Student Worksheet
Origins of the Keyboard


Name: Date:

Directions:  Print the Student Worksheet.  Answer the following questions in complete sentence form when appropriate while completing your virtual field trip.

1.  When was the first writing machine patented?  _________________

2.  Who patented the Writing Ball?  _____________________

3.  What makes the Writing Ball unique in appearance?
 
 
 
 

4.  How many Sholes & Glidden Type Writer's were sold between 1874 and 1878?  _________________

5.  What was considered the first commercially successful typewriter?  _____________________

6.  What were the three major brands during the 1880s?

        ____________________     ____________________     _____________________

7.  What were the two clear advantages of keyboard typewriters over handwriting?
 
 
 
 
 
 

8.  Click on the ad for the highly publicized contest in 1888.  What was the latest and best performance speeds at this contest?
 
 

     Explain how you might think this competition increased the demand and use of typewriters.
 
 
 
 
 
 

9.  What was considered to be the office standard during the 1880s and 1890s?
 
 

10.  Explain how a typist viewed what they had typed?
 
 

11.  What was considered to be the first single element typewriter?  __________________

12.  What five producers of upstrike typewriters merged to form the Union Typewriter Company of America?
 
        ________________    ________________    ________________    _________________   ________________

13.  What was this company also referred to as in newspapers of the era?  _____________________

14.  In the early 1900s the office typewriter changed from the upstrike to the ___________________.

15.  The most popular front strike was the ____________________.

16.  What was the key year in the switch over from upstrike to front strike machines?  _______________

17.  When were electric front-strike typewriters were introduced?  _____________________

18.  What change in the style of front strike typewriters occurred in the 1960's?
 

19.  What made this typewriter unique?
 

20.  What is a type bar?