James Densmore

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]

James Densmore
Born(1820-02-03)February 3, 1820[1]
Moscow, New York, United States
DiedSeptember 16, 1889(1889-09-16) (aged 69)[1]
Brooklyn, New York, United States
NationalityAmerican

It was believed that Densmore had suggested splitting up commonly used letter combinations in order to solve a jamming problem, but called in question.[3] This concept was later refined by Sholes and 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]

References
  1. Johnson
  2. Invention of the Typewriter, Wisconsin Historical Marker, Retrieved May 11, 2008.
  3. Koichi and Motoko Yasuoka: On the Prehistory of QWERTY, ZINBUN, No.42 (March 2011), pp.161-174.
  4. Anonymous. (1923). Story of the Typewriter, 1873-1923. Herkimer County Historical Society. p. 38
  5. Guinn, James Miller. (1902). Historical and Biographical Record of Southern California. Chapman Publishing Company. pp. 1216-1217
  6. Youmans 1921, p. 4.
  7. Youmans 1921, p. 4-5.

Bibliography
  • 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 – via JSTOR.


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