Typewriter, a very topical story – The 'new' way of communicating in the past, a tool that made it easier and faster to write all kinds of texts. Originally letters and dispatches, mainly. We speak of the typewriter. The instrument that wrote the history of information, of communication, and which gave meaning to women's emancipation. Yes, because it is thanks to the typing that a new course took hold, one in which the role of women was not seen as exclusively 'domestic'. The first typist that history remembers was the American Lillydaughter of Senator Latham Scholestesting machine prototypes. In a way it seems that it was she who started a generation of new female workers and was a milestone in theevolution of product design.
Evolution of product design
Although the origins of the typewriter are not certain. Before the advent of Olivetti, to whom the 'birth' of this device is attributed by many (the first one was presented at the World Fair in Turin in 1911), there are records of similar objects as far back as the 16th century. From research carried out by historians, it seems in fact that the real first model was also invented by an Italian: the lawyer Giuseppe Ravizzawho patented the 'Scrivano Harpsichord"in 1855. Other US-made examples date back to 1874. It was called "Qwerty", exactly like the sequence of the six letters starting from the left of each keyboardthe same ones that are still found on every computer or tablet touch-screen today.
Heavy and cumbersome, they have populated the studios of writers, journalists and artists of all kinds. The greatest works of the 20th century were typed, because that of writing is a passion that has remained unchanged over time, but which has necessarily had to come to terms with progress and technology. There are those, however, who are still fond of the oldest models and continue to use them today.
Computers, but it all starts with the 'Qwerty' - The natural evolution of the typewriter. A tool that has become almost indispensable in everyday life, especially at work. And if you think that the keyboard is the only element that has remained truly unchanged over time, one could almost venture that the computer invention (apart from electronic data and the possibility of mathematical calculations, up to the web).
We speak both of writing, because that is what the typewriter has in common with the pc, laptops or fixed, but especially of design. Because just as it is necessary to keep up with the times and theevolution of product designthe same argument can be made for external characteristics. Those that make people fall in love even before the technical ones. Portable PCs are not even remotely reminiscent of their ancestors, but the purpose is still to bring to life 'the artist', the one who presses the keys with the intention of communicating something. Today, it is used for the most diverse purposes: for writing, we said, but also for programming, drawing, listening to music and, of course, surfing.
Come to think of it, none of this would be possible if we did not have a keyboard in front of us, that very keyboard. Qwerty left with the keys in the same place since the late 1800s. In essence, every operation at the computer passes through our fingers, and this is the extraordinary fact. That man has managed, over time, not to make such an important instrument as the typewriter disappear altogether but, on the contrary, has managed to give it due recognition through commitment, the desire to respect 'traditions' and, of course, assisted by the advancement of technology.
