Two brief newspaper articles which announced the invention, in 1907, of an automatic typewriter by Thomas A. McCall, which was at the time being demonstrated at business conventions, including one at Madison Square Garden. It eventually came to the market under the name the Hooven Automatic, a carbon paper-less way to reproduce scores of form letters and memos.

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From “Truly Wonderful Machine,” in the August 5, 1907 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

In Columbus, O., a man has produced a mechanical typewriter that promises to eliminate the present day pretty stenographer that has become such a familiar figure in the modern office. This machine will actually write letters at the rate of one thousand words a minute, continuously, and do the work correctly and automatically. This wonderful machine will be on exhibition at the national business shows to be held in New York and Chicago this fall. The machine may be operated in two ways. If it is desired to make a number of copies of the letter, with different names and addresses, it will perform this work producing in each case an original letter in one, two or three colors, fill in the name and address and add the signature.

A business man desiring to dictate may use this automatic typewriter by talking his letters into a device like a phonograph, transfer the record to the machine, turn on the electric current and go home. The next morning the letters will all be done, and the machine will automatically stop when all the letters are written. It will also address envelopes or wrappers and count them as well.

It will write forward or backward, and if desired the lines may be justified like type, which at the present time is impossible on ordinary typewriters. With the general introduction of this machine wives of business men will breathe easier, for the machine is warranted not to flirt. The national business shows, where the machine will be shown to the public for the first time, will be held in Madison Square Garden in New York October 12 to 19 and in the Coliseum, Chicago, November 9 to 16.•

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From “Machine May Replace Typewriter Girls,” in the October 15, 1907 Los Angeles Herald:

Typewriter girls may find their occupations gone if what is said of a new invention turns out to be true. It is exhibited at the business show now in progress in Madison Square Garden and is an automatic typewriter run by compressed air and capable, it is said, of writing from 5,000 to 10,000 words an hour for twenty-four hours at a stretch.

The invention is the work of A. McCall of Columbus, Ohio.•