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Milton Bartholomew: More pianos than typewriters

The type-writer is mightier than the mitrailleuse

[Note: It is worth observing that the war began just as companies were gearing for the home consumer market with the introduction of new portable typewriters; however, mass production of most of those machines was delayed until 1921 (Underwood and Remington only increased the volume of their 1919 and 1920 models in 1921). R.T. Nicholson, an executive with Remington, was no small player in the advancement of the typewriter, but in an interview with The Phonetic Journal, he utterly lacked vision. Though questioning the efficiency of Van Sant’s design, Arthur R. Bailey wrote, “I think Mr. Van Sant deserves credit for bringing this question up for argument, and I hope eventually some arrangement will be discovered that will ease up the work of the typist and give greater speed.” He related that he had made a small adjustment on his own typewriter in 1886, swapping the places of the A and K, which he said improved typing performance.

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