Happy Typewriter Day!

 On this day, June 23, in 1868 a patent for the first conventional recognizable typewriter was granted to Christopher Latham Sholes.  And since then, the mechanical writing machine has been a symbol of authors, journalists, poets, and students as they pursue their literary quests.  Sholes' most enduring innovation, the QWERTY keyboard persists to this day, into the digital age.  It has made text entry familiar to generations of typists, whether they use all ten fingers, or just two thumbs on a cell phone screen.  While Sholes' mechanical wonder and all those that followed may not be in common use, they by no means have vanished from the writing ecosystem.  Many in the younger generations have re-discovered the joys of writing tangible documents, removed from the invasive, all-seeing digital landscape.  Fortunately, the mechanical typewriter, made in the millions in the early and middle 20th century, was a remarkably hardy and durable creation.  So many still exist in perfect working condition, and the trade in these machines on resale sites like Ebay is active and robust.  For those, like me, who have a tender heart for the time when these machines dominated the landscape, this is a special day to remember the beginning of a glorious age.