Background
He was born on April 14, 1831 in Unionville, South Carolina, United States, the son of John J. and Dorcas E. (Moore) Pratt.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
John Pratt
Edit ProfileEducation
After attending the local public schools, he entered Cokesbury College, a church school in the village of that name in his native state, and was graduated in 1849, receiving the degree of B. A.
Career
He began newspaper work and at the same time studied law, working in various small towns both in South Carolina and Alabama. Presumably journalism was the more appealing occupation and in the course of fifteen years he obtained some reputation in this field.
Accompanied by his wife Pratt went abroad in 1864 and lived in England for a number of years. Pratt had no mechanical training but a writing machine was particularly appealing to him as a journalist and it seems that, shortly after reaching England, he began experiments, employing an English model-maker to assist him. He received from the British Patent Office provisional protection of his idea in 1864, and on December 1, 1866, was granted a British patent, No. 3, 163, for a writing mechanism which he called a "ptereotype. "
He was invited to exhibit his device before the Society of Arts, the Society of Engineers in London, and before the Royal Society of Great Britain. George C. Mares, in his History of the Typewriter (1909), writes: "Pratt's machine was by far the most complete and practicable machine which had appeared up to that date, and it is owing to its appearance, and the newspaper articles and discussions which it provoked, that we owe the typewriter of today. "
Writing machines had been made prior to Pratt's, but most of these were of the type in which the printing character was mounted on a type bar, whereas the printing characters in Pratt's machine were arranged on a single revolving wheel. This class immediately gained considerable prominence and Pratt was able to sell several machines in London in 1867.
Encouraged by the reception of his machine, he returned to the United States in 1868, settled at Center, Alabama, and in August of that year received a patent for his typewriter. It comprised a wheel and selecting devices actuated by key levers, the impression being effected by a hammer. In 1882 he obtained a second typewriter patent which he immediately sold to the Hammond Company, and shortly thereafter he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where the typewriters were being made and where he continued to make inventions in this field until his death.
Achievements
-
John Pratt was an inventor of a writing mechanism which he called a "ptereotype. " His later invention was the forerunner of the well known Hammond typewriter. While his contribution to the early development of the typewriter was an important one, the particular model invented by Pratt did not meet the manifold requirements of commercial users and soon fell by the wayside.
Connections
In 1852 he married Julia R. Porter, daughter of Benjamin F. Porter of Alabama.
