Initially they were used in telegraphy, which developed in the late 1830s and 1840s as the first use of electrical engineering.[1] The machines were adapted to provide a user interface to early mainframe computers and minicomputers, sending typed data to the computer and printing the response. Some models could also be used to create punched tape for data storage (either from typed input or from data received from a remote source) and to read back such tape for local printing or transmission.