In the United States, William Austin Burt patents the typographer, a precursor to the typewriter.

William Austin Burt was an American inventor, legislator, surveyor, and millwright.

The typographer was an early typewriter invented by William Austin Burt. Intended to aid in office work, the machine worked by using a lever to press characters onto paper one at a time. It was the first typewriting machine to be patented in the United States, although Pellegrino Turri had made one in Italy in 1808. Perhaps because of its slow speed, or because there was not yet a wide market for typewriters, it was not a commercial success.

A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectively against the paper with a type element. Thereby, the machine produces a legible written document composed of ink and paper. By the end of the 19th century, a person who used such a device was also referred to as a typewriter.