History of the Typewriter

—303— and the letters, with exact spacing and punctuation, are reproduced there precisely in the form in which they have been. sent. This naturally simplifies telegraphing a great deal. There is no preparing of the message for transmission, while the receiver merely has to take off the printed slip from the machine. It is convenient for the public, for handwriting sometimes leaves room for doubt in the meaning of a telegram. It seems to be one of those reforms which the public would welcome with enthusiasm, and although at first it might displace some of the present operators whose skill would not be required, it would in the end lead to a much wider use of the telegraph, owing to the economies which would be effected. That is, of course, looking ahead, for the appliance has only just begun to be used. It has so far been employed on the New York-Buffalo service, a distance of 445 miles. Shortly it will be working at the New York-Chicago service. The question which is naturally asked is : What is the distance over which it can be used ? There is no reason to suppose that it could not be employed at as great a range as the Morse system, but that point has not yet been put to a practical test. In the present method it is not found advantageous to transmit messages further than 800 miles direct, for although they can be sent, as submarine cables show, infinitely longer distances, their rate of travel becomes so much reduced that it is better and quicker in the end to have repeaters at distances of not more than 800 miles. Probably the typewriter-telegraph may be found perfectly practicable for submarine cable transmission, but it will then work slowly, as other systems do. It is claimed that the operators at present have done as much as 100 words a minute. Their speed will depend not on the machine, but on the operator. It is a very skillful typist who can touch a 100 words a minute, and probably in practice it will be found that, taking one message with another, and leaving special circumstances out of account, such as codes, abbreviations, and the like assistants to speed, fifty words will be a good working average, much the same as that of the present operators. The advantage will, however, lie on the side of the typewriter, for he has only one key to touch for each letter, even though he has an infinitesimal loss of time in finding that letter, while the Morse operator has to make two or more motions of his key for each letter. The Burry Page-Printing Telegraph. The ingenious machine which forms the subject of the following remarks