The foot treadle was a bit awkward

Also at Type-Writer.org:

1. George Eliot and the typewriter In 1899, Oscar Browning of The National Union of Typists offered this interesting anecdote about George Eliot’s encounter with what was likely a Sholes &...
2. The House Typewriter A photograph of a “writing machine somewhat similar in construction to the Remington typewriter” stirred considerable interest among stenographers at the fourth annual congress of...