International Typewriter Day

I recently learned that there is an International Typewriter Day. No joke! It is celebrated (by a select few people around the world) on June 23 of each year, commemorating the anniversary of the granting of the first "practical" typewriter patent to Christopher Latham Sholes in 1868. That makes this patent (and the typewriter) 144 years old. Further, the problems with key jams encountered with this first patented typewriter led Sholes to design the QWERTY keyboard. A good piece of trivia for you.


Page from a later typewriter patent granted to Sholes, available online courtesy of Google.

"A machine by which it is assumed that a man may print his thoughts twice as fast as he can write them..." (from Scientific American, July 1867)

Do any of you reading this out there have a typewriter of your own? I love my fifties-era Remington Rand. What make do you have? They are all so beautiful in their own ways, every incarnation of C. L. Sholes' "Type Writing Machine." If you are lucky enough to own a typewriter, why not buy a fun (and quite useful) typewriter cozy from Thread Lock Press to celebrate this year? Accessorize your typewriter! I can also make custom-sized cozies for any typewriter. Just send me a message at threadlockpress@gmail.com and I'll get to work on it for you!

Comments

  1. Sofia O.June 19, 2012 at 9:12 AM

    Whoa! I'm excited. My grandmother passed along her typewriter from college a while back. A typewriter cozy is definitely a good idea. How are you going to celebrate?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lindsay L.June 19, 2012 at 1:13 PM

    Good question! I'm thinking I'll do a bit of typing... Haven't really planned out anything special though. Any fun ideas?

    (We could type together!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. L CaseyJuly 1, 2012 at 6:30 PM

    A belated happy Typewriter Day to you. Those cozies are very cute, especially with the buttons on them. I don't want to favor any one of my typers over another, but I will definitely keep these in mind when I need one for the machine I keep on my desk. Really neat, and awesome that they are handmade. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lindsay L.July 1, 2012 at 10:11 PM

    Ken: Thank you so much! I began making these cozies because I wanted a fun one for my own Remington (named Hildegard) and I couldn't find anything out there other than the usual plastic ones, which are not very aesthetically pleasing. Again, thanks for the positive feedback. Hope you had a great Typewriter Day!

    ReplyDelete

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