3. Peter Mitterhofer

The revolutionary change which Gutenberg made to writing with the invention of printing was taken further in the mid 19th Century.
A craftsman from Partschins played a significant role in this. We are talking here about the joiner and carpenter Peter Mitterhofer, who made history as the inventor of the typewriter. If you cross the cube, on your left you will see a picture of the “Sagschneiderhaus” where Mitterhofer was born in 1822. The sawmill which Mitterhofer’s father leased from the municipality was torn down in 1896 in order to make space for a lock which the power stations of Merano and Bolzano used to divert water to generate electricity. The son of a joiner, he was the first of nine children and was exposed to his father’s craft from an early age, which led him to be an apprentice after very successful schooling in Partschins. Later, Peter travelled as a journeyman to a wide variety of countries in Europe according to an old tradition. It is claimed that he traversed Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France and even the Balkans whilst on the road.
Steeped in experience, Mitterhofer finally returned to his homeland to earn a living as an independent craftsman. In the “Zimmerhaus” in the western end of the village where he took up residence with Marie Steidl, whom he married at the age of 40, he set up his own workshop where he worked tirelessly until his death and where he built the first model of a typewriter. How did a joiner come to invent a typewriter? This justifiable question leads us back to Mitterhofer again, but not to the joiner and carpenter but to the musician and entertainer. Mitterhofer was a master of the art of living in the true sense of the word when it came to entertaining others with his improvised songs, his self-written verses and his homemade musical instruments. He was also a story-teller and ventriloquist - a true jack of all trades. Mitterhofer used his arts in the best possible way during his time as a journeyman and also used them as a sideline in his home town of Partschins.
It is claimed that it was one of his musical instruments which finally gave Mitterhofer the idea for a typewriter. The “Hölzerne Glachter”, a type of wooden xylophone which produces a noise similar to laughing, already had the technical features which - in another form - later characterize the typewriter. Small hammers which hit small wooden plates in order to produce a sound served as the model for the typebar which hits the paper to produce printed letters.

The more Mitterhofer was loved by the children, the more he had problems with the adults, who saw him as a fool. Inventing the typewriter made this opinion worse rather than better.
Between 1864 and 1869, Mitterhofer built 5 models of typewriters using the most simple tools – two predominantly from wood and engraved letters and 3 from metal and metal types. In 1864, shortly after he married the carpenter’s daughter, Marie Steidl, Mitterhofer built the first typewriter – two reconstructions of which you can see here. The original is now in the Technical Museum in Vienna. True to his profession as a joiner, he used predominantly wood for this and only the type basket and typebar are made from metal. The letters are not pushed into the ink but are first pricked through the paper by fixed needles on the typebars, creating a similar effect to Braille. Mitterhofer also used engraved letters on the next model – the second of the 5 typewriter models. The Dresden model – so called after the place in which it is kept – has other similarities with model 1, e.g. the wooden frame on the type basket to tension the paper which replaces the rollers here. On model 1, this wooden frame does not exist. Mitterhofer uses rollers as of model 3, where he also replaces the engraved letters with proper metal types. An inked bristled area which the types touch when struck ensures that the letters are covered in ink and appear on the paper black on white. The model itself is missing today and could only be reconstructed based on the descriptions of the inventor and the box it was transported in displayed here. The wooden box can be seen as the precursor for subsequent typewriter cases since the case was designed to be a type of suitcase with which Mitterhofer could go to the Imperial Court in Vienna. In addition to a further trial model - named the Merano model and which can be seen in the Stadtmuseum there, Mitterhofer built his masterpiece which would serve as the prototype for mass production. Mitterhofer travelled to Vienna with this model, as he did 3 years beforehand with the model which is missing today, where he presented his invention to Emperor Franz Joseph I in the hope of gaining his support. In his appeal to the Emperor, he asked for “the most gracious viewing of his newly invented writing apparatus and for investment with a small subsidy from public funds to realise his invention.”
Unfortunately, the imperial advisors did not recognise the value of his brilliant invention and it therefore remained unused. Caught up in the undertow of a period of political unrest at this time, Austria did not recognise the enormous potential offered by Mitterhofer, who was far ahead of his time, and thus missed out on the European and perhaps even global premiere of the mass production of typewriters.
In December 1867, the Innsbruck newspaper gave this report on Mitterhofer's invention: Peter Mitterhofer from Partschins, a skilled carpenter, has invented a typewriter. Now we’re only missing a machine to think for us too which can be used in conjunction with the typewriter and schools will no longer be necessary!
A statement which could not have described the subsequent development of the computer better and thus embodied the entire tragedy of Mitterhofer’s fate.
Fame passed by the ingenious inventor and in 1893 he died alone at the age of 71. You can visit his grave in Pfarrfriedhof next door. The gravestone, which was not erected until 30 years after his death, was commissioned by one of the first Mitterhofer researchers, the Austrian Professor Granichstaedten-Czerva. It bears the saying: “The others who learnt from him should inherit the fruits of his talent”.

In the Peter Mitterhofer diorama you will see various original pieces from his workshop: his carpenter’s bench, with the bellows and the anvil with the accompanying blacksmith tools. Mitterhofer often forged at the village smiths, which you can see in the photo. Later, when he made most of the typewriter models from metal, the inventor set up his joiner's workshop as a blacksmith's. You can also see the back-basket with the transportation chest which he made for his march on foot to Vienna in order to take the typewriter to the Emperor. You can also see, on the left outside the diorama, the reconstruction of a washing machine which the brilliant inventor and tinkerer made after his wife became ill and was bedridden so that he could manage the entire household by himself.