History of the Typewriter

— 118 — Fig. 94 technical name was spacing-frames. Two, three, or four were used according to the width of character. The use of the other, which permitted the carriage to travel only one half the width of a narrow letter, was in order to type the diphthongs, æ, æ, etc. The first model of the machine had a peculiar looking grill between the bars of which the type-bars moved. This was subsequently altered to a comb. In the third or “ Victorian ” model of the machine, an. entirely new form of type-bar was used. The type- faces pointed upward, and rested in a pad, the moist sur- face of which faced downwards. The bar thus had to turn a complete somersault in order to reach the paper. It was a marvel of mechanism, but very few machines were made, and fewer still sold. The difficulty of differential spacing was so far recognised in this machine that when the figure shift-key was depressed, the figures struck in regularjdistances, as in other machines. The Williams. For convenience, we also include this machine in the present section, and the resemblance it bears to the Maskelyne will be perceived on examining the illustration. This machine, when first submitted had a slightly curved keyboard, but in a twelvemonth this gave way to the usual square form, which was repeated in the No. 2 machine. The No. 3 was the brief machine, and these two models held their ground for many years. The No. i possessed a double-shift, that is, the keys, when in their normal position, struck all lower case letters. To get capitals, the capital shift-key had to be depressed,