We live in an age of hyper-iteration, scientists and engineers constantly developing new technologies. Great visionaries imagine the world of tomorrow and urge next-day delivery. The early 20th century was defined by such visionaries, but some executives were unimaginatively content with yesterday’s technology. Consider the Remington Typewriter Company. For all its accomplishments, the company continued […]

The typewriter industry experienced remarkable growth from the mid-1870s through the early part of the 20th century, but there was one area where growth was sluggish: the home consumer market. In an interview with Pitman’s Phonetic Journal in 1902, Yost managing director Milton Bartholomew noted that piano manufacturing outpaced typewriter manufacturing, despite rapid growth in […]

Wrote A.C. Van Sant in 1916: “If the change to a better keyboard had been made, when the agitation was first begun… all our troubles of the transition period would have been forgotten. But every year the change is delayed makes it more difficult of accomplishment, and more likely that we shall go down the […]