“He prints a letter by the blow of minute hammers.”

John J. Pratt, Alabaman inventor, devised his version of the typewriter, the Pterotype, in 1865. Two years later when Pratt demonstrated his machine in London, some genius from the Scientific Journal was there to inspect it and explain its operation to readers in excruciating detail. The story was repeated in the July 18, 1867 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. If you want to shoot yourself, read on:

“The Scientific Journal contains the following account of a newly invented and curious machine:

‘A machine by which it is assumed that a man may print his thoughts twice as fast as he can write them, and with the advantage of the legibility, compactness and neatness of print, has been exhibited before the London Society of the Arts, by the inventor, Mr. Pratt, of Alabama.

He draws up his alphabet in a solid square battalion, say seventy characters in seven rows, the whole in solid electrotype plate about five-eighths inch square or more according to the size of the type desired. He prints a letter by the blow of minute hammers of uniform size with all the type bodies, striking the face of the letter, with the paper interposed, and a carbonated sheet also between that and the type. Each letter, as wanted, is moved into position before the hammer by compound levers actuated by keys like those of a piano. The same touch of the key readjusts the paper to the new impression (with or without a space before it, according to the force used), readjusts the type plate, so as to present the desired type to the hammer, and gives the printing blow. Simple arrangements also retract the page at once laterally and vertically to begin a new line. The type plate and paper are placed vertically, the latter with its face to the operator, so that the work done is before his eyes as in writing. The keys actuate two double acting levers, one of which raises or lowers the type plate, while the other moves it laterally. Each key is so applied to the levers as to adjust the plate at once sideways and vertically to the position for bringing a particular character into the play. Or, a better way, one key will do duty for the  vertical movement of each entire horizontal row, another key for the lateral movement of each vertical column, and thus by pressing two keys for each character, seventeen keys will be sufficient to operate the whole front of seventy characters above supposed.

The case of the instrument is small and compact, the parts are mostly of wood, and it could be manufactured and sold on a large scale for about $15 for a handsome profit.'”