Discussion Post: A Case of Identity
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sherlock60This week, the canon story we’re looking at is A Case of Identity and the chosen topic is Typists and Typewriters.
A few facts:
© ...the first manufactured typing devices came about in the 1870s. These machines featured “blind typing” technology, where characters were printed on upside-down pages that remained unseen until completion. [Das Keyboard blog] Typewriters… didn’t deal with this problem until about 1895, but the old designs still continued to be produced as late as 1915. [Victorian Inventions Workshop]
© The first modern typewriter was designed by Christopher Sholes in 1868. He was a printer by trade, and familiar with the tedious, time-consuming process of typesetting. With help from two friends, Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soulé, he built his machine, which mimicked the appearance of typeset pages by impressing one inked character at a time onto paper. [NNDB] ...its ‘qwerty’ keyboard became the standard for typewriters... [Victorian Inventions Workshop]
© ...their type-writer… changed the world of typing as we know it. It is this “Type-Writer” that gave us the word typewriter, and is the model that is referred to as “The First Typewriter.” ...Sholes and Glidden were too frustrated by slow sales so they sold their patent to Densmore and Yost for $12,000. Machinist and clock-maker Matthais Schwalbach made the Sholes and Glidden typewriter in Milwaukee, and had Remington manufacture and sell it. [Das Keyboard blog]
© The first version rather resembled a sewing machine but soon after… the foot pedal was removed with carriage returns being controlled on the typewriter itself. ...a slightly smaller, desk-top version of the typewriter came to be (though still extremely heavy and full of metal), losing the sewing machine look and defining its own look as a typewriter. By 1910 all typewriters were more or less standardized… [Das Keyboard blog]
© Sholes is usually credited as the inventor of the typewriter, but certainly, his machine was not the first device that could mechanically put letters and words onto paper. Dozens of contraptions had accomplished this in different ways before Sholes began working on the problem. [NNDB]
© ...the Hansen Writing Ball- a semi-spherical typewriter invented in 1865 by the Danish Rasmus Malling-Hansen… was actually the first one to be commercially sold, in 1870, although it was soon replaced by more conventional designs. [Victorian Inventions Workshop] Though it is documented that Hansen Writing Balls could be found in operation up until 1909 in many offices and businesses in England and Europe. [Das Keyboard blog]
© According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, ‘typist’ was first used to mean ‘person who operates a typewriter’ in 1884. Before that ‘typewriter’ was used for both machine and operator.
© Women of the 1880s… slowly, but surely, began to infiltrate the workforce as shop-girls, teachers, librarians, journalists, nurses, etc… One profession which reigned king (or queen) above all was the type-writer girl, or typist. As one of the better paying and most “genteel” of positions, it was highly coveted by professional women. A woman possessing skills in typing, dictation, and shorthand could work as a private secretary, an author’s amanuensis, a copying clerk to a solicitor, or for the Government. [Camille Hadley Jones]
© To equip women with the necessary skills, business schools and classes were founded… In London, the Metropolitan School for Shorthand, in Chancery Lane, charged five guineas for a complete course of instruction until a rate of about 120 words a minute was reached by the student (a half-a-guinea could be paid weekly, with the fee reduced to 5s. if evening classes were attended). A prospective typist could also learn to use the typewriter at the chief or branch offices of the leading typewriter makers, and frequently these classes were free with purchase. [Camille Hadley Jones]
© Typewriting offered more than just employment opportunities for women in the 1880s and 1890s; it offered entrepreneurial options as well. Typewriting offices and training schools, owned and operated by enterprising middle-class women, opened up in cities and municipalities all over England in the 1880s and 1890s. [Arlene Young]
© The pay for a typist or secretary varied based on experience and position. A shorthand and typewriting clerk could have been paid anything from a beginner’s 15s. to £2 or £3 a week, whilst a secretary was paid from the assistant’s £50 to £250 a year. Oddly enough, though positions as copying for a solicitor or typing manuscripts were difficult to obtain, the pay was quite poor–about £5 for a novel of 100,000 words. [Camille Hadley Jones]
