History of the Typewriter

light portable instrument, intended really as a mechanical shorthand machine, using ordinary characters under a code of contraction. It weighed about five pounds, and was circular in shape, the keys being arranged, piston shape, round the edge of the top of the machine. The depression of the key, which was very short and light, sent the type-bar downward through an opening, fore-runner Fig. 193. of the modern \ ost guide. Only capitals and figures were used on this machine, but as appears to have been the fetish of English-made typewriters, the machine possessed the feature of differential spacing, which has already been referred to in connection with the Maskelyne and Waverley typewriters. The paper was carried under grippers on a hollow cylinder at the base of the machine, and this was made to revolve between letters on an Archimedian screw (the first example of this movement ever attempted in typewriters), and from left to right between lines. This movement may be compared with that of the Hanson- Lee machine referred to in this chapter. The method of inking was strange, since no pad or ribbon was used, but in lieu thereof, a strip of carbon paper was laid over the paper to be written on, and as the type struck the back of this strip, it left an imprint underneath. The other machine was a business or commercial one, which contained various founts of type. A simple hand dial adjusted the type to the fount, and every type piece produced a movement of the paper corresponding to its own width. Any width of paper up to brief could be used, and the writing was visible. The letter was inked by a pad on the first movement of the piston, and struck the paper direct. Every variety of ruling, from straight lines