DEVELOPMENT OF THE TYPEWRITER 367 



of practical usefulness, crude though it was when compared 

 with the finished typewriters of the present day. James 

 Densmore became interested in the Sholes patents; he made 

 a contract with E. Remington & Sons, gun manufacturers 

 at Ilion, N. Y., for the manufacture of typewriters on a large 

 scale, and the improved machine has ever since been called 

 the Remington. In 1873, George W. N. Yost, then connected 

 with the Remington factory, was actively engaged in the 

 manufacture of one of the early machines. 



The first person to make a practical business use of the 

 typewriter was Mr. S. N. D. North, of Boston, Mass. This 

 was in 1872, at Utica, N. Y. "I have often w^ished that I 

 had kept that original machine," wTote Mr. North in 1896, 

 ''for it would have illustrated better than any other mechan- 

 ism with which I am familiar the marvelous rapidity with 

 which American ingenuity advances to the point of perfection 

 any labor saving instrument, the underlying principle of 

 which has been successfully worked out. This machine was 

 heavy and cumbersome in comparison with the delicate 

 mechanism of to-day, but the principle of construction was 

 essentially the same, except that the carriage, instead of 

 being restored to position by the hand at the end of each line 

 as now, was brought back by means of a foot pedal, and it 

 came with a jar that made the machine tremble in every 

 part. My machine did neither elegant nor uniform work, 

 but after a week or two I was enabled to accomplish all my 

 editorial writing upon it, and I began to realize dimly what an 

 unspeakable boon to all weak-eyed persons lay here in embryo." 



It was not until 1874 that the typewriter was placed on 

 the market for general sale. Like many other inventions 

 which have grown to be considered indispensable, the t}'pe- 

 writer was first greeted by the public with scepticism. The 

 use of the machine involved such radical changes in certain 

 methods of business that its advantages had to be clearly 

 demonstrated before the business world would accept it. 

 The first machines wrote only with capital letters, and were 

 otherwise imperfect, but these imperfections were soon 

 remedied. Even then but few persons saw the advantages 

 of the tj^ewriter, and during its first few years in the market 



