American inventor, legislator, surveyor, and millwright
1792 CE
to 1858 CE
William Austin Burt (June 13, 1792 – August 18, 1858) is an American inventor, legislator, surveyor, and millwright.
He is the inventor, maker and patentee of the first typewriter constructed in America.
He is referred to as the "Father of the typewriter."
Burt also invents the first workable solar compass, a solar use surveying instrument, and the equatorial sextant, a precision navigational aid to determine with one observation the location of a ship at sea.