Letters: England's key inventor

DECCA Aitkenhead is near the truth ("Time taps adieu to the typewriter", 13 August). Pellegrino Turri of Castelnuovo devised a writing machine for the blind Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzono in 1808. However, credit is probably due to England. It was Henry Mill, an engineer from Sussex, who in 1714 patented an "artificial machinefor the impressing or transcribing of letters, singly or progressively as in writing, whereby all writings may be engrossed on paper or parchment so neat as not to be distinguished from print."

Melchior de Wolff

Rotterdam