Gramer Girl here, I'm Mignon Fogarty and before we get started I have a correction.

Last week I said the book The Greatest Generation was by Peter Brocaw, but it was actually by

Tom Brocaw.

I have no idea where I got the idea it was Peter, sorry Tom, and thanks to all the listeners

who pointed out the problem.

And now I have a meeting middle about phrases we still say even though they're from old

or obsolete technology.

Have you ever wondered about the origin of CC, a setting you likely use when sending an

email message?

Perhaps you're also curious about why the word dime appears in, drop a dime on someone,

and dime store.

Well, before smartphones, tablets, computers, and printers, there were typewriters, first

manual, and then electric.

The first mention of a patent for something resembling a typewriter occurred in 1714 during

the reign of Queen Anne in Britain.

Mr. Henry Mill, an engineer, received a patent for, quote, an artificial machine or method

for the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one after another

as in writing, unquote.

This invention apparently went nowhere because the next mention of a typewriter-related

patent came more than a hundred years later in 1829 in America.

Manual typewriters didn't become practical into the late 1800s, and by 1909 typewriters

were so popular that 89 manufacturers in America were producing them.

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