History of the Typewriter

—119 — Fig. 95—The No. i Williams. Fig. 96—The No. 2 Williams. * and in order to get at the figures, it was necessary to depress the figure shift-key. Nos. 2 and 3 also incorporated the double shift-key principle. When the No. 4 Williams was launched, which event happened in the year 1899, the figure shift-key was abolished, and the keyboard made to conform to that employed on the majority of typewriters, so that the users of those machines were immediately at home on the new model. The No. 4 also contained a number of other improvements, which have been still further elaborated in the No. 6 machine, which we now propose to describe at length. The No. 6 was issued in England on the ist January, 1904. The space-bar is in front of the machine, four rows of keys are ranged behind it, an extremely light-running ball-bearing carriage is mounted in the centre of the machine, upon the platen of which strike the various types, mounted at the end of suitable bars which are arranged in the shape of two fans, one before and the other behind the platen, and all having a common converging centre at the point of impact. The types lie, when at rest, on a saturated ink pad, and are so cunningly arranged, that as a general rule, they strike alternately from the opposing sides, that is to say, if the first character in a word goes forward from the front half of the type-bar circle, the next one comes from the back half, and so on. The effect of this arrange- ment is to minimise the risk of colliding type-bars, thus assisting in accuracy of work and speed of operation. The writing is absolutely in sight, and, as stated, there being an ink pad, no ribbon comes between the type and the paper. In the No. 1 and 2 models, the paper was fed into the machine by placing the top edge of the sheet against the small feed roll, to which a slight turn, sufficient to enable