History of the Typewriter

— 154 — striking any particular key the greatest distance which the wheel has to travel is very slight, a fact which makes largely for speed and certainty of operation. When the required letter has been brought opposite to the printing point, a hammer strikes the paper from behind, and thus secures the imprint. This hammer is made, ordinarily, of hardened vulcanite, but for heavy manifolding or mimeographic work, a brass-hammer head can be substituted. By a peculiar arrangement of the carriage, the platen can be thrown back on to an erasing table to permit of any erasures being made. Fig. 120 The machine was, after some time, amended and issued under the new name of the Chicago, and an improved model of the Chicago was afterwards submitted, in which the ribbon movement was considerably altered ; in place of the wide ribbon already mentioned a narrow one was used, but we have not met with many examples of this model. The general movement and operation of the Munson was most highly interesting, since the depression of a key seemed to set the entire machine into life and movement. In its earlier form, the most objectionable feature about it was the touch, which was dull and unresponsive (very much like tapping a table top) but this was materially improved later on. The Postal. This is an exceedingly compact and useful little machine which can turn out good work at a reasonable rate of speed, makes a good carbon copy and stencil, but which, as is