History of the Typewriter

— 101 — In the earlier models of the Bar-Lock, each type-bar waä mounted in its own hanger, the latter being screwed to the top plate. Later improvements, however, showed a means of rigidly mounting three bars in each hanger, so that the latter could be made exceedingly strong and firm, and so secured lasting alignment, independently of the locking pins. It would probably serve no good end to trace the machine through all its various developments, but from the first the great aim of those responsible for it has been to leave nothing for the operator to perform manually which could be performed mechanically. The following points are claimed as having originated with the Bar-Lock and since have been adopted by many of its rivals :— 1. Automatic ribbon reverse.—When the ribbon has passed from one spool to another it reverses its direction automatically, and requires no care or trouble from the time it is put on the machine until it is taken off, worn out or exhausted. 2. Automatic 'platen reverse.—There is no need to touch anything, fasten or unfasten anything, in order to reverse the platen. It is free to move backward or forward as desired. 3. Left-hand margin release.—When the margin is set, and it is desired to write outside the margin, there is no need to remove a peg or unturn a screw, or anything. Just touch the margin release key, and the margin is gone, but it automatically recovers itself when the next line is written. I • 4. Automatic keyboard lock.—When the full line of writing is reached, the keys lock and will not print any- thing further. There is, therefore, no fear of piling letters up, but— 5. A touch of the margin release key will enable more letters to be written. 6. The platen can be instantly removed. 7. The ribbon can be removed in a moment. 8. The carriage can be released for its immediate shifting from place to place. 9. Wheel for rapidly rotating the platen. The feed of the Bar-Lock is, as far as is humanly possible, perfect. Thus, if a sheet of paper be in the machine it is not necessary to remove it in order to write an envelope or a postcard. The latter is fed in on top of the former, written, and the first piece of work brought back into perfect line, and proceeded with as though there had been no interruption.