TO BE PRECISE

Four centuries of history typed in Italian

THE TYPEWRITER

calendar

2016

33078 San Vito al Tagliamento (PN) Italy - Z.I. Ponte Rosso - Via Venzone, 9 • Ph. 0434.849511 • Fax 0434.849564 • www.brovedanigroup.com

Detail and system:evolution on two parallel courses

invented the typewriter?The answer to this question is com-plex, and varies according to latitude and longitude. It depends on a multi-tude of factors: where does an inven-

tion begin? Does it start with an idea? With a patent? Perhaps with a prototype? And who is the inventor? When does the invention be-come reproducible and available to all? Which technical and functional features make the typewriter a “precious printing machine” or a “scribe harpsichord”?The history of the typewriter poses these and many other questions. It was an extraordinar-ily complex piece of machinery – first manual, then electric and finally electronic – with a technology that continued to evolve until its definitive demise in 2011, when the last type-writer manufacturer, in India, closed its doors.While the typewriter in itself was a revolu-tionary device, a galaxy of other by now fa-miliar inventions revolved around it. These include the modest carbon paper, which has long turned to dust. Or the ergonomically-de-signed (and still in use to this day) QWER-TY keyboard, which was conceived in 1873 by Christopher Sholes, the officially-recognized “father” of the industrially-manufactured typewriter, the first of which were produced by Remington.Italy’s rôle of this fascinating story com-prised a succession of flashes of exceptional creative genius and an equally exceptional tendency to waste these intuitions, to the extent that they were all – with the sole excep-tion of Olivetti – ignored by most English-language histories of the typewriter.

For our 2016 calendar, we have examined the work of a number of Italian inventors whose genius has gone largely unrecognized: from Francesco Rampazetto to Pellegrino Turri. From Pietro Conti to Celestino Galli. From Petar Mitterhofer to Giuseppe Ravizza, who is widely considered as being the real inventor of this machine. It is a story of Italian creative brilliance spanning four centuries and highlighting the values, approach and mentality that form the basis for every in-novation – and which have always been part of BROVEDANI’s corporate culture. Against the backdrop of this “made in Italy” concept, the evolution of the “writing machine” constant-ly strove to develop technologies designed to make the machine more functional while at the same time increasing its complexity, rapidity and precision. Technologies aimed at making typing faster – by using an er-gonomically-designed keyboard and with the development of the front-striking lever key – and improving the definition of the printed letters. These developments were often the fruit of radical innovations, such as the change from the mechanical impression of the character by a lever-operated key (1) to the electromechanical golf-ball typewriter (2), whose head could be changed to type using different fonts.A vital component in this process of contin-uous evolution was the ability to apply and adapt an innovative detail to the system as a whole: and it is this ability that BROVE-DANI has applied to the heart of devices such

as IBM hard disks and Common Rail injectors, with superlative com-ponents that are precise to tenths of a micron and contribute to the Quality of the finished product.

WHO

1 2

A chronological overview which honours Italy

1554. In Germany Johannes Gutenberg invents movable-type printing.

1575. Printer Francesco Rampazetto invents his “tactile writing” machine.

1714. English inventor Henry Mill patents a machine with keys in relief which could be used to impress letters arranged in alphabetic order.

1802 – 1806. Agostino Fantoni and Pellegrino Turri build their “preziosa stamperia”, used to type a number of documents which are perhaps the oldest in existence.

1823. Pietro Conti builds the “tachigraph”, a stenographic typewrites with an innovative system of keys and levers.

1829. The American inventor Austin Burt builds a single-key machine known as the “typographer”.

1833. French inventor Xavier Progin builds his “plume typographiqué”, a machine with a complete keyboard but without a carriage.

1843. The American Charles Thumber invents the “chirographer”.

1855. Giuseppe Ravizza patents the first model of his “scribe harpsichord” which, due to its sophi-sticated design concept, was considered by many as being the first real typewriter.

1861. Padre Francisco João de Azevedo in Brazil built a typewriter using basic materials and to-ols such as wood and knives.

1864 – 1869. South Tyrolean Peter Mitterhofer builds five different typewriters (two in wood) using advanced techniques and functions.

1867. The American inventor John Pratt files patents in England the United States for his typewri-ter. Lack of funding later forced him to sell his patent to James Barlett Hammond.

1868. American Christopher Latham Sholes, working with printers Samuel Soule and Carlos Glidden, patents a version of the typewriter similar to the “scribe harpsichord”. He later developed improved models and presented them to Remington, who purchased the rights.

1873. Remington manufactures the machine purchased from Sholes, calling it “the typewriter”. Be-aring the name “Remington n° 1” it was presented at the Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.

