Thomas Edison described his "type-writer" this way:

My invention relates to the method of producing printed impressions in duplicate, consisting in pressing upon paper types in succession each of which has a surface of points so as to perforate the paper, and then forcing through the perforations ink upon the sheet of paper, and thereby printing the same.

That is from Patent No. 295,990 dated April 1, 1884. Edison was only 37 years old at the time, well on his way to more than 1,200 patents by the time he died.

The typewriter played a small role in one of the bigger stories this week - Dan Rather announcing his retirement in as dignified a manner as he could have hoped. (It's such a big story, Drudge hasn't changed it as his lead piece for three days.) If Rather had taken the time to figure out the difference between what Edison's invention produced and what Gates' software produced, who knows? Maybe President-elect Kerry would be announcing his selection of Richard Ben-Veniste as White House Counsel this week. And maybe Rather would be sticking around. So it goes.

Establishment types may keep trying to portray Rather as something of an American original. He might be. Sometimes, though, it's worth looking back at history to compare the real originals to fakes.