History of the Typewriter

—236— of type, permitting as it does, of accents and special characters being supplied to meet the requirements of French and English, in addition to its native German, gives the machine the right to assume the title of Polygraph. The elevated scale over the platen will be especially noticed. This resembles the device in the No. 7 Blick, but is it a good one ? Regina. This machine claims to incorporate all the good points of other machines ; without, however, possessing any distinctive feature of its own, saving that it is very well finished, and is made of the very best materials through- out. It is fitted with a Tabulator, and the carriage runs very freely on ball bearings. The circular opening in front of the machine is closed by means of a name plate, thus guarding the type-bars from dust, and preventing the eyes of the operator becoming tired by the rapidly moving bars. The plate can, however, be instantly removed for type-cleaning purposes. It is a £20 machine. Schade’s Schreibkugel (writing ball) resembled in theory the instrument of Pastor Hansen, just noticed. The paper was gripped between rollers and remained stationary, the operative part travelling along as the line of writing proceeded. No less than eighty-four keys were arranged over a convex-shaped top-plate, and the machine was fitted with a copy-holder, line pointer, and many other accessories. The inking was accomplished by a ribbon, and at the end of a line the entire movement had to be returned bodily, whilst to examine the work, it had to be turned back on a hinge just as one throws back the lid of a box to examine its contents. Soblik. This machine, named after its inventor, a Civil Engineer, possessed the features of visible writing, silence, and was driven by pneumatic power. The air- supply was afforded by means of two small pumps placed under the machine, and worked by the feet. The types were placed on the periphery of a wheel, which constantly rotated at a great speed, making in fact, ten. turns per second. The machine does not appear up to the time of writing to have been commercially handled. Stoewer. A very popular machine built on the front strike principle. The makers are Bernhard Stoewer Actien- Gesellschaft, of Stettin-Grunhof, and the machine, so far as outward appearance goes, more strongly resembles the Underwood than any other. It will be observed that it has four banks of keys, and works with a single shift-key. The front plate is hinged,