Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Please explain to Mr. Harrington that you can make a note form printer at short notice, and that (working print a type wheel) it must print faster & much better than can possibly be done by the levers or arms plan of Sholes. My idea is that it is a decided object for us to have the control of the Sholes machine, provided it costs little or nothing--but if not, not.--and of course, relying upon your inventive head to work us through when and as may be necessary. -- D. H. Craig to Edison, a letter dated January 31, 1871.

In September, 1870, Mr. Christopher Latham Sholes visited New York to meet Mr. Daniel Hutchins Craig and Mr. George Harrington. He demonstrated his Type-Writer, but it was severely criticized by one of Mr. Harrington's partners, Mr. Thomas Alva Edison. Thus Mr. Craig decided to have Mr. Sholes and Mr. Edison to compete for a "note form printer". As Mr. Edison could not complete his type-wheel "universal printer" by the end of September, 1871, Messrs. Craig and Harrington decided to adopt Mr. Sholes' Type-Writer (cf. Koichi Yasuoka and Motoko Yasuoka: "On the Prehistory of QWERTY", ZINBUN, No.42 (March 2011), pp.161-174).

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