History of the Typewriter

— 98 — The Bar-Lock typewriter differs from those in the foregoing chapter, inasmuch as, instead of arranging the type-bars in a circle, with the types hanging down, the circle was cut in halves, and the type-bars turned up, so as to strike downward towards the paper. The second half of the circle was then placed behind the other, so that the bars struck between those in front row. This permitted the first great aim of the inventor to be secured, namely, visible writing. Fig. 77 FlG' 78 The Bar-Lock was also the first machine to use a duplicate keyboard. The Caligraph, years previously, had provided a. key for each character, but the principle governing the arrangement of the characters in that machine was to group the small letters in the centre of the manual, and surround them with the capitals. Th© result was, that the position of the lower-case characters afforded no clue whatever to the location of the corresponding capitals, and the learner was therefore actually hampered with having to acquire a totally different arrangement. But in the Bar-Lock the three lower rows were assigned to the lower-case, and the next three rows to the upper-case, and all that was necessary to change from one to the other was to slightly raise the position of the hands, and then write in exactly the same manner as if small and not capital letters were required. In order to render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s ” it is desirable to accredit this feature to the Bar-Lock. Each key of the Bar-Lock, therefore, carried its own meaning. The ribbon, carried on two spools hidden down in the 'veil of the machine, passed over a ribbon-guide, and gradually wound from one spool to another, when the motion was reversed by 3. touch of a. small lever. The ribbon did not, in the earlier models, recede from the paper after the impression, but was quite stationary. Numerous