- 380 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
First Published in 1973, The Writing Machine presents a comprehensive history of the typewriter. Michael Adler not only investigated the history of the machine but also started collecting typewriters, because of the difficulty of discovering what these old machines looked like. Then he found there were other collectors all over the world who supplied him with such a wealth of data that he had eventually to limit the scope of his 'history'. There are hundreds and hundreds of makes and models of 'conventional' front-stroke, type bar machines with four-row keyboards, but they were virtually all the same. It is the unconventional ones that are interesting, and it is on these that the author concentrates.
The book is amusing as well as informative, and it ends with a complete catalogue of 'unconventional' typewriters manufactured up to the 1930s, when the 'conventional' machine had become universal. This book is a must read for anyone interested to learn about the writing machine.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Frontmatter
- Original Title Page
- Original Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Bibliography
- One On Writing Machines in General
- Two Typewriter Prehistory and Mechanical Monsters, 1714-1806
- Three Evolutionary Progress, 1808–50
- Four The Beginnings of Production, 1851-67
- Five On Claimants, Pretenders . . .
- Six . . . and National Heroes
- Seven Some Critical Evaluations
- Eight Pioneers and Others, from 1874 Onwards
- Nine Technical Classification of Early Machines
- Ten Some Further Technical Considerations
- Eleven Special Purpose Writing Machines
- Twelve Complete Catalogue of Unconventional Typewriters
- Appendices: A. Chronological List of all Inventions to 1867
- B. Scoreboard of Early Typewriter Inventions
- C. Transcription of Densmore Ledger Statement
- Abbreviations USED IN TEXT
- Index