Who was Padre Azevedo? Who Invented the Typewriter?

Rio de Janeiro - Looking for hidden treasure in the stands of used books by the Carioca Metro station, I found a copy of the book "Um Inventor Brasileiro" (A Brazilian Inventor) by Ataliba Nogueira (São Paulo, Empresa Gráfica da Revista dos Tribunais, 1934), dedicated to Padre Francisco João de Azevedo, born in Paraíba in 1814, and considered by many to have been the inventor of the typewriter. While reading I did a quick search in Google, and discovered that the newspaper "A União" had just recently published an article by Hilton Gouvêa on Padre Azevedo.

Azevedo was born in the capital of Paraíba, studied at the Seminary in Olinda, and was professor for technical studies at the Arsenal in Recife, where machines and equipment for the Army were made. His prototype for the typewriter, almost entirely made of wood, was exhibited at the Provincial Exposition in 1861, in Pernambuco, and at the General Exposition of the Empire of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, beginning in December of the same year. The machine, highly praised by the press, received one of the eight gold medals awarded to the 1,136 participants (who displayed a total of 9,962 objects). A magnificent result.

What came after was the usual tragedy: the inventor was not able to participate in 1862 in the International Exposition in London, due to lack of space in the spot allocated for Brazilian products; he was not even able to produce a prototype cast in metal. He grew old, disheartened, and saw his idea being copied by foreign inventors. Read more about Padre Azevedo (in Portuguese).

I have already written in my column for the Brazilian daily Jornal da Paraíba about the melancholy fate of Brazilians (either native-born or naturalized) who anticipated great European inventions but were unable to make their voices heard by governments or the scientific community: "Who was Landell de Moura?" and "Who was Hercule Florence?" Episodes like these show us that a technological invention requires two things: individual creativity and a supportive cultural environment. In all of these cases, what was lacking was the latter. Santos Dumont managed to push his invention forward because he was rich, lived in Paris, and could create, by himself, the necessary conditions. Even so, he lost the final battle, that of historical recognition, since the Wright Brothers managed to convince the whole world (with the exception of Brazil and France) that they were the inventors of the airplane.

Unlike artistic creativity, which in general requires relatively modest resources, technological invention demands the production of prototypes so that a patent can be applied for, and second, industrial production, even if on a modest scale, so that the patent will not expire. This is not easy nowadays, and was even less so in the agrarian, bureaucratic and rhetorical Brazil of the nineteenth century. Saying this is no consolation for the memory of the inventors, but in the case of Florence, Landell and Azevedo, they were successful; it was the country which failed.

* Translated from the original Portuguese by Tom Moore. Tom is a classical musician and translator who lives in Rio de Janeiro. His most recent CD of trio sonatas by Boismortier is available from A Casa Estúdio.

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