"Up to this time communication in business correspondence had consisted of letters written in pen and ink, often by men employed for their handwriting clarity and skill. In 1867 Christopher L. Sholes, assisted by Carlos Glidden, Samuel W. Soule and Matthias Schwalbach, designed and produced a "writing machine" in a small shop near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The machine, which Sholes named the "Type Writer," had a series of lettered and numbered keys which, when struck with the fingers, printed letters or numbers on paper. Eventually the manufacture and sale of the device was undertaken by the firm of E. Remington and Sons, Ilion, New York, and one of the first customers to buy a typewriter was the famous author, Mark Twain. For advertising purposes he wrote a letter which the manufacturers printed and distributed. It said:

Gentlemen:

Please do not use my name in any way. Please do not even divulge the fact that I own a machine. I have entirely stopped using a Type-Writer for the reason that I never could write a letter with it to anybody without receiving a request by return mail that I would not only describe the machine, but state what progress I had made in the use of it, etc., etc. I don't like to write letters. and so I don't want people to know I own this curiosity-breeding little joker.

Yours truly, Saml L. Clemens.