History of the Typewriter

—304— is a very successful attempt on the part of John Burry, of New York, to substitute a true page-printing telegraph in place of the old ticker with its messages written upon a continuous tape. According to the Scientific American the objects aimed at in this invention may be broadly summed up under the following three heads : First : To produce a machine that would receive a telegraphic message and print it in the Roman alphabet, not, as in the old “ ticker,” in a continuous line upon an endless strip of tape, but in presentable page form, suitable for commercial or domestic use. Second : To provide a machine which would be abso- lutely automatic, and, therefore, independent of both the sender and the receiver, thereby obviating all risk of clerical errors. Third : To provide a system whereby a large number (several hundreds, if so desired) of these machine could be operated at one and the same time by a single sender at the central station. Broadly stated, the system consists of a transmitting machine at the central station, from which, by the operating of a keyboard, certain electrical impulses are sent out, in the proper sequence and of the proper polarity, over two line wires, to any number of printing telegraphic machines. As each key of the transmitter is depressed at the transmitting station, electrical impulses are sent out through the circuits and act upon a series of magnets in each of the receiving instruments, the magnets serving to furnish the energy for the automatic movements of the machine. The operation of the printing-telegraph, so far as its internal mechanical movements are concerned, is absolutely automatic, and hence, to all intents and purposes, the operator at the transmitting station, who may be some hundreds of miles distant from the printing telegraph, is able to print, without any possibility of error, a hundred different messages, in as many different and widely separated localities. The machine consists essentially of a base and two end frames, in which latter are journaled the various shafts and spindles, and upon which are carried the five magnets and the numerous pawls and levers, by which the various movements in the machine are performed. A roll of blank paper, 5| inches in width, is carried upon a roller, with a steel centre, journaled at about the mid-height of the frame.