History of the Typewriter

—198— Fig. 146. that determines the durability of any typewriter. In building the non-visible typewriters, it was possible on account of the greater room in the type-basket (where the type hangers are assembled) to use a bearing in some cases, as on the regular models of the Fox, nine-sixteenths of an inch wide, thus insuring an adjustable bearing and perfect alignment during the entire life of the machine. “ The bars in this case were assembled in a circle having a circumference of eighteen inches, but in building the visible typewriters (other than the Fox visible) the bars all had to be assembled in front and the ‘ circle ’ had to be reduced, so that instead of eighteen inches surface in which to assemble the type-bars, there were only four and a half inches, and room for a type-bar with a bearing point only the 35-1,000 part of an inch wide ; consequently no wearing surface, no adjustability, and letters soon went out of alignment. In some visible machines, the manu- facturers have endeavoured to overcome this defect at the bearing point by guiding the type to the printing point, employing a method known as forced alignment and acknowledging the defect in the methods employed to overcome it. “ On the Fox Visible, by means of the special way in which we assemble the type-bar hangers, we have made possible the use of a wide pivotal bearing in the hanger and built the first visible writer that is just as durable as the non-visible machines. “ Instead of assembling the bars all on one ‘ circle,’ we have two segments, the lower segment having an assembling surface of eight and a half inches, the upper