History of the Typewriter

— 110 — few other pieces of toolery, he managed to make a steam engine that would not only get up steam, but would actually run. People had great expectations of Thomas Oliver after that, and although years rolled away in the interim, there came in due course a time when his friends’ anticipa- tions were filled and fulfilled. Thomas Oliver, after college days were over, entered the ministry, and, having heard his brother clergy speak of the advantages which a typewriter afforded to the busy pastor, decided that he wanted one, and furthermore that, as he had not one by him, he would make one. There is no need to recount his further efforts, how he considered the various devices which might be adopted, or the numerous points which a typewriter, especially such a perfect instrument as he decided his ought to be, should incorporate. After four years’ efforts, alternating successes by failures, disappointments with victories, and rebuffs by kindly wishes, he succeeded in producing the first model of his machine, and then, for the first time in his life, he operated a typewriter. For the inventor of the Oliver Typewriter worked no machine until he worked his own ! But in that first crude model, Mr. Oliver in- corporated ideas and devices which were at once admitted to be most perfect in their conception and application, and which, embodied in a typewriter, were destined to make that machine one of the most popular in the world. The Oliver Typewriter is a type-bar machine, it works with a double shift, is inked by means of a ribbon, and has visible writing. It is the type-bar, unique in every respect, to which we shall make particular reference. The type-bar of the Oliver bears some slight resemblance to an inverted U. The two open arms are connected by means of a rod or axle bearing, the type-block is attached to the bow portion of the bar. The types strike downward on top of the platen, being made to describe a circular movement by means of the power exerted by the connecting rod on a small projection at the side of the bar. All this is so very simple, that it might almost pass unnoticed in the throng of competing devices, were it not that so many little things have had to be considered that they deserve to be rescued from oblivion. If we examine the type-bars (for which purpose, if a machine be not at hand, the illustration will serve), it will be noticed that they are of varying sizes, and arranged in two rows and that each bar in each row will pass com- pletely through the next size larger. Moreover, the type-