On 7 January 1714, British Patent No. 395 was granted under Queen Anne to Henry Mill for “Impressing Writing on Parchment”.
It described an artificial machine that could imprint letters one after another, so neat and exact it could pass for print. No surviving prototype is known, but the concept is widely treated as the first typewriter patent, and a direct ancestor of every keyboard-driven workflow we rely on today.
| Country | Kind | No. | Published | Title | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB | Patent | 1714 319 | 07.01.1714 | Impressing Writing on Parchment |
Last updated on 18 February 2026