History of the Typewriter

—299— matters that these two wheels pointed in the same direction at exactly similar times, so that when a signal was sent over the wire from New York on the wheel pointing m any required direction, the Boston wheel also pointed that wav, and printed the desired letter. This method required only one impulse per letter, and worked well over very considerable distances, but the difficulty of maintaining perfect synchronism was found to be very great. However, it continued to be in use for a very considerable period, and although inventions innumerable were made, the Hughes machine continued until quite recently to be the only really successful long distance printing telegraph m use The French government adopted it in the year 1000, and all over Europe (to which continent its use is now practically confined) it long remained the standard instru- ment. It printed its messages on long strips of paper, which were cut up and mounted on forms, and many readers of these pages have, no doubt, received or seen specimens of its work. Telegraphic Shorthand. In order to facilitate the transmission of telegraph messages, a very ingenious code was invented some twenty years ago, by Mr. 1 . 1 lumps. Since then it has been enlarged and improved until it now contains more than two thousand expressions. These expressions vary in length from one letter or figure, to groups of five letters. They stand for one word or tor phrases composed of as many as eight or ten words, its utility for press work became evident upon the introduction of the typewriter. An average operator sending unquoted matter can outpace the very best receiving operator taking it in manuscript ; but almost any typewriter operator can take that kind of stuff with ease. The use oi the code brings the speed of the sender more nearly up to that of the receiver, and the time saved in transmission is about one-third. For almost all the code expressions employed tlieie . an apparent reason for existence, orthographic or phonetic ‘ -or otherwise. Thus, o/s is easily understood to mean “ office.” The phrases, “ shot and instantly killed,„ “ it is reported,” “ Supreme Court of the United States and “ President of the United States ” are coded by using the first letter of each word ; but why ck% should indicate “committed suicide” does not appear. There are some other arbitrary signs in the code, such as hag tor in con- sequence of ” and kaw for “ adjourned sine die, but these