History of the Typewriter

— 73 — Every care has been taken to secure the escapement of the Densmore being rapid and sure. Running as the carriage does on ball-bearings, and with low tension, and being itself very light and well-balanced, there is very little resistance to be overcome, and speed is thereby assured. The original features of the Densmore are not, however, yet exhausted, for particular attention should be directed to the “ justifier,” a device which, we believe, finds no exact counterpart in any other machine. This is a sort of gauge, by which the paper can be moved to the left for any portion of a full space. As is well-known, the space occupied by a letter is one-tenth of an inch. But it may so happen that the space available for writing upon is just one letter too little, that is to say, four letters are required to be written in a space which can only carry three letters under ordinary conditions. To meet such instances, it has been the custom to break the word, if a disyllable, or leave an unsightly gap, and type it in the next line. But this device gets over the difficulty, and the four letters can be compressed in the shorter space. Even the most perfect operator will make a mistake now and then, and only finds it out afterwards. A mistran- scribed outline, such as me for him, can for come, and so on, will require correcting. It would require a lot of manoeuvering in ordinary circumstances to make this correction in a sightly manner, but with the justifier to assist us, we erase the error, and a little bit is taken off the tenth of an inch occupied by each letter, and saved up to the last, when it will be found that the accumulated savings will just accommodate the new letter. This device, in conjunction with the pointer (see illustration), will render corrections of all kinds a very easy matter. . ne increase in our attendance hk ADD TO OUR SUPPLY OF so acceptably for the A nd WE SHALL NEED TO which have served us them ESPECIALLY WELL L’OUCH METHOD". Fig. 57