History of the Typewriter

PREFACE. THE greater portion of the present volume was put info type during the year 1907, but the constant stream of . neY ™achmes which were put upon the market about that time led to the publication being deferred from time to inie. s soon as particulars of one machine were obtained and an opportunity taken to inspect it, other machines were announced and m the desire to make the book, the only D0«i°hl..“S k‘nd ln the English language, as complete as possible, it has been held over until now. During the period which has elapsed since the work was comnl t thie 4structure of the typewriter has undergone a complete revolution. It seems impossible, at this time wiliTv ne ,‘hat ?ny further chan8es of a fundamental nature take place for years to come, and that each succeeding will merely add to the procession of front strike ypcwnteis, as illustrated in Chapter viii, seems almost a toregone condusion. Probably nothing in any mechanicaI art has been more marked than the progress of this principle, • c in this respect the Underwood typewriter would seem l„ JeSerr a 1 th,e honours which naturally fall to the successful leader of a revolution. so far as the broad lines of the machine are We likely’just at Present’ t0 see any radical dp\ geS’. æ would be an exceedingly rash prophet who would aeclare that typewriter skill had reached its limit. The conccntratlon of ideas upon a converging theory def Jl tenR to .lead t0 considerable advances in matters of the theret^ Although machines employing lo" “ keyboard’ as Wel1 as the double shift-key, will in^°jtlnU^ t1oholdtheir own in the competition now exist- invenfod r\ght1 y Slnce 110 machine has or ever will be Vet it k which will meet the requirements of everyone— those n?ai -t0 S£ly’ Wlthout derogation to any machine, that shift kpvaC UT havinS the universal keyboard with one so far ac .most P°PL1lar- The use of a universal ribbon, to thp j W1 1 C0T cerned’ now stands in marked contrast dozen width; used but very few years ago. The