Latest news with #JohnGalloway
Scotsman
04-06-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
The Scots inventor of an early typewriter and a "magical letter" home from New York
Number 1 Remington typewriter, the first type of Remington made, around 1864. PIC: NMS | NMS A letter send home to Scotland from New York more than 150 years ago hints that one of the earliest typewriters may have been invented in the industrial powerhouse of Paisley decades before the machines first came on the market. Sign up to our History and Heritage newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... John Galloway was a Paisley man with an inventive spirit - and a determination to succeed. He emigrated from Scotland to New York in the early 1840s and now a letter written home by the Scot indicates he was working on the invention of the typewriter before he left these shores - and decades before the typewriter first hit the market. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The correspondence, which includes an early piece of typed print, was written in 1868 and has been donated to the National Museum of Scotland by Robin Collins, the great, great, great niece of Galloway, who described it as a 'magical little letter'. The letter written in 1868 which details Galloway's invention of an early writing machine, which he likened to a piano which printed letters. | NMS The correspondence illuminates the Scots role in the development of the early writing machine, which he likened to a piano that could print letters. 'When I was young in comparison to what I now am, I took up the idea that some kind of machine could be made with keys, similar to those of a piano, to print letters, instead of writing them with a pen,' Galloway wrote home to his niece. He added: 'It would surely be as easy and as speedy to operate upon keys with the fingers, as to write with a pen; the trouble of learning would be less and the composition would be more easily read than when done up in a rugged scrawl.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad READ MORE: Eight stunning photographs of New York from the air Before leaving for America, Galloway lived in the industrial powerhouse of Paisley. He came from a family of engineers and Galloway worked as a millwright in the town alive with learning and innovation as progress was pushed. New York, the adopted home of inventor John Galloway, in 1954. He left Paisley for America with his wife in the mid 1840s. PIC: Public Collection/New York Public Lending Library Collection. | Public Collection/New York Public Lending Library Collection. Dr Rebekah Higgitt, principal curator of science at NMS, said: 'The letter is evidence of the existence of an early machine for typewriting, which we didn't know about. 'Galloway went for a patent for a machine in the 1870s, but this is evidence of two early machines. One of these was made in New York but he talks about an earlier one. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We are trying to work out exactly when he emigrated, but we think the early machine was possibly made in Paisley.' Galloway's early typewriter does not survive, but the letter and the little sample of typed text from his later invention - shed light on the man and his dream for the writing machine which later transformed communication and the world of work, particularly for women. Galloway wrote he had constructed 'an apparatus with which I accomplished that object, with the exception that the impression was made in relief, only, instead of being done with colour.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Number 1 Remington typewriter, the first type of Remington made, around 1864. PIC: NMS | NMS Galloway told his niece that he still had some samples 'made at the time', but it is unclear exactly when that was. 'Certainly, it was in Scotland,' Dr Higgitt said. READ MORE: The Scottish islanders conned by a new life in New York Galloway wrote of leaving Scotland for America shortly after his first typewriter took shape, with the project abandoned. Whether he left his early model behind is not known. He left at a time of significant economic hardship in Paisley and industrial change, with widespread bankruptices, particularly among mill owners, and high rates of unemployment recorded. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad By 1950, he was living in New York and was almost 40 at that time. He and his wife, Janet, were listed in the census with their baby son, who was born in America. This would date his work on the typewriter before that of Peter Hood, who was working on a writing machine in Angus in the 1850s, the curator added. The US-based E. Remington & Son made by an early typewriterin 1864 with modern versions made and exported from 1876. The timeline puts Galloway's machines potentially decades ahead of when these typewriters first arrived in Scotland from America. They were considered luxury items which then cost the equivalent of half the average annual salary. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Meanwhile, Galloway was working as a bookseller in New York, with his two sons later involved in the business. Despite his employment, Galloway pressed on with his inventions and was granted two patents in New York, one in 1873 for an 'Improvement in Type-Writing Machines' and one in 1883 - three years after he retired - for a stenographic machine. Another piece of evidence potentially adds further weight to Galloway's role in the development of the typewriter. A short pamphlet was published in 1837 by a man of the same name called 'A New System of Stenography', which introduced a novel system of shorthand writing. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In the 1868 letter, Galloway wrote of his second machine, which - unlike the first - printed letters with ink. According to Dr Higgitt, this was almost contemporary with a machine with piano-style keys which was patented that year by Sholes, Glidden and Soule. Galloway wrote that his machine would have been better 'had it been made by a regular machinist, and with proper materials'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad At the time of the letter, Galloway's wife was seriously ill and his aspirations for his new family life across the Atlantic were being challenged with the realities of low-paid opportunities and a long, cold winter. But his vision for the typewriter remained intact,.The sample typed text sent home to Scotland opens with a line from poet Robert Burns: 'And faith he'll print it'. The letter talks about the weather, the fine and long autumn turning to a cold winter, and the high fuel costs which, he wrote, would cause 'much suffering among the poor'. The correspondence added: 'Rents are so outrageously high here, and all the necessaries of life are so high also, that it requires great exertion to make a decent livelihood. We find it difficult to make any headway, notwithstanding all our efforts.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Galloway never patented his invention, which seemed to come at a difficult time in his life. Shortly after writing the letter home, his wife died. Mrs Collins, of Yetholm in the Scottish Borders, donated the letter and the typed text after visiting The Typewriter Revolution exhibition in 2021 'by chance'.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Vanguard to add four more funds to investor proxy choice program
