Inventor. He received notoriety for being an American inventor in the 19th century, who invented a prototype of the modern typewriter. Pratt, an Alabama attorney, was an investor to several newspapers near his home, one being the “Centre News.” By 1857 he desired a better way to print newspapers but had little or no training in mechanics. At the dawn of the American Civil War, he sold his slaves in Selma in 1861, he traveled to Mobile to sail to Scotland and then to London, England. He realized there would be little support for a Southern inventor in the United States during a civil war. In England he was looking for support for his bulky typewriter called the Pterotype, and received it after he presented his invention to the Royal Society of Great Britain, the Society of Arts, and the Society of Engineers. His Pterotyp looked more like a printing press than the modern typewriter. He had completed his invention in 1864 and was granted patent #3163 in London on December 1, 1866 along with a patent in France. By 1867 he had sold several of his machines. Customers included Sir Charles Wheatstone and Dr. Bence Jones, secretary of the Royal Institute and author of “Life of Faraday.” In the meantime, three American inventors, Carlos Glidden, Samuel W. Soule, and Christopher Sholes, received a patent for a smaller, more practical machine in the United States on June 23, 1868. There were many other changes through the years before the typewriter of today with a keyboard and a device to deliver ink was invented. After returning to the United States, he learned that due to the war, he had lost any Alabama property. He and his family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he continued his research for the rest of his life and became the President of the Society of Science Research. He received a United States patent for his latest model of a typewriter in 1882 and sold it to Hammond Company. His typewriter had upper and lower case lettering. In 1921 Alabama newspaper articles printed in the “Montgomery Advertiser” and the “Coosa River News” give evidence to his claim of inventing the typewriter. The articles refer to an earlier newspaper article in the “Centre News” and letters written at the time. Journals containing minutes from the English societies and bill of sales to customers prove the dates of his invention. The earliest newspaper article stated “If Sholes is the father of the typewriter, then Pratt is the grandfather.” In 1923 Arthur E. Morton of the Smith Premier Typewriter Company in England and author of several books on the history of the typewriters, saved what is thought to be the last of Pratt's Pterotype from destruction along with Pratt's blueprints. Born the son of Judge John Pratt and his wife Dorcus Moore, Pratt attended Colesburg College, a church school in South Carolina. He graduated with a B.A. Degree before studying law. Fifteen years after passing the bar exam, he abandon a law career for journalism. In 1852 he married Julia Porter, who traveled to Europe with him. After his death, his body was returned to Alabama for burial.