History of the Typewriter

—231— base was of wood, about a foot square. On this was a metal frame or casting, supported on feet. In this frame were holes, corresponding in number ’ with the letters, signs, etc., employed, radiating upwards in every direction from a printing point in the centre of the case. The type- bars were simply straight rods, made to slide in the holes, and working like pistons, pressed upwards by springs. The types were cut on the bottom ends of the bars, at angles to suit their varied inclinations, and on their top ends Fig. 164. were buttons, lettered like those now generally used. The lengths of the type-bars were such, that they gave the general outline of a hemisphere. Hence, the name given to the machine. The paper passed over the base, and under the frame containing the type-bars. There were either rollers or their equivalent, which gave the proper intermittent motion to the paper, and a line-spacing arrange- ment. The inventor was a clergyman residing at Copenhagen, in Denmark. Hurtu. The local name of the machine known in England and America, as the Ford, and so called from the name of the concessionaire in Germany. The Ideal, The Ideal Typewriter is, although of Ameri- can invention, yet manufactured in Germany, and was, for some time, the only German made machine represented