typographer (typewriter)

{{short description|America's first typewriter}}

{{Use American English|date=July 2022}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2018}}

The typographer was an early typewriter invented by William Austin Burt.{{cite book|last1=Wyckoff |first1=W. O. |last2=Jones |first2=R. McKean |chapter=Typewriters |title= Universal Cyclopaedia, Vol. 12| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_y_mAAAAMAAJ |date= 1900|publisher= D. Appleton |oclc=861656957 |page=7}} Intended to aid in office work, the machine worked by using a lever to press characters onto paper one at a time.{{cite book |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |chapter=Burt, William Austin |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vPEpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA375 |year=1922 |volume=18 |publisher=J. T. White |oclc=164589128 |pages=367–368}} It was the first typewriting machine to be patented in the United States, although Pellegrino Turri had made one in Italy in 1808.{{cite book |last=Revett |first=Kenneth |date=September 15, 2008 |title=Behavioral Biometrics: A Remote Access Approach |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WCuSUufRewoC&q=pellegrino+turri+typewriter&pg=PA222 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |page=222 |isbn=978-0470997932 |access-date=June 28, 2014 }} Perhaps because of its slow speed, or because there was not yet a wide market for typewriters, it was not a commercial success.{{cite news |first=Gary |last=Peters|title= World's First Writing Machine |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54846887/the-sheboygan-press/ |work= The Sheboygan Press| page= 47|location=Sheboygan, Wisconsin|date= October 24, 1979 |via=Newspapers.com {{open access}} }}

The working model that Burt constructed for his 1829 patent was destroyed in the 1836 Patent Office fire.{{cite news |title= First Letter Ever Written on a Typewriter Finds its Way Here |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55580943/ |work= The Gazette|page= 5 |location= Cedar Rapids, Iowa|date=July 10, 1922 |via =Newspapers.com {{open access}} }}