1880. Engineer George Yost produces his “Calligraph”, the first typewriter that could write in both small and capital letters and featured a space bar.

1881. Giuseppe Ravizza patents the first front-striking typewriter for visible typing.

1889. George Blickensderfer patents his “Typeweel”, the first portable typewriter.

1898. Underwood markets the first “visible typing” machine.

1908. In Ivrea, Camillo Olivetti founds a company for the manufacture of typewriters.

1911. Olivetti produces its first typewriter: the M1.

1961. IBM’s Seletric electromechanical typewriter uses a spherical rotating head instead of the lever/key system: a revolutionary innovation in the typewriter industry.

1978. Olivetti presents the first electronic typewriter, the ET 101, which would be followed by increasingly sophisticated models designed to produce any type of text and/or document.

2011. The Indian plant Godrej & Boyce, the last manufacturer of typewriters, ceases production.

2014. Introduction of the Hemingwrite, a digital typewriter with wi-fi and bluetooth which allows the user to concentrate exclusively on what he or she is writing and saves the data in the cloud.

The ergonomic QWERTY keyboard layout, invented by Christopher Latham Sholes one hundred and fifty years ago was among the principle reasons for the success of the typewriter, from the earliest models to today’s video word processors: from the first Remington typewriter to the iPad. Photograph: Paulo Philippidis.

A “golf-ball” spherical head with the Hada Latin/Hebrew font on the revolutionary IBM Seletric II. Photograph: Etan J. Tal.

The M1, the first typewriter manufactured by Olivetti.

The ability to changepoint of view

hanging one’s point of view also means trans-ferring a principle, an experience, an or-

ganizational system or a working method from one sector to another. It means seeing the po-tential benefits of a tried-and-tested process and transferring that process as efficiently and effectively as possible to a new area of ap-plication: BROVEDANI has done just that, many times. An example? Drawing upon its experience in the automotive sector, the company moved into the aerospace industry.

It was this form of ‘lateral thinking’ which in 1575 led Venetian printer Francesco Ram-

pazetto to create a machine for what was known as “tactile writing”, having seen the possi-bility that moving characters could be use-ful to the blind. Little documentation remains to describe this machine, but the concept of ‘printing’ by the individual was perhaps the very first version of the typewriter.

C

52 1 2 3 4

F S S M T W G F S S M T W G F S S M T W G F S S M T W G F S S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

M T W G F S S M T W G F S S M T W G F S S M T W G F S S M

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 295 6 7 8 9

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

www.brovedani.it

Grasp the opportunities Presented by major innovations

adical innovation generates real progress and brings about far-reaching improvements

and epoch-making changes. But innovation must be understood and applied according to the var-ious types of potential advantages that it of-fers: in this respect, BROVEDANI was one of the first companies to experiment with and utilize laser technology on a global scale. This tech-nology has enabled us not only to accelerate and improve our production processes, but also to introduce more precise and efficient systems of measurement.

At the end of the 19th Century, Tuscans Agos-tino Fantoni and Pellegrino Turri invented

their “preziosa stamperia”, which made it pos-sible for Anna Carolina Fantoni, who was blind, to write; she was to become the author of the oldest typewritten documents still in exist-ence to this day. This invention, of which no examples remain, was created for a disabled person, and was a foretaste of the massive rev-olution represented by the typewriter. It was an instrument for communication, a means of emancipation, and became a symbol of work and equal opportunities for women.

R

10 11 12 13

T W G F S S M T W G F S S M T W G F S S M T W G F S S M T W G

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

F S S M T W G F S S M T W G F S S M T W G F S S M T W G F S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 3014 15 16 17

MARCH

APRIL

www.brovedani.it

Left: A document typewritten by Anna Carolina Fantoni. Centre: Miss Remington with a typewriter manufactured by the company of the same name,

in a photograph dated 1908. This new technology was greeted with enthusiasm by women the world over.Right: BROVEDANI components welded,

drilled and measured using laser technology.

Building on creativity

reativity is the idea that didn’t exist be-fore. It is the spark that leads to a de-

cisive step forward. Moments of inspiration which are also part of BROVEDANI’s DNA: from ideas for IBM’s hard disks in the 1980s to a pivotal rôle in the extraordinary adventure that was Diesel Common Rail, which represented a milestone in the history of the automobile industry: today, 40% of common rail injectors throughout the world contain components manu-factured by BROVEDANI!