© The most dependable and lucrative positions were found working for the Civil Service… To become a typist in a Government department, a woman was required to be between the ages of 18 and 30, be unmarried or widowed, “duly qualified in respect of health and character,” a natural born or naturalized British subject, and at least five feet in height without boots or shoes. [Camille Hadley Jones]
© Early media discussions of typewriting as a new area of employment for women stressed the need for high levels of general knowledge, impeccable skills in writing and grammar, and fluency in at least one foreign language (usually German and/or French)... However, as the demand for typewriters grew in both government and industry, more and more women acquired basic typing skills and flooded the labor market. Employers… were eager to take advantage of the opportunity to hire semi-skilled workers at a lower wage, and typewriting lost much of its drawing power as a potentially satisfying and remunerative career. [Arlene Young]
© Typewriting nevertheless retained its appeal for many young women of the period. ...typewriting acquired an aura of youth and glamour, and the lady typewriter evolved into the typewriter-girl, the quintessential late-Victorian young working woman who represented modernity and female independence. The typewriter-girl was celebrated in stories, verse, and song, usually as the love interest. She also featured in jokes and in music hall sketches where the double meaning of “typewriter” was exploited… This general cultural perception of the late-Victorian typewriter-girl was positive... but the real experience of young women working in late-Victorian offices was often bleak, with young women struggling with low wages and poor working and living conditions. [Arlene Young]
© For nearly a century, it was believed that the very first known example of typewriter art appeared in 1898… It was a mechanical “drawing” of a butterfly by Flora F.F. Stacey — an English stenographer and... artist… Stacey, in fact, had been experimenting with “art-typing” for several years before her butterfly drawing catapulted her into international fame, as were other artists. The first edition of Pitman’s Typewriter Manual, published in 1893, included several examples of typed ornaments that a typewriter operator could use to embellish his or her work. [Maria Popova]
© [Mark] Twain purchased his first typewriter—most likely a Sholes & Glidden treadle model—in 1874, then upgraded to a Remington No. 2 typewriter, which was introduced in 1878. He claimed in his 1904 autobiography to have written the manuscript for ‘Tom Sawyer’ on a typewriter, the first ever manuscript to be typed. But most historians think that his book ‘Life on the Mississippi’, published in 1882, was actually the first manuscript submitted to a publisher in typed form. It is generally believed that Twain gave up typing years earlier and had his books typed by an assistant. [Miss Cellania]
Some useful resources:
The Type-Writer Girl By Camille Hadley Jones, on Edwardian Promenade.
The Rise of the Victorian Working Lady: The New-Style Nurse and the Typewriter, 1840-1900. By Arlene Young, on BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History.
typist (n.) On the Online Etymology Dictionary.
Typing Through Time: Keyboard History On the Das Keyboard blog.
Invention Fact File: Typewriter On Victorian Inventions Workshop.
Christopher Sholes Inventor of the first modern typewriter, on NNDB - the Notable Names Database.
A Visual History of Typewriter Art from 1893 to Today By Maria Popova, on Brain Pickings.
Victorian Typewriters Victorian Advertising by Jennifer Carnell, on the Sensation Press. That is, copies of actual adverts that appeared in the Victorian press.
Victorian Companies & Agencies Providing Typists & Typewritten Work ‘International Type Writing Offices, established in 1885. An advert from a book published by Raithby, Lawrence & Co. in 1895…’ Victorian Advertising by Jennifer Carnell, on the Sensation Press.
19 Authors and Their Typewriters On Mental Floss. Mark Twain is one of the authors mentioned.
Social history; women and typewriters On the Seven Day Fool blog.
Typewriters By John H. Lienhard, on Engines of Our Ingenuity.
Science and Technology Timeline By Glenn Everett and George P. Landow, on The Victorian Web.
Stenographic Writing By Tine Hreno, on Writers in London in the 1890s. Brief look at portable typewriters in the Victorian period.
Hall Typewriter On Bookorithms, on Tumblr. Cover of trade catalogue/promotional booklet for the Hall typewriter. The Hall typewriter was radically different from most of the late Victorian era, in that it had neither keys nor keyboard, and was meant to be operated with one hand. It printed directly from type, without ribbon.
