On June 23, 1868, Christopher Latham Sholes, an American inventor, was granted a patent for his version of the typewriter. Although his invention was not the first typewriter—the earliest recorded version dates back to 1712—Sholes’ prototype was the first to achieve practical and commercial success. He officially received his patent for his “improvement in typewriting machines.”

Christopher Latham Sholes was born in Pennsylvania in 1819. He worked as a newspaper publisher for many years before entering politics. Sholes served as a Democrat in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1848 to 1849 and then as a Republican from 1856 to 1857. He played a significant role in the effort to abolish the death penalty in Wisconsin. Throughout his political career, Sholes continued to write and publish for a local newspaper, which fueled his desire to invent tools that would streamline the profession. He is credited with inventing a page numbering machine that automated the numbering of pages, a newspaper addressing machine to simplify the addressing process, and later, improvements to the typewriting machine.

Interesting Facts about Sholes’ Typewriter: 

• A significant problem with early typewriter models was that the keys would frequently jam. Sholes’ QWERTY keyboard layout helped to solve this problem. 
• The first document written on a typewriter was a contract penned by Sholes himself. 
• The production cost of one of Sholes’ typewriters was approximately $250, which is equivalent to about $5,000 today. 
• Sholes’ keyboard was the first to place letter keys in alphabetical order. 
• Sholes’ keyboard was the first to incorporate both capital and lowercase letters, along with the “shift” key. Additionally, he omitted the number 1 key from his design, believing that typists could simply use the lowercase “l” key instead.