History of the Typewriter

—312— exceedingly light and is absolutely uniform in every part of the keyboard. It is not too much to say that the trans- mitting typewriter excels all others in speed, ease and uniformity of touch, permanence of alignment, manifolding and durability. The transmitter part of the transmitting typewriter make it possible for a telegraph operator to transmit Morse signals which are absolutely perfect by touching the keys of the keyboard. The touch used is the ordinary quick staccato typewriter touch. Each Morse signal and the elements of which it is made up, namely, the dot, dash and space, are transmitted by the mechanism of the transmitter with absolute accuracy and uniformity, independently of the skill of the operator. The space between the signals, however, is entirely within his control, so that he can space the letters in difficult words more widely than in others and use that fine judgment possessed by all intelligent operators, which is absolutely inseparable from efficient telegraph work, and which it is asserted no mechanism will ever be able to supply. The Zerograph. Wonderful as the previously men- tioned adaptations of the typewriter may be, probably the most wonderful of all is the machine to which we now make reference, namely, the Zerograph of Mr. Leo. Kamm, of London. The apparatus consists in the main of a type- writer, which can be used for the purpose of receiving or transmitting messages, together with the general instru- ments which are used for the despatch or receipt of ether waves. The most important, however, of all the apparatus is the typewriter portion, or Zerograph, as it is technically called. In general appearance the machine is not much unlike an Ideal-Hammond typewriter. The keys are contained in a circular row, and on the depression thereof, not only is an imprint recorded upon paper in the usual way, but they also transmit through the air two ether waves, which cause the distant receiving typewriter to record the same letters upon a paper tape, in manner similar to that of the Morse instrument already mentioned. Though similar in working to the ordinary typewriter, the principle and mechanism are widely different. The type-keys are arranged in a quadrant, there being twenty- eight keys whereof twenty-six are allocated to the usual alphabetic purposes. There are, in addition, two shift- keys for figures, etc., and these also serve for spacing