Typesetter got the ball rolling
QUESTION How were the first typewriter keys arranged and designed – and who is credited with the first machine?
THE first typewriter patent was issued to Henry Mill, an Englishman, in 1713, but it does not appear that a working model was ever made.
An Italian, Pellegrino Turri, allegedly built a device in 1808 for his blind lover, Countess Fantoni da Fivizzano, in order for them to communicate. No drawings of this machine have survived.
The earliest extant typewriter was a device created by the Danish pastor Rasmus MallingHansen, principal of the Royal Institute of the Deaf. First patented in 1865, this was a ballshaped device with letters arranged in alphabetical order. One of these was used by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche due to his deteriorating eyesight. It won a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1878.
In 1868, Christopher Sholes and his associate Carlos Glidden secured a patent for what was to become the basis of the modern typewriter. Sholes and Glidden sold their patent to Densmore and Yost, who made an agreement with E. Remington and Sons to manufacture the device. In 1873, E. Remington and Sons – a New York company with a history of manufacturing guns, and then sewing machines – produced the first typewriter with a QWERTY keyboard. It came with a foot pedal (like sewing machines) which controlled the carriage returns.
Sholes, along with associates Glidden and Samuel W. Soule, developed the QWERTY layout to address the mechanical limitations of early typewriters. The arrangement of keys was specifically designed to reduce the likelihood of jamming by separating commonly used letter pairs and preventing adjacent keys from being pressed simultaneously.
This layout became the standard for typewriters and later for computer keyboards.
Wendy Day, Erith, Kent.
QUESTION What are the most bizarre items ever sold on the internet?
IN 2003, Tommy Johnson of Little Rock, Arkansas, found a rotting wooden box while metaldetecting in the woods. It contained two jars and a journal. He broke one of the jars, after which he claimed he was haunted by an apparition dubbed the Black Thing.
In an attempt to rid himself of the spirit, he listed the second jar on eBay with a starting bid of $99. The jar attracted a $52,000 bid but the buyer never paid.
An Australian attempted to sell New Zealand for AUD$0.01 in 2006. The bid reached $3,000 before it was shut down for violating eBay rules. The auction was closed, with a note stating: ‘Clearly, New Zealand is not for sale.’
A ten-year-old girl in the US tried to sell her 61-year-old grandmother on eBay. In the product description, the girl had said that her grandmother was ‘annoying’ but ‘cuddly’.
Some items that did sell included a vampire-slaying kit for $4,550, comprising a stake, holy water and a crossbow with silver-tipped arrows; a piece of toast shaped like the Virgin Mary, which sold for $28,000; and a cornflake shaped like the state of Illinois that fetched $1,350.
C. A. Paulson, Walsall, West Midlands.
QUESTION Is there a Plantagenet claimant to the English throne?
KING Charles III is related to the Plantagenet line through John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (13401399), the fourth son of King Edward III. John was the father of King Henry IV, great-grandfather of Edward IV and 18th greatgrandfather of Charles III.
There may be a better Plantagenet claimant to the throne. One of the most surprising guests to Charles III’s coronation was Simon Abney-Hastings, the son of a farmer from the rural town of Wangaratta, 240km north of Melbourne. He was awarded the honour of carrying the golden spurs at Charles’s ceremony – a tradition dating to Richard the Lionheart’s coronation in 1189.
Abney-Hastings is descended from the Plantagenet line through Edward’s half-brother George, Duke of Clarence, who – legend has it – was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine on his brother’s orders.
Medieval scholar Dr Michael Jones has claimed that AbneyHastings has a stronger claim to the throne than Charles III because Edward IV, who became king in 1461, was illegitimate. He outlined his claims in the book Bosworth 1485: Psychology Of A Battle, alleging that Cecily Neville and Richard, Duke of York were not together when Edward was conceived.
If true, then Richard of Clarence’s line would be the true line of succession. This is not, however, a widely held view. Ian Davies, Worcester.
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