History of the Typewriter

—172 — ribbon attachment, so that credits may be written in in red or other colour to that of the body of the matter. The Smith Premier and the Remington both have what they term Billing machines (why not use the proper English expression of Invoicing ?) in which, by means of the Gorin Tabulator, a Day-book device, and a bi-coloured ribbon, similar objects are sought. The FoXj also, makes a special feature of the Billing machine, specially adapted to this class of work. The two-coloured ribbon is a very great convenience in many special directions, and the Smith-Premier, which employs a ribbon unusually wide, has even placed a tri- coloured ribbon on the market which permits of red, purple copying, and black record work, all being executed from the same machine, wherefore they consider themselves justified in referring to their machine as being equal to “ three machines in one.” But save only in exceptional instances, the use of these vari-coloured ribbons seems to be somewhat limited, and of course somewhat extravagant, since one portion, say the copying ink portion, of the ribbon, is bound to be worn out and exhausted before the others have been even slightly used, so that practically speaking, a tri-chrome ribbon lasts only one-third the usual time. Marriott Book Typewriter. Mr. J. H5W. Marriott, of Washington has invented a book and billing machine, which contains a number of novel and valuable features. He recently gave an exhibition of it before some news- paper men, and they were quite enthusiastic regarding the merits of his invention. All book and billing machines now on the market use what is known as revolving type, in order to obtain capital letters. This makes the machine hard to keep in alignment and difficult to clean. Mr. Marriott uses an entirely new style of type-bar, doing away with the necessity of revolving type to make capitals. Any width of paper or card-board can be used in the machine, as the carriage rails or ways do not hold the paper, the platens being independent of the carriage tracks. A valuable feature also is the moveable platen, as the carriage can be locked in one position and the platen spaced backward line by line ; this obviates the necessity for the operator stretching her arms when the machine is in position at the top of the sheet, and will be appreciated by all users of such machines. The keyboard is placed low, directly in front and in the most natural operating position.