Frank Edward McGurrin
Encyclopedia
Frank Edward McGurrin invented Touch Typing
in 1878. He was a court stenographer at Salt Lake City who taught typing classes. He taught himself to touch type without looking at the keys, before challenging and won a competition.
Whether McGurrin was actually the first person to touch type, or simply the first to be popularly noticed, is disputed. Speeds attained by other typists in other typing competitions at the time suggest that they must have been using similar systems.
Everyone should be glad that Mr. Corbitt made this effort «to take the conceit out of» Mr. McGurrin, not because Mr. McGurrin needed any such medicine, but because the result was the development of an operator who was the first to demonstrate that «touch» writing was not an unattainable ideal, but could actually be accomplished with a saving of time and labor. This new achievement in typewriter operating immediately attracted wide attention. Mr. Theodore C. Rose, Vice-President of the International Convention of Shorthand Writers, at the meeting at Chicago
on September 1, 1881, made the following reference to Mr. McGurrin’s work:
«I would say that in the past week I was in the office of Walsh & Ford, in Grand Rapids, and that a young man in their office, on a test, wrote ninety-seven words on the type-writer, and read the copy. He did not look at the machine, at all, but kept his eye on the copy. I know he wrote ninety-seven words in a minute, because I held the watch.»
This utterance is also notable because it is probably the first reference to what we now know ad the «touch system» contained in the reports of any of the conventions.
Touch typing
Touch typing is typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys. Specifically, a touch typist will know their location on the keyboard through muscle memory. Touch typing typically involves placing the eight fingers in a horizontal row along the middle of the keyboard and having them...
in 1878. He was a court stenographer at Salt Lake City who taught typing classes. He taught himself to touch type without looking at the keys, before challenging and won a competition.
History
On July 25, 1888, McGurrin, who was purportedly the only person using touch typing at the time, won a decisive victory over Louis Traub (operating Caligraph with eight-finger method) in a typing contest held in Cincinnati. The results were displayed on the front pages of many newspapers. McGurrin won $500 ($10,820 in 2006) and popularized the new typing method.Whether McGurrin was actually the first person to touch type, or simply the first to be popularly noticed, is disputed. Speeds attained by other typists in other typing competitions at the time suggest that they must have been using similar systems.
The First Touch Operator
The following interesting story of how Mr. McGurrin came to operate the typewriter by «touch» is thus told in his own word:Everyone should be glad that Mr. Corbitt made this effort «to take the conceit out of» Mr. McGurrin, not because Mr. McGurrin needed any such medicine, but because the result was the development of an operator who was the first to demonstrate that «touch» writing was not an unattainable ideal, but could actually be accomplished with a saving of time and labor. This new achievement in typewriter operating immediately attracted wide attention. Mr. Theodore C. Rose, Vice-President of the International Convention of Shorthand Writers, at the meeting at Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
on September 1, 1881, made the following reference to Mr. McGurrin’s work:
«I would say that in the past week I was in the office of Walsh & Ford, in Grand Rapids, and that a young man in their office, on a test, wrote ninety-seven words on the type-writer, and read the copy. He did not look at the machine, at all, but kept his eye on the copy. I know he wrote ninety-seven words in a minute, because I held the watch.»
This utterance is also notable because it is probably the first reference to what we now know ad the «touch system» contained in the reports of any of the conventions.