1808 - Carbon paper is invented by Pellegrine Tarri.
1829 - William Austin Burt invents the typographer, a predecessor to the typewriter.
1843 - Alexander Bain receives the first patent for a fax machine.
1850 - A London inventor named FC Blakewell receives a patent for what he calls a `copying telegraph`.
1855 - Italian inventor Giuseppe Ravizza creates a prototype typewriter called `Cembalo scrivano o macchina da scrivere a tasti`. It is an advanced machine that lets the user see the writing as it is typed.
1860 - A fax machine called the Pantelegraph sends the first fax between Paris and Lyon.
1865 - Rev Rasmus Malling-Hansen of Denmark makes a porcelain model of the keyboard of his writing ball and experiments with different placements of the letters to achieve the fastest writing speed. Malling-Hansen placed the letters on short pistons that went directly through the ball and down to the paper. This, together with placement of the letters so that the fastest writing fingers struck the most frequently used letters, made the Hansen Writing Ball the first typewriter to produce text substantially faster than a person could write by hand.
1868 - The modern typewriter is patented by Christopher Latham Sholes.
1870 - The basic groundwork for the electric typewriter is laid by the Universal Stock Ticker, invented by Thomas Edison. This device remotely prints letters and numbers on a stream of paper tape from input generated by a specially designed typewriter at the other end of a telegraph line.
1873 - Sholes` design is manufactured by the Remington Arms Company.
1874 - The first `Sholes & Glidden type writer` is offered for sale.
1876 - Thomas Edison receives a US patent for `Autographic Printing`. The patent covers the electric pen, used for making a mimeograph stencil and the flatbed duplicating press.
1886 - George K Anderson of Memphis, Tennessee, patents the typewriter ribbon.
1887 - The word `mimeograph` is first used by Albert Blake Dick when he licenses Edison`s patents.
1891 - David Gestetner patents his automatic cyclostyle. This is one of the first rotary machines that retains the flatbed, which passes back and forth under inked rollers. This invention provides for more automated, faster reproductions since the pages are produced and moved by rollers instead of pressing one single sheet at a time.
1900 - Two primary types of mimeographs come into use: a single-drum machine and a dual drum machine. The mimeograph machine was made popular because it had the ability to make many copies cheaply. One individual with a typewriter and the necessary equipment essentially became his own printing factory.
1902 - The first electric typewriter is produced by the Blickensderfer Manufacturing Company, of Stamford, Connecticut. While never marketed commercially, this was the first known typewriter to use a typewheel rather than individual typebars. Dr Arthur Korn invents an improved and practical fax, the photoelectric system.
1906 - Xerox is founded as The Haloid Company, which originally manufactured photographic paper and equipment. The company changed its name to Haloid Xerox in 1958.
1929 - Gustav Tauschek obtains a patent on OCR in Germany, followed by Handel, who obtains a US patent on OCR in 1933.
1937 - The process called xerography is invented by Chester Carlson. Carlson had invented a copying process based on electrostatic energy.
1940s - A silent typewriter is marketed, but fails, leading some observers to the conclusion that the clickety-clack of the typical typewriter is a consumer preference.
1944 - IBM designs the first typewriter with proportional spacing.
1950s - Correction fluid makes its appearance, under brand names such as Liquid Paper, Wite-Out and Tipp-Ex.
1950 - Xerography is made commercially available by the Xerox Corporation. Xerography comes from the Greek for `dry writing`.
1950 - David Shepard, a cryptanalyst at the Armed Forces Security Agency in the US, is asked by Frank Rowlett, who had broken the Japanese Purple diplomatic code, to work with Dr Louis Tordella to recommend data automation procedures for the agency. This includes the problem of converting printed messages into machine language for computer processing. Shepard decides it must be possible to build a machine to do this, and, with the help of Harvey Cook, a friend, built `Gismo` in his attic. Shepard then founds Intelligent Machines Research Corporation (IMR), which goes on to deliver the world`s first commercial OCR system.
1953 - The first high-speed printer is developed by Remington-Rand for use on the Univac computer.
1959 - Xerox comes to prominence with the introduction of the first plain paper photocopier using the process of xerography (electrophotography).
1960s - With the development of timesharing computers that could run more than one program at once, many research organisations write programs to exchange text messages and even real-time chat among users at different terminals.
1963 - Xerox introduces the Xerox 813, the first desktop plain-paper copier.
1970s - Dry correction products (such as correction paper) under brand names such as Ko-Rec-Type are introduced.
1970 - Offset printing begins to replace letterpress printing.
1971 - Ray Tomlinson develops the first ARPANET e-mail application.
1971 - The original laser printer, called Ears, is developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre.
1973 - The first colour copier is introduced.
1975 - DARPA program manager Steve Walker initiates a project to develop an MSG-like e-mail capability for the Unix operating system.
1976 - The first IBM 3800 is installed in the central accounting office at FW Woolworth`s North American data centre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The IBM 3800 Printing System is the industry`s first high-speed laser printer, operating at speeds of more than 100 impressions per minute.
1976 - The inkjet printer is invented, but it takes until 1988 for the inkjet to become a home consumer item, with Hewlett-Packard`s release of the DeskJet inkjet printer.
1977 - The first laser printer is produced by Xerox after researcher Gary Starkweather modified a Xerox copier in 1971.
1980s - Word processor applications on personal computers largely overtake the tasks previously accomplished with typewriters.
1980s - Towards the end of the commercial popularity of typewriters, a number of hybrid designs combining features of computer printers and typewriters are introduced.
1980s - A number of vendors begin developing systems to manage paper-based documents. Initially designed to offer mainly document imaging-level capture, storage, indexing and retrieval capabilities, the applications grow to encompass electronic documents, collaboration tools, security, and auditing capabilities.
1989 - The Canon Typestar 110, featuring a variation known as `Correcting Selectrics`, introduces a correction feature, where a sticky tape in front of the print ribbon can remove the black-powdered image of a typed character, eliminating the need for white dab-on paint or hard erasers that could tear the paper. These machines also introduce selectable pitch so the typewriter can be switched between pica (10 characters per inch) and elite (12 per inch), even within one document.
1992 - Hewlett-Packard releases the popular LaserJet 4, the first 600 by 600 dots per inch resolution laser printer.
1993 - The large network service providers America Online and Delphi start to connect their proprietary e-mail systems to the Internet, beginning the large-scale adoption of Internet e-mail as a global standard.
Sources: The History and Development of the Internet: a Timeline, Rhonda Davila. A Brief History of the Internet, Barry M Leiner, Vinton G Cerf, David D Clark, Robert E Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C Lynch, Jon Postel, Larry G Roberts, Stephen Wolff. Wikipedia. Keith Lynch`s timeline of Net-related terms and concepts. Hobbes` Internet Timeline. International Telecommunications Union. Ezine. A history of the computer. About.com.
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