History of the Typewriter

— 141 — from want of funds, and in lieu of meeting with that en- couragement from his friends which he had a right to expect, received nothing but a series of rebuffs and chilly receptions. No results of importance attended his efforts for many a long year. The type-wheel, the backbone of his ideas, was obstinate, and as a writer has observed, “ momentum of the wheel seemed to be a fatal and im- passable barrier to the accomplishment of his purpose.” But all this time models were being constantly made, and in 1876 the fame of one of these models reached the manufacturers of the Remington, who sent our hero an invitation to visit the works at Ilion, and submit to them his ideas. This visit was paid, the machine exhibited, and for more than a year it was experimented with at the workshops, but without any of the essential difficulties that faced his inventor being successfully overcome, and at last, disappointed but not disheartened, Mr. Hammond removed his models, and again set about the problems before him. The most inveterate opponent of the Hammond will admit his merits as a piece of mechanical skill and as a triumph over difficulties, but not one in a hundred is aware that the charm and beauty, the cunningly devised schemes, and the daringly original ideas embodied in the machine, were evolved in the midst of continual and excruciating pain. The machine, however, was not yet in shape. A long senes of experiments was now undertaken, extending over a period of two and a half years, for the purpose of perfecting its details. Finally, about 1880, a. small factory was set up in Grove Strøet, New York City, for the puipose of producing the machines. Some parts, however, continued to appear hopelessly incorrigible. This was more particularly so with the typewheel. Four years were spent in removing these further difficulties, and at last, in 1884, eight years after the visit to Ilion, a fpw machines were made and put on the market. From that time forward, the success of the machine was assured, and to-day the Hammond counts among the world’s great typewriters. Not only this, but as a writer once remarked, “Amidst the fire of mutual recrimination so freely indulged in by rival makers of machines, the Hammond enjoys a certain immunity and respect, shared, perhaps, by no other.” The idea of the typewheel will at once suggest to the curious reader the possibility of difficulties not to be en- countered in those machines having type-bars. The motion