California Typewriter Page #5

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I would love to be able to have

one of these typewriters

in my own collection.

- Oh, I want one of those.

I want one of those, Al.

To be able to explore it.

- This has been in the

museum since probably

just after World War I.

- [Martin] And really have

a sense that my collection

has become complete

at that point,

even though I don't have

all the typewriters.

But that would really give

me a sense of completion.

(light piano music)

Many efforts had been

made since the 1700s,

by various inventors, to

create a typewriting machine.

But they all ended in failure

with very few being produced.

But Christopher Latham

Sholes's place in history

is marked by what he did in

Kleinsteuber's machine shop,

beginning at 1867 and

the six difficult years

that followed to create

the world's first

commercially

successful typewriter.

The initial efforts used

a piano type keyboard.

What you're really

kind of looking at here

is just a man's ideas in

how to get the mechanics

of the fingers making

type to the mechanics

of getting it on

a piece of paper.

The lower is the back

half of the alphabet

and the upper keys would've

been the front half

of the alphabet.

Sholes and his team made

around 50 to 60 prototypes

and at the end of

those six years,

he ended up with a

working wooden typewriter.

Is this written by Sholes?

- [Scholar] It is from Sholes.

- Wow.

- Typewritten.

- Touching history here.

"I think the machine is now

as perfect in its mechanism

"as I know how to make it.

"I know of no respect in

which I can improve it.

"The machine is done and I want

some more worlds to conquer.

"Life will be most flat,

stale, and unprofitable

"without something to invent.

"Yours, etc.,

"Sholes."

The wooden prototype met

with rejection right away.

They took it to half a dozen

different manufacturers

whom all declined to

manufacture the typewriter.

Then someone suggested that

they take the typewriter

to Remington and Sons.

Now, Remington and Sons

had been making weaponry

for the Civil War and

with the Civil War over,

they were looking for new

things to manufacture.

Remington and Sons took

this wooden prototype

and they spent the next year

turning it into a metal machine

that was much more

reliable, and durable,

and could be mass

produced by them.

And the first Sholes

and Glidden typewriters

appeared on the market in 1874.

May I push a key and get a feel?

I've never done this

before, by the way,

I've never actually pushed

a key on a Sholes and Glidden.

- Yes, give it a try.

- That's fine?

Gonna push the J there.

(soft clack)

That's wonderful.

$125 was a lot of money to

put out for this machine,

especially as nobody

could type and nobody knew

the benefits of what

a typewriter could offer.

(melancholy horn)

Of great significance

was the appearance

of the first Qwerty keyboard

on this Sholes and

Glidden typewriter.

If you look at the keyboard,

the top row, left to

right, says Qwerty.

- There is endless debate

about how that order

came into being.

Some say that all of

the letters in the word

typewriter are on the

first line of keys.

So a salesman who was

trying to demonstrate

the benefits of this

wonderful new machine

to prospective customers

could whack out the word

typewriter very, very quickly.

Without having to be

particularly proficient.

When the Sholes and

Glidden came out,

it was not well received,

people didn't understand

what a typewriter could offer.

They only sold 1,000 units.

Sholes was very disappointed

and he sold all his remaining

shares in the company.

The Remington Two typewriter,

coming out in 1878

was really the turning point

for this revolutionary machine.

Within a few short years,

all hell would break loose.

By the mid-18905, there

were as many as 60

typewriter manufacturers,

not just in America

but also in Europe.

And the sales had taken off.

- Two Royals,

The last of 'em.

Most of the machines that

we repair are approximately

40 to 50 years old.

The companies that

made the machines

and supplied the parts,

they are long gone.

Ames supply company was

the last of the companies

that supplied us with parts

for a lot of the typewriters.

Their primary thing was to

take old typewriter platens

and recover them, resurface 'em.

We got a letter last week

saying that after 110 years

in operation, Ames

Supply Company was

going out of business.

(rattling)

- My dad, he's very good

at solving problems.

He could look at it,

and figure it out,

and solve it within minutes.

And that's something you gotta

appreciate with my father

that you just don't

find that nowadays.

It's a lost art.

- It's not the

right consistency.

That's actually pretty

close in diameter on it.

- Pops, he loves all this.

This has been his life

ever since I was born

and he stayed with it.

- Yeah, so like 9.5

right from the end.

- He told me if you wanna do

something, do it all the way,

but make sure you enjoy it.

Like don't halve anything,

go 100% and make sure you like

what you're doing.

- See if you can slide

that one in there,

I don't know if

it's a lot easier.

Go ahead and get the copper.

- [Son] And he showed me that.

- [Ken] Put a

little soap on that.

- [Son] I'm here, tryin'

to help my dad out, man.

- [Ken] You get that?

Oh, yeah, that's

going on, isn't it.

Then grind it.

(metallic whirring)

I think what the typewriter

symbolizes to me is America.

I think that might work.

American hard work, what

this country was based on.

Made by us with our own

hands to help us out

but not to spoil us and

not to make us complacent.

(clicking)

- I think that much

of the joy of life

can come and should

come from work.

I think we've been sold

a certain bill of goods

about ease and happiness

being necessarily synonymous.

They aren't.

Something goes out of

the human experience,

when life is made progressively

easier, less complicated.

Less demanding of

alertness, effort,

and appreciation of

work when it's done.

There was once a typewriter

that was standing alone

on a shelf in an old store

in White Plains, New York,

nobody paying much

attention to it at all.

That's the beginning

of the story.

Then along came...

In 1965, when I was starting

to work on my first book,

feeling that I needed

something more substantial

to work on than a

portable typewriter.

I went and bought a secondhand,

Royal Standard typewriter.

And I probably paid $25 for it.

Got it in White Plains, New York

and I've been using

it all these years.

Almost every day, written

everything I have written on it

and there's nothing

wrong with it.

It's a magnificent example of

superb American manufacturing.

People tell me that I

could do much better,

I could go faster, and

have less to contend with

if I were to use a

computer, a word processor.

But I don't wanna go faster.

If anything, I would

prefer to go slower.

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