History of the Typewriter

— 174 — All this time, however, a very ingenious instrument called the Michela was being developed. The first public exhibition of this machine was at the Palais Brera, at Milan, in 1863, and after various other appearances, it was in consequence of various favourable reports, adopted in 1880 by the Italian Senate for the recording of the debates in that assembly. The machine bears some resemblance to a portable harmonium. There is a keyboard, having on each side six white and four black keys, which print a series of marks • : U / fl J, in such combinations as will enable words to be spelled legibly and readily. The claims made for the machine are :— 1. The maximum of speed. 2. Precision and uniformity of the signs. 3. Great facility in transcription. 4. Very limited use of abbreviations. 5. Conservation of physical force, hence absence of fatigue in operation. 6. Since the operator has not to fix his eyes on the writing, he can follow the movements of the speaker or audience. 7. The system is readily adaptable to other languages. Finally, M. Cassagues devised a system of stenotele- graphy, using “ a sort of ” typewriter, by which messages were successfully sent over a distance of 929 kilometres, at rates varying from 12,000 to 24,000 words per hour, but this is perhaps a little wide of the present subject. The Stenograph. In this machine we have a flat base with nine keys, the centre one projecting a little, and being manipulated by the two thumbs. The remaining keys are arranged four on each side and are coupled in twos, the two outer being joined together, and so on towards the centre pair. There are thus, in reality, only five keys to the machine to be worked by the fingers and thumbs of both hands. The printing is done on a continuous paper ribbon, winding off a reel, the impress being made through the medium of an inked ribbon by five little markers in the form of------ By striking the thumb-key the mark is produced on the left edge of the paper for the letter d ; the second key produces a mark between the left edge and the middle of the ribbon for n ; the third key makes an impress in the middle