MDTypewritters


 * No single person invented the typewriter. A number of people contributed insights and inventions that eventually resulted in successful instruments. In fact, historians have estimated that some form of typewriter was invented 52 times as tinkerers tried to come up with a workable design. In 1865, Rev. [|Rasmus Malling-Hansen] of Denmark invented the Hansen Writing Ball, which went into commercial production in 1870 and was the first typewriter to be sold publicly. It was a success in Europe and was reported as being used in offices in London as late as 1909. Malling-Hansen made a porcelain model of the keyboard of his writing ball and experimented with different placements of the letters to achieve the fastest writing speed. Malling-Hansen placed the letters on short pistons that went directly through the ball and down to the paper. This, together with the placement of the letters so that the fastest writing fingers struck the most frequently used letters, made the [|Hansen Writing Ball] the first typewriter to produce text substantially faster than a person could write by hand. **

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 * [[image:hansen_writting_ball.jpg width="253" height="316" align="center"]]


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