Speeds attained by other typists in other typing competitions at the time suggest that they must have been using similar systems.

[4] The following story of how McGurrin came to operate the typewriter by "touch" is told in his own words: I first began using the method in 1878 under the following circumstances.

I did not meet the girl in Mr. Welch’s office for two years after and then learned to my surprise that she did not operate the machine without looking at the keyboard and had never attempted to do so.

I do not take any great credit for having thought of operating without looking at the keyboard for it is simply a matter of common sense, and the system of fingering is so simple that anybody could formulate it.

Mr. Welch is still the court reporter at Grand Rapids and can vouch for the fact that as early as 1878, I was operating the machine by touch.Corbitt's effort "to take the conceit out of" McGurrin resulted in the development of an operator who was the first to demonstrate that "touch" typewriting was not an unattainable ideal, but could actually be accomplished with a saving of time and labor.

Theodore C. Rose, Vice-President of the International Convention of Shorthand Writers, at the meeting at Chicago on September 1, 1881, made the following reference to McGurrin's work: "I would say that in the past week I was in the office of Walsh & Ford, in Grand Rapids, and that a young man in their office, on a test, wrote ninety-seven words on the type-writer, and read the copy.