This story was originally published on ESG Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily ESG Dive newsletter. Vanguard will expand its program allowing investors to choose individualized investment and engagement policies to four more funds in the second half of 2025, the company announced last week. The nation's second-largest asset manager said the program will include four index funds, allowing nearly 10 million investors to participate if they so choose, according to a May 29 release. The expansion will 'nearly quadruple' the assets under management to nearly $1 trillion in program eligible funds and bring the total number of funds eligible funds to 12. The program's expansion comes after an April Vanguard survey of more than 1,000 investors found 83% of respondents believed it was important for asset managers to consider investor preference when casting proxy votes, and 57% of respondents expressing interest in participating in proxy choice programs. Vanguard first launched its proxy voting choice pilot in February 2023 with three eligible equity funds, before including two additional index funds for the 2024 proxy season and adding three more in November to bring the total to eight eligible funds. The program gives participating investors five different policy options, allowing participants to align their votes with company boards, Vanguard's recommendations, Glass Lewis' ESG policy, a 'wealth-focused' anti-ESG policy from Egan-Jones or vote in proportion with other shareholders. Vanguard expanded its policy options for the 2025 proxy season to give investors the Egan-Jones policy option and replaced a former 'not voting' with the mirror voting policy. Additionally, November's expansion was the first time that retirement plan sponsors were allowed to participate if they have program eligible funds in their portfolio. Vanguard's Global Head of Investment Stewardship John Galloway said in last week's release that the program's continued expansion 'underscores [Vanguard's] confidence that a range of independent perspectives contributes to a healthy corporate governance ecosystem and well-functioning capital markets.' The expansion will add Vanguard's Value Index Fund, Growth Index Fund, Mid-Cap Index Fund and Large-Cap Index Fund to the program. The May 29 program expansion will also broaden its eligibility to 529 plan sponsors, according to the release. Two-thirds of investors who participated in Vanguard's April study (66%) said they would opt in to such a program if offered by their employer's retirement plan. However, the expanded eligibility does not guarantee expanded asset manager reported having 40,000 participants in the program after the 2024 proxy season, which Morningstar Sustainalytics' Director of Investment Stewardship Research Lindsey Stewart said at the time was a 'decent start,' but 'not a large proportion' of Vanguard's investors. Last September, Vanguard reported a plurality of participants — 43% — aligned their voting policy with the asset manager's recommendations in the 2024 proxy season and another 30% aligned their votes with company board recommendations. Under a quarter of participants (24.4%) chose the Glass Lewis ESG policy. Recommended Reading Vanguard's updated investor proxy choice program includes anti-ESG voting option Errore nel recupero dei dati Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati
Reuters
31-01-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Vanguard dials back diversity language for US corporate boards
Summary Companies Removes some guidance related to women and minority directors Vanguard says the change aims to account for regional standards Change comes ahead of annual shareholder meeting season BlackRock has eliminated a 30% diversity target for boards Jan 31 (Reuters) - Top mutual fund manager Vanguard removed some of its guidance for U.S. companies to include women and minority directors, a sign of the shifting dynamics of corporate diversity efforts that have come under attack from the new Trump administration. With $10.1 trillion in assets under management, any change in Vanguard's guidance will be closely followed as the 2025 annual shareholder meeting season gets going in March. Vanguard's proxy voting policy for U.S. companies, seen by Reuters ahead of a Friday release, has removed a statement from its 2024 policy that in addition to having a diversity of tenure and skills, a board should also, "at a minimum, represent diversity of personal characteristics, inclusive of at least diversity in gender, race, and ethnicity." Vanguard said the change aims to account for regional standards, such as a UK expectation that 40% of directors be women. There is no equivalent U.S. requirement and Nasdaq has ended an effort to require corporate diversity disclosures, opens new tab. Vanguard does not have hard targets for who should serve as directors and is only trying to provide clarity, said John Galloway, Vanguard's global head of investment stewardship. "We have never had quotas, and in the first instance look for boards to follow the listing standard and market expectations of the markets they are in," he said. Vanguard's guidance for U.S. companies continues to include other language supportive of boardroom diversity, such as that boards should reflect a range of "personal characteristics (such as age, gender, and/or race/ethnicity)" to enable better oversight for shareholders. Executives across all industries are facing pressure to drop diversity, equity and inclusion policies, with President Donald Trump issuing a series of executive orders aimed at dismantling DEI programs since taking office on Jan. 20. Meanwhile, investors so far have stood by the policies such as those at Costco (COST.O), opens new tab where 98% of votes cast rejected an anti-DEI resolution on Jan. 23. Boardrooms have slowly grown more representative since the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020, but gains for women and minorities are slowing as companies reach goals and look at other recruiting priorities. Vanguard rival BlackRock (BLK.N), opens new tab, in its 2025 guidance, eliminated a 30% diversity target for boards from late 2021, noting that 98% of S&P 500 boardrooms already meet that goal. Various Republican officials have accused both Vanguard and BlackRock of putting too much emphasis on environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns, while the companies say they prioritize returns. Vanguard for instance did not back any of 400 environmental or social shareholder resolutions last year in the U.S., and the new domestic guidance also removes examples of such resolutions it might support, a move Galloway said was meant to avoid confusion. "We're trying to provide clarity to people who have concerns, whether they are pro-ESG or anti-ESG," Galloway said. here.
