Who Knew?

Thomas S. Mullaney introduces a history of innovation surrounding the various iterations of Chinese typewriters, as well as the baseless mockery these inventions often received in the West:

The same condescending tone pervaded media accounts in the years following, as in a Washington Post article published two years later about a newly patented machine which surpassed that of Qi. Entitled “The Newest Inventions,” the article placed the new model of Chinese typewriter alongside such absurdities as a “dancing radiator doll” and “a mouse trap for burglars.”