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
A few facts:
© ...the first manufactured typing devices came about in the 1870s. These machines featured “blind typing” technology, where characters were printed on upside-down pages that remained unseen until completion. [Das Keyboard blog] Typewriters… didn’t deal with this problem until about 1895, but the old designs still continued to be produced as late as 1915. [Victorian Inventions Workshop]
© The first modern typewriter was designed by Christopher Sholes in 1868. He was a printer by trade, and familiar with the tedious, time-consuming process of typesetting. With help from two friends, Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soulé, he built his machine, which mimicked the appearance of typeset pages by impressing one inked character at a time onto paper. [NNDB] ...its ‘qwerty’ keyboard became the standard for typewriters... [Victorian Inventions Workshop]
© ...their type-writer… changed the world of typing as we know it. It is this “Type-Writer” that gave us the word typewriter, and is the model that is referred to as “The First Typewriter.” ...Sholes and Glidden were too frustrated by slow sales so they sold their patent to Densmore and Yost for $12,000. Machinist and clock-maker Matthais Schwalbach made the Sholes and Glidden typewriter in Milwaukee, and had Remington manufacture and sell it. [Das Keyboard blog]
© The first version rather resembled a sewing machine but soon after… the foot pedal was removed with carriage returns being controlled on the typewriter itself. ...a slightly smaller, desk-top version of the typewriter came to be (though still extremely heavy and full of metal), losing the sewing machine look and defining its own look as a typewriter. By 1910 all typewriters were more or less standardized… [Das Keyboard blog]
© Sholes is usually credited as the inventor of the typewriter, but certainly, his machine was not the first device that could mechanically put letters and words onto paper. Dozens of contraptions had accomplished this in different ways before Sholes began working on the problem. [NNDB]
© ...the Hansen Writing Ball- a semi-spherical typewriter invented in 1865 by the Danish Rasmus Malling-Hansen… was actually the first one to be commercially sold, in 1870, although it was soon replaced by more conventional designs. [Victorian Inventions Workshop] Though it is documented that Hansen Writing Balls could be found in operation up until 1909 in many offices and businesses in England and Europe. [Das Keyboard blog]
© According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, ‘typist’ was first used to mean ‘person who operates a typewriter’ in 1884. Before that ‘typewriter’ was used for both machine and operator.
© Women of the 1880s… slowly, but surely, began to infiltrate the workforce as shop-girls, teachers, librarians, journalists, nurses, etc… One profession which reigned king (or queen) above all was the type-writer girl, or typist. As one of the better paying and most “genteel” of positions, it was highly coveted by professional women. A woman possessing skills in typing, dictation, and shorthand could work as a private secretary, an author’s amanuensis, a copying clerk to a solicitor, or for the Government. [Camille Hadley Jones]
© To equip women with the necessary skills, business schools and classes were founded… In London, the Metropolitan School for Shorthand, in Chancery Lane, charged five guineas for a complete course of instruction until a rate of about 120 words a minute was reached by the student (a half-a-guinea could be paid weekly, with the fee reduced to 5s. if evening classes were attended). A prospective typist could also learn to use the typewriter at the chief or branch offices of the leading typewriter makers, and frequently these classes were free with purchase. [Camille Hadley Jones]
© Typewriting offered more than just employment opportunities for women in the 1880s and 1890s; it offered entrepreneurial options as well. Typewriting offices and training schools, owned and operated by enterprising middle-class women, opened up in cities and municipalities all over England in the 1880s and 1890s. [Arlene Young]
© The pay for a typist or secretary varied based on experience and position. A shorthand and typewriting clerk could have been paid anything from a beginner’s 15s. to £2 or £3 a week, whilst a secretary was paid from the assistant’s £50 to £250 a year. Oddly enough, though positions as copying for a solicitor or typing manuscripts were difficult to obtain, the pay was quite poor–about £5 for a novel of 100,000 words. [Camille Hadley Jones]
© The most dependable and lucrative positions were found working for the Civil Service… To become a typist in a Government department, a woman was required to be between the ages of 18 and 30, be unmarried or widowed, “duly qualified in respect of health and character,” a natural born or naturalized British subject, and at least five feet in height without boots or shoes. [Camille Hadley Jones]
© Early media discussions of typewriting as a new area of employment for women stressed the need for high levels of general knowledge, impeccable skills in writing and grammar, and fluency in at least one foreign language (usually German and/or French)... However, as the demand for typewriters grew in both government and industry, more and more women acquired basic typing skills and flooded the labor market. Employers… were eager to take advantage of the opportunity to hire semi-skilled workers at a lower wage, and typewriting lost much of its drawing power as a potentially satisfying and remunerative career. [Arlene Young]
