E. Remington and Sons (1816–1896) was a manufacturer of firearms and typewriters. Founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington II in Ilion, New York, on March 1, 1873, it became known for manufacturing the first commercial typewriter.
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👉 E. Remington and Sons in the context of QWERTY
QWERTY (/ˈkwɜːrti/ KWUR-tee) is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets; the name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top letter row of the keyboard: QWERTY. The design evolved for the quick typing of English on typewriters.
The QWERTY design is based on a layout included on the Sholes and Glidden typewriter sold by E. Remington and Sons from 1874. The layout became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878 and remains in widespread use as a de facto standard on computers, as of 2025. Two prominent alternatives, Dvorak and Colemak, have been developed. In Europe, two types of modified layouts, QWERTZ and AZERTY, are used predominantly for German and French, respectively.
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E. Remington and Sons in the context of Sholes and Glidden typewriter
The Sholes and Glidden typewriter (also known as the Remington No. 1) was the first commercially successful typewriter. Principally designed by the American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes, it was developed with the assistance of fellow printer Samuel W. Soule and amateur mechanic Carlos S. Glidden. Work began in 1867, but Soule left the enterprise shortly thereafter, replaced by James Densmore, who provided financial backing and the driving force behind the machine's continued development. After several short-lived attempts to manufacture the device, the machine was acquired by E. Remington and Sons in early 1873. An arms manufacturer seeking to diversify, Remington further refined the typewriter before finally placing it on the market on July 1, 1874.
During its development, this typewriter evolved from a crude curiosity into a practical device, the basic form of which became the industry standard. The machine incorporated elements which became fundamental to typewriter design, including a cylindrical platen and a four row QWERTY keyboard. Several design deficiencies remained, however. The Sholes and Glidden could print only upper-case letters—an issue remedied in its successor, the Remington No. 2—and was a "blind writer", meaning the typist could not see what was being written as it was entered.