History of the Typewriter

— 128 — When originally placed upon the English market, the Granville occupied very handsome premises in Corn- hill. Soon afterwards, however (it may have been a year or less), we noticed that the machines were being sold at a reduction, and the premises were to let. Six months later the machine was being advertised as being sold at half price, and now, if our information be correct, the sale of the machine has been discontinued. The Empire. Although not actually made in England, this machine is our first cousin, since it is made in Montreal, Canada. In the United States it is known as the Wellington, and on the European continent it is made under license to a Mr. Adler, whose greatest change in the instrument is to give it his own name. Fig. 105 The chief characteristics of the Empire are stated to be :— (1) The simplicity of its construction. (2) The permanency of its alignment. (3) The extreme portability of the machine. (4) Its great durability. (5) Absolute visibility of writing. (6) Manifolding ability. To these points may be added the fact that the Empire has the universal keyboard, employing twenty-eight keys operated with a single double action shift-key. The range of type includes beside the two alphabets (i.e., upper and lower case) the ten figures, all the usual commercial and literary signs, as well as the punctuation marks. The comma and period are in triplicate, that is to say, either of these signs can be written with lower or upper case,