© Typewriting nevertheless retained its appeal for many young women of the period. ...typewriting acquired an aura of youth and glamour, and the lady typewriter evolved into the typewriter-girl, the quintessential late-Victorian young working woman who represented modernity and female independence. The typewriter-girl was celebrated in stories, verse, and song, usually as the love interest. She also featured in jokes and in music hall sketches where the double meaning of “typewriter” was exploited… This general cultural perception of the late-Victorian typewriter-girl was positive... but the real experience of young women working in late-Victorian offices was often bleak, with young women struggling with low wages and poor working and living conditions. [Arlene Young]
© For nearly a century, it was believed that the very first known example of typewriter art appeared in 1898… It was a mechanical “drawing” of a butterfly by Flora F.F. Stacey — an English stenographer and... artist… Stacey, in fact, had been experimenting with “art-typing” for several years before her butterfly drawing catapulted her into international fame, as were other artists. The first edition of Pitman’s Typewriter Manual, published in 1893, included several examples of typed ornaments that a typewriter operator could use to embellish his or her work. [Maria Popova]
© [Mark] Twain purchased his first typewriter—most likely a Sholes & Glidden treadle model—in 1874, then upgraded to a Remington No. 2 typewriter, which was introduced in 1878. He claimed in his 1904 autobiography to have written the manuscript for ‘Tom Sawyer’ on a typewriter, the first ever manuscript to be typed. But most historians think that his book ‘Life on the Mississippi’, published in 1882, was actually the first manuscript submitted to a publisher in typed form. It is generally believed that Twain gave up typing years earlier and had his books typed by an assistant. [Miss Cellania]
Some useful resources:
The Type-Writer Girl By Camille Hadley Jones, on Edwardian Promenade.
The Rise of the Victorian Working Lady: The New-Style Nurse and the Typewriter, 1840-1900. By Arlene Young, on BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History.
typist (n.) On the Online Etymology Dictionary.
Typing Through Time: Keyboard History On the Das Keyboard blog.
Invention Fact File: Typewriter On Victorian Inventions Workshop.
Christopher Sholes Inventor of the first modern typewriter, on NNDB - the Notable Names Database.
A Visual History of Typewriter Art from 1893 to Today By Maria Popova, on Brain Pickings.
Victorian Typewriters Victorian Advertising by Jennifer Carnell, on the Sensation Press. That is, copies of actual adverts that appeared in the Victorian press.
Victorian Companies & Agencies Providing Typists & Typewritten Work ‘International Type Writing Offices, established in 1885. An advert from a book published by Raithby, Lawrence & Co. in 1895…’ Victorian Advertising by Jennifer Carnell, on the Sensation Press.
19 Authors and Their Typewriters On Mental Floss. Mark Twain is one of the authors mentioned.
Social history; women and typewriters On the Seven Day Fool blog.
Typewriters By John H. Lienhard, on Engines of Our Ingenuity.
Science and Technology Timeline By Glenn Everett and George P. Landow, on The Victorian Web.
Stenographic Writing By Tine Hreno, on Writers in London in the 1890s. Brief look at portable typewriters in the Victorian period.
Hall Typewriter On Bookorithms, on Tumblr. Cover of trade catalogue/promotional booklet for the Hall typewriter. The Hall typewriter was radically different from most of the late Victorian era, in that it had neither keys nor keyboard, and was meant to be operated with one hand. It printed directly from type, without ribbon.
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
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Date: 2016-11-20 01:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-20 04:30 pm (UTC)And I do like your thoughts on why the crop was handy ^__^
no subject
Date: 2016-11-20 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-21 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-21 01:38 am (UTC)Last year I had the occasion to read Woman's Place Is at the Typewriter: Office Work and Office Workers 1870-1930 (Margery W. Davies, 1982), which is an attempt to tease out the hows and why of the huge sea-change from office staff being male clerks to female secretaries/stenographers/typists. It's US-centric, so I'm not sure how generizable its info is to the comm's interests, but it amply quoted primary sources and was full of fascinating things. (Like the fact that early on, people often objected to the 'rudeness' of a typewritten reply!)
But since you mention Twain, here's Twain talking about his typewriter years after the fact (as quoted by Davies):
...and also the testimonial he wrote for the Remington catalog, a few months after he bought it:
Oh, and there's also the note that Twain's machine only had upper-case letters. The transcripts of things he wrote on the machine itself have a bit of an allcaps shoutiness to them. :-D
no subject
Date: 2016-11-22 12:44 am (UTC)And Twain and his typewriter did make me grin ^___^