James Densmore
James Densmore | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | February 3, 1820[1] |
| Died | September 16, 1889 (aged 69)[1] |
| Nationality | American |
James Densmore (February 3, 1820 – September 16, 1889) was an American businessman, inventor and vegetarian. He was a business associate of Christopher Sholes, who along with Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soule helped contribute to inventing one of the first practical typewriters at a machine shop located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[2]
It was believed that Densmore had suggested splitting up commonly used letter combinations in order to solve a jamming problem, but this called into question.[3] This concept was later refined by Sholes later refined this concept, so it became known as the QWERTY key layout.
Densmore was a militant vegetarian. His diet consisted of mostly raw apples.[4] His brother was physician Emmet Densmore.[5]
Densmore also supported women's suffrage in Wisconsin.[6] When he was the editor of the Oshkosh True Democrat the paper publicly supported women's right to vote.[7]
Densmore is remembered for the enigmatic fraternal organization he envisioned in his will, known as The Densmore Foundation. [8]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Johnson
- ^ Invention of the Typewriter Archived 2011-12-20 at the Wayback Machine, Wisconsin Historical Marker, Retrieved May 11, 2008.
- ^ Koichi and Motoko Yasuoka: On the Prehistory of QWERTY, ZINBUN, No.42 (March 2011), pp.161-174.
- ^ Anonymous. (1923). Story of the Typewriter, 1873-1923. Herkimer County Historical Society. p. 38
- ^ Guinn, James Miller. (1902). Historical and Biographical Record of Southern California. Chapman Publishing Company. pp. 1216-1217
- ^ Youmans 1921, p. 4.
- ^ Youmans 1921, p. 4-5.
- ^ The Densmore Foundation. (n.d.). The Densmore Foundation. https://densmorefoundation.org/
Bibliography
[edit]- Johnson, Rossiter, et al. (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. The Biographical Society
- Youmans, Theodora W. (September 1921). "How Wisconsin Women Won the Ballot". The Wisconsin Magazine of History. 5 (1): 3–32. JSTOR 4630337 – via JSTOR.