Q 01/05

The first commercial typewriters were introduced in which year?

A) 1890

B) 1874

C) 1851

D) 1901

Answer · why

B) 1874

They did not become common in American offices until after the mid-1880s.

Q 02/05

Typewriters remained a standard fixture in most offices until roughly which decade?

A) 1990s

B) 1960s

C) 1970s

D) 1980s

Answer · why

D) 1980s

After that they were supplanted by personal computers running word-processing software.

Q 03/05

Historians estimate that some form of the typewriter was independently invented roughly how many times?

A) 12

B) 5

C) 104

D) 52

Answer · why

D) 52

Like the telephone and the automobile, it was the product of many tinkerers over decades rather than a single inventor.

Q 04/05

Henry Mill obtained a British patent for a typewriter-like machine in which year?

A) 1829

B) 1776

C) 1802

D) 1714

Answer · why

D) 1714

The patent promised writing 'so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print'.

Q 05/05

Between 1801 and 1808, Pellegrino Turri invented a typewriter for a friend who had what condition?

A) Blindness

B) Deafness

C) Paralysis

D) Arthritis

Answer · why

A) Blindness

Several of the earliest typing machines were built as accessibility tools, and their use by blind people accelerated development.