In 1823 Pietro Conti from Pavia drew on his creative talent, both metaphorically and in

practical terms: his so-called “tachigraph” was a prototype version of the stenographic typewriter, and was based on the (then) in-novative system of keys and levers. In 1831, Celestino Galli from the Piedmont region an-nounced the invention of the “potenograph”, a harpsichord-like device with an alphabetic keyboard arranged in concentric circles which, he claimed, could be used to “write sixty times more rapidly than using normal writing tech-niques”. Even the prestigious Times newspaper published an article about it!

C

18 19 20 21 22

S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 3023 24 25 26

MAY

JUNE

www.brovedani.it

Left: The key and lever system invented by Pietro Conti for his “tachigraph” was for many years the technological heart of the typewriter.Right: Components resulting from the creativity of BROVEDANI,

which has contributed significantly to the development of the injectors used for the Diesel Common Rail system.

Hitting the targetwith all-round vision

ROVEDANI had enjoyed numerous successes thanks to its profound understanding of the

system, in which the brilliance of the result is inseparable from the complexity of the pro-cess. To produce a complex shape from a plain cylinder in a single stroke, using a single extrusion lasting 3.6 seconds, means finding the perfect solution based on the far-reaching analysis of a host of correlated factors: the materials used, the surface treatments, toler-ances, performance and life cycle of the tool-ing. And all with 0 waste!

Another fruit of an inventor’s global and “or-ganic” vision was the miracle of the “scribe

harpsichord”, developed in 1855 by Giuseppe Ravizza: a series of levers on a circular sup-port with keys which imprinted characters at a precise position; movement of the tape support; the use of an inked tape and carbon paper; a paper roller and a ten-finger typing method. This was the description of the device as pro-vided by the Lawyer from Novara to demonstrate the unique nature of his less than successful invention, which is widely considered to have been the very first typewriter.

B

27 28 29 30

F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S L M M G V S D

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 3131 32 33 34 35

JULY

AUGUST

www.brovedani.it

UN COLPO SOLO: 3,6 SECONDI!

An example of the “scribe harpsichord” invented by Giuseppe Ravizza. © Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology, Milan.

Right: An extraordinary single-stroke extrusion process developed by BROVEDANI with a duration of 3.6 seconds.

Multiple technologies: a strategic challenge

ne of the main reasons for which BROVEDANI has achieved so many stunning successes in

markets all over the world is without doubt the company’s unique ability to bring together multiple, complex production processes in an efficient and effective manner. In the automo-tive sector, a good example of this is the first robot-controlled multiple-technology line for the production of shafts for automobile starter motors, which are today fitted to almost 50% of the automobiles manufactured in Europe.

Asimilar model, developed at about the same time as Giuseppe Ravizza’s “scribe harpsi-

chord”, was the typewriter created by Peter Mitterhofer, which was a splendid combination of components, precision machining and mate-rials. Five different models of this jewel of multi-technology craftsmanship were built: in later versions, metal was used instead of wood, and the keyboard grew from 28 to 82 keys! Mit-terhofer’s continuous improvement was inspired by a highly-advanced concept of the ergonomic use of the machine, which perhaps was not un-derstood by his South Tyrolean contemporaries.

O

36 37 38 39

T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 3140 41 42 43 44

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

www.brovedani.it

Left: A reconstruction of the first typewriter (“Vienna 1864”) built by Peter Mitterhofer.

© Peter Mitterhofer Typewriter Museum, Parcines (BZ).Right: BROVEDANI drive shaft and rotor shaft

produced on multi-technology integrated lines.

Highlighting the excellenceand style of made in Italy

o maintain a meaningful presence on the mar-ket also signifies giving the appropriate em-

phasis to the products themselves as well as to the cornerstones of the corporate culture. For BROVEDANI, therefore, it is not enough to man-ufacture an excellent product; we also need to show the world who we are, what we do and how we work. Content is inseparable from form: the word “technology” stems from the Greek “tekne” for “art”. Communicating a style, even in a business-to-business corporation, can create added value and make a real difference.

In practical terms, Olivetti is the master. In Italy and throughout the world, almost

all the contributions made by Italians to the invention of the typewriter have been forgot-ten. However, the myth created by the compa-ny in Ivrea – founded by Camillo Olivetti and brought to greatness by his son Adriano – con-tinues to this day. From the soft touch of the M40 to the revolutionary styling of the Lettera 22 and Lettera 32. And the overriding element was the perception of the all-round excellence of “Made in Italy” products, which brought the concept of “great beauty” to the world of me-chanical objects.

T

45 46 47 48

T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 3149 50 51 52

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

www.brovedani.it

The essential styling of the Lettera 32, the successor to the mythical Lettera 22.In the background, an image from Brovedani’s 2013 Calendar

depicting the “great beauty” of Italian styling which has over the centuries been a hallmark of our country.