On Sunday, 3 February 2013
Christopher Latham Sholes was born on
February 14, 1819, in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania, but as a teenager he moved to
Danville, Pennsylvania. It was here that Sholes learned the printer’s trade by
working as an apprentice to a printer. At age 18, Sholes relocated to Green
Bay, Wisconsin, to join his two brothers, Henry and Charles. Sholes was the
editor of the Wisconsin Enquirer for a short while before he relocated
to Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1845. He became the editor and publisher of the Southport Telegraph, which
he published for 17 years. He also dabbled in politics, serving in the
Wisconsin Senate from 1848 to 1849 and 1856 to 1857 and in the Wisconsin State
Assembly from 1852 to 1853. Sholes served as postmaster in Milwaukee during the
Civil War and later served as port collector and as commissioner of public
works.
Sholes is known for being an active
inventor and developed several devices during his newspaper career. His lesser
known inventions include a paging/numbering device he created in 1864 and a newspaper
addressing machine. These devices helped Sholes develop the first practical
typewriter in 1867. Sholes worked closely with Carlos Glidden and Samuel W.
Soules to create the typewriter. The three men were granted a patent for this
device on June 23, 1868. Sholes is credited with inventing the typewriter
keyboard layout, which is known as QWERTY because of the first six keys
ordering in the third row. The ordering was created to separate the most common
two letter combinations used in English so that typists encountered less
typewriter jams. Since its invention, QWERTY has also become the most common
modern-day keyboard layout on English-language computers.
By 1872, the model had been perfected.
However, some letters needed to be capitalized, and there was no key for this.
Shortly after this time, Sholes sold the copyright to the Remington Arms
Company for $12,000, and the machine was first marketed as the “Sholes &
Glidden Type Writer” in 1873. Less than 5,000 machines were sold, but Sholes
continued to work on advancing the device. In 1878, Sholes created a shift key
so that both lower and upper case letters could be used. The advanced machine,
“Remington No. 2” became a huge success after another decade on the market.
Sholes spent his later years of retirement in Milwaukee and passed away on February 17, 1890. He is buried in the Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.
“Remington No. 2” became a huge success after another decade on the market.
Sholes spent his later years of retirement in Milwaukee and passed away on February 17, 1890. He is buried in the Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.
