History of the Typewriter

— 20 — This machine, capable as it was of work, fairly good in quality, but, of course, very slow in accordance with our present ideas, marked a distinct feature in the gradual Fig. 7 development of the writing machine, since it embodied the revolving and laterally-sliding carriage. Progin had the typebar, Thurber the carriage : we are progressing ! Back again in England, we find that in 1844, the Rev. W. Taylor, F.R.S., exhibited at the British Association at York a typewriting machine, invented by Mr. Littledale, a resident in that city. The principal object of this machine was to emboss the required letters for the use of the blind, but there is evidence that a slip of carboned paper was also interposed between the type and the paper, and an impression made in colour for the use of the sighted. No drawings are known to exist of this machine, but it seems that a set of types were arranged in a single row, and means were provided whereby any one might be brought under a hammer, which produced the impression. It is known, also, that wooden types were used, in order to withstand the shock produced by the continually striking hammer, but metal types were also contemplated to be used. In 1845, Mr. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Journal, wrote to a friend informing him of the invention of a Dr. Leavitt, of Kentucky. He said, “ A friend of mine, a very ingenious man, has just invented a typewriter. I thought you would like to see a specimen of the first work