The first typewriter to be commercially successful is the one invented by Christopher Latham Sholes, although the typewriter had been invented as early as 1714 by Henry Mill and reinvented in various forms throughout the 1800s.

Sholes, born in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania, had moved to nearby Danville as a teenager, where he had worked as an apprentice to a printer.

After completing his apprenticeship, Sholes had moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1837 and become a newspaper publisher and politician, serving in the Wisconsin State Senate 1848-1849, 1856–1857, and the Wisconsin State Assembly 1852-1853.

He had been instrumental in the successful movement to abolish capital punishment in Wisconsin: his newspaper, The Kenosha Telegraph, had reported on the trial of John McCaffary in 1851, and then in 1853 he had led the campaign in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

He is the younger brother of Charles Sholes (1816–1867), a newspaper publisher and politician who had served in both houses of the Wisconsin State Legislature and as mayor of Kenosha, Wisconsin.

In 1845, while Sholes was working as editor of the Southport Telegraph, a small newspaper in Kenosha, Wisconsin, he had heard about the alleged discovery of the Voree Record, a set of three minuscule brass plates unearthed by James J. Strang, a would-be successor to the murdered Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, Jr.. Strang, asserting that this proved that he was a true prophet of God, had invited the public to call upon him and see the plates for themselves.

Sholes accordingly had visited Strang, examined his "Voree Record," and wrote an article about their meeting.

He indicated that, while he could not accept Strang's plates or his prophetic claims, Strang himself seemed to be "honest and earnest" and his disciples were "among the most honest and intelligent men in the neighborhood."

As for the "record" itself, Sholes indicated that he was "content to have no opinion about it." (Fitzpatrick, Doyle, The King Strang Story (National Heritage, 1970), pp. 36-37.)

Sholes had moved to Milwaukee and became the editor of a newspaper.

Following a strike by compositors at his printing press, he had attempted building a machine for typesetting, but after its failure he had quickly abandoned the idea.

He will arrive at the typewriter through a different route.

His initial goal is to create a machine to number pages of a book, tickets, and so on.

He begins work on this at Kleinsteubers machine shop in Milwaukee, together with a fellow printer Samuel W. Soule, and they patent a numbering machine on November 13, 1866.

Sholes and Soule show their machine to Carlos Glidden, a lawyer and amateur inventor at the machine shop working on a mechanical plow, who wonders if the machine can be made to produce letters and words as well.

Inventors Christopher Latham Sholes, Samuel W. Soulé and Carlos Glidden had written hundreds of letters on their typewriting machine to various people, among whom is James Densmore of Meadville, Pennsylvania.

Foreseeing that the typewriter would be highly profitable, he had offered to buy a share of the patent, without even having laid eyes on the machine.

The trio had immediately sold him one-fourth of the patent in return for his paying all their expenses so far.

When Densmore eventually examines the machine in March 1867, he declares that it is good for nothing in its current form, and urges them to start improving it.

Discouraged, Soule and Glidden depart the project, leaving Sholes and Densmore in sole possession of the patent.

Further inspiration comes to Sholes in July 1867, when he comes across a short note in Scientific American describing the "Pterotype", a prototype typewriter that had been invented by John Pratt.

From the description, Sholes decides that the Pterotype is too complex and sets out to make his own machine, whose name he gets from the article: the typewriting machine, or typewriter. ("Type Writing Machine", Scientific American, New (New York) 17 (1): 3, 1867-07-06, retrieved 2012 11-17)

For this project, Soule is again enlisted, and Glidden joins them as a third partner who provides the funds.

The Scientific American article (unillustrated) had figuratively used the phrase "literary piano"; the first model that the trio builds has a keyboard literally resembling a piano.

It has black keys and white keys, laid out in two rows.

It does not contain keys for the numerals 0 or 1 because the letters O and I are deemed sufficient: 3 5 7 9 N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 2 4 6 8 .

A B C D E F G H I J K L M

The first row is made of ivory and the second of ebony, the rest of the framework being wooden.

It is in this form that Sholes, Glidden and Soule are granted patents for their invention on June 23, 1868 and July 14.

The first document to be produced on a typewriter is a contract that Sholes had written, in his capacity as the Comptroller for the city of Milwaukee.

Machines similar to Sholes's had been previously used by the blind for embossing, but by this time the inked ribbon had been invented, which makes typewriting in its current form possible.

At this stage, the Sholes-Glidden-Soule typewriter is only one among dozens of similar inventions.

Sholes and Densmore have sent experimental versions of their typewriter to a few stenographers, realizing that stenographers would be among the first and most important users of the machine, and therefore best in a position to judge its suitability.

The most important of them is James O. Clephane, of Washington D.C., who tries the instruments as no one else had tried them, subjecting them to such unsparing tests that he destroys them, one after another, as fast as they can be made and sent to him.

His judgments are similarly caustic, causing Sholes to lose his patience and temper, but Densmore sees it differently: "This candid fault-finding is just what we need. We had better have it now than after we begin manufacturing. Where Clephane points out a weak lever or rod let us make it strong. Where a spacer or an inker works stiffly, let us make it work smoothly. Then, depend upon Clephane for all the praise we deserve." (Mares, G.C. (1909), The history of the typewriter, successor to the pen: An illustrated account of the origin, rise, and development of the writing machine, London: Guilbert Putnam. Reprinted by Post-era Books, Arcadia, CA, 1985.)

Taking this advice, Sholes had set to improve the machine at every iteration, until they were satisfied that Clephane had taught them everything he could.

By this time, they had manufactured fifty machines or so, at an average cost of two hundred and fifty dollars.

Densmore had suggested splitting up commonly used letter combinations in order to solve a jamming problem caused by the slow method of recovering from a keystroke: weights, not springs, returned all parts to the "rest" position.

Sholes refinements to this concept result in the QWERTY layout, still used today on both typewriters and English language computer keyboards, although the jamming problem no longer exists.

Sholes and Densmore decide to have the Sholes and Glidden Type-Writer examined by an expert mechanic, who directs them to E. Remington and Sons (it will later become the Remington Arms Company), manufacturers of sewing machines, firearms, and farm tools.

Densmore approaches Remington in early 1873 to commercialize the device.

Sholes sells his half share in the patent for twelve thousand dollars, while Densmore, still a stronger believer in the machine, insists on a royalty, which will eventually fetch him one and a half million dollars.

Remington starts production of their first typewriter on March 1, 1873 in Ilion, New York.

The Type-Writer introduces the QWERTY keyboard designed by Sholes.

Sholes returns to Milwaukee and continues to work on new improvements for the typewriter.