidden only writes horrible CAPITALS. The
'Centennial Exposition' of 1876 in Philadelphia is an absolute all-time low for
the morale. Graham Bell's telephone makes its appearance and does a roaring
trade while the Remington 1 is hardly noticed.
Sellers? Wyckoff, Seamans and Benedict
In 1878, the Remington 2 at last gets the wind
in its sails. A shift mechanism now provides upper and lower case letters and
the teething troubles are at last a thing of the past. The golden days start
when the driven threesome Wyckoff, Seamans and Benedict become the exclusive
distributors. Three years later they buy up the whole Remington production line,
including the family name.

Competitors
And what happened to that slippery businessman Yost? Oh, he launches the very
first competitor, the Caligraph, onto the market in
1880, later followed by the ... Yost. Just like the
brothers Densmore who also make their own machine!
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