Did you know?

Carbon Paper

The first documented use of the term “carbonated paper” was in 1806, when Englishman Ralph Wedgwood, patented his “Stylographic Writer.” However, Pellegrino Turri had invented a typewriter in Italy by at least 1808, for which “black paper” was essential. Both men invented their “carbon paper” as a means to help blind people write through the use of a machine, and the “black paper” was really just a substitute for ink.

Turri had very personal reasons for developing carbon paper. He fell in love with the Countess Carolina Fantoni, who had become blind “in the flower of her youth and beauty”, and Turri resolved to build her a machine that would enable her to correspond with her friends (including him) in private.