History of the Typewriter

— 109 — The simplicity of the carriage secures great rigidity. The type-bars are locked at both ends in the act of printing, and permanency of alignment is thus secured. The type- guide effecting this is placed close to the base of the type- bars, and is also said to take up any wear in the only point of connection between the type-bar and lever. The other guide is placed immediately over the platen at the point of writing contact, an arrangement which prevents more than one type getting close to the paper, and locks colliding types in such a way that neither can print. The Franklin ribbon is a narrow one, carried on two spools and capable of instant reversal. On the left of the carriage is the line space lever, which on being struck by the forefinger returns the carriage at the same time as it makes the line space. The carriage stop can be adjusted at any point desired on the V shaped track on which the carriage travels. The bell trip is on the rod holding the spring which operates the upper and lower case, and may be adjusted to ring at pleasure. The usual scales—two in number—are provided, and, as will be readily seen from the illustration, the writing is visible at all times. An improved model, incorporating a square key-board, was stated (in 1906), to be in preparation. The Oliver. Thomas Oliver, the inventor of the machine to which he has given his name, passed his boyhood’s days upon a farm, where he found many opportunities for giving vent to his mechanical genius. He made crude models of threshing machines, and reapers and ploughs. Windmills and other mills also found in him a possible improver. These models were made with such tools and material as he found about the farmhouse and the toolshop which was attached thereto. As an instance of his juvenile precocity, it may be mentioned that at the age of twelve, he made up his mind to build a steam engine. He had, at that time, never seen inside an engine shop, but that was no barrier. George Guest, the Indian who reduced the Cherokee language to paper, was absolutely ignorant of reading and writing, and was, moreover, inclined to deafness, but he did his work very well, and Thomas Oliver was not going to be outdone by the Indian, although, perhaps, at that time, he had never heard of him or his work. With the aid of an old hammer and a saw, and a