But it would be difficult to establish the identity of these contrivances with the modern typewriter.
Two American devices, one of William Burt in 1829, for a "typographer," and another of Charles Thurber, of Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1843, may also be passed over.

Alfred Ely Beach made a model for a typewriter as early as 1847, but neglected it for other things, and his next effort in printing machines was a device for embossing letters for the blind.
His typewriter had many of the features of the modern typewriter, but lacked a satisfactory method of inking the types.

This was furnished by S.W.Francis of New York, whose machine, in 1857, bore a ribbon saturated with ink.

None of these machines, however, was a commercial success.

They were regarded merely as the toys of ingenious men.
The accredited father of the typewriter was a Wisconsin newspaperman, Christopher Latham Sholes, editor, politician, and anti-slavery agitator.