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Thurber’s Patent.

Extract from: The Marvels of Modern Mechanism (1901)

    The first practical typewriter was invented by Charles Thurber of Worcester, Massachussetts, and patented in 1843. It was slow and crude but had all the essential characteristics of the modern machine. He was the first to place the paper on a roller and give it longitudinal motion with provision for accurate letter and word spacing. A horizontal wheel carried on its outer edge rods to the lower end of which were affixed type and to the upper end a finger key. The wheel was turned to bring the type into place and in turning inked the type by drawing the type-face over inked rollers. When the finger key was pressed it forced the type on the lower end of the rod against the paper on the cylinder or platen and printed. Thurber's machine was never manufactured and a museum in Worcester contains the only model in existence.

Extract from The Marvels of Modern Mechanism and Their Relation to Social Betterment, by Jerome Bruce Crabtree, publ. The King-Richardson Company (1901), page 612.
From copy Digitized by Google. (source)

See also:

Charles Thurber's First Printing Machine, U.S. Patent No. 3228, An Improvement in Machines For Printing.
Thurber's Chirographer, his second machine, described in article from Scientific American (1847).
Today in Science History, event description for date Patent No. 3228 was issued, 26 Aug 1843.
Today in Science History, birthdate entry for Charles Thurber on 2 Jan 1803.

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