History of the Typewriter

—226— by the blind. The machine was based upon the type- wheel principle, and inking was effected by means of a pad. Codville, in 1861, produced a machine which he called L’Ecriveur or “ The Writer.” There was a frame-casting to receive the principal parts of the machine, and a series of forty-eight keys each bearing the necessary letter or sign. In order to denote capitals, a special key was pro- vided, the depression of which ornamented the lower case letter, which was thereby denoted a capital. But these two keys (i.e., the letter to be printed and the ornamenting mark) had to be depressed at the same time, in order to avoid double spacing. Here, possibly, we have the germ of a “ Duplex ” typewriter. Flamm, in 1863, took out a patent for a mechanical compositor ; and two years after the machine of George House, to which we have already made reference, was patented in France, and in 1867-9, Fontaine, a Barrister- at-Law, took out some patents, one of which was for a typewriter, in which the types were mounted on a rotary disc. The machine was operated by means of electricity. (2). German Typewriters. It will be seen that the makers of German Writing machines started away with a much clearer idea of the object of their labours than did their French neighbours; but this possibly arose from the fact that the early German machines were much later in making an appearance, so that by the time the Teutonic people got to work, the object of the writing machine had been well thought out, and a definite aim agreed upon. Like the French, however, many of their earlier efforts were of little practical value, but it must be urged most strongly that even the smallest effort deserves consideration ; for each machine, however insignificant as a whole, might possibly have developed or improved some part, even if but a small one, and so aided in arriving at the present highly developed instru- ments. To-day, there are a number of German machines, of indigenous growth, which occupy very prominent niches in the field of fame. In Germany, as elsewhere, machines fall into three particular groups, namely, those which are good, those of which the goodness is questionable, and those which never had a chance to be good or otherwise, but died at their conception. The student will undoubtedly observe that several machines are being made according to American ideas,