Scientific American, Vol. 27, July-December 1872

In 1867, Carlos Glidden showed an article about the mechanical "pterotype" writing machine to colleagues Christopher Latham Sholes and Samuel Soule. At the time, the group was inventing a page numbering machine, and was inspired to add text printing capabilities. The eventual result became the first commercially successful typewriter, featured on the cover of this 1872 issue of Scientific American.