We had two typewriters that I remember using growing up—a petite little black one that felt as though it were made of cast iron and a large, rather clunky beige model. My sister and I spent hours having fun on them and teaching ourselves to type from my mom’s old high school typing books. It’s hard for me to imagine what the world would have been like if the typewriter had not been invented. How many books would never have been written?
On June 23, 1868, a printer and former editor named Christopher Latham Sholes was granted a patent for a typewriter. He had become fascinated by the idea of inventing a typewriter years earlier. Following his invention of a page-numbering machine, another inventor suggested Christopher could reinvent it as a letter-printing machine. He did so and sold the patent a few years later to the Remington Arms Company. He spent the next several decades developing his ideas and making improvements to his invention.
We’re going to celebrate the terrific typewriter today with a letter-decoding worksheet.
Timeline Worksheet: June 23, 1868, Typewriter Decoding
Fits American history and Inventions timelines.*
*If you are new to this series, visit my introduction to timelines.
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