All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

i92 All About Inventions severance of the typewriter section of the business fortunately proved wise, because the young invention escaped the financial and other disasters which shook the old-established gunmaking firm to its founda- tions, and which otherwise would have seriously jeopardised the fate of the typewriter. But while such desperate efforts to install the Remington in the commercial world were in progress, it was subjected to attacks from other directions. Yost, after the firm of Locke, Yost and Bates were deprived of the sole selling agency for the machine, feared that he would lose all interest in a new business to which he had devoted so much time, effort, and money. Accordingly, he endeavoured to evolve and perfect a machine would would become a powerful rival. He was confronted with a superhuman task, inasmuch as the patents protecting the Remington were so comprehensive as to render it difficult to build a machine without infringing the pioneer claims somewhere or other. Yost strove desperately to consummate his ambi- tion but was foiled. The machine which was built to his designs was noticeable for having a double keyboard—capital and small letters respectively— thereby dispensing with the shift-key. In reality, the double keyboard idea was forced upon him because it was impossible to use the two characters for each type-bar without infringing the shift-key patent. Ultimately, Yost discovered that it was virtually impossible to build a machine which would be com- pletely clear of the Remington patents, and therefore he applied for a licence to build and vend his own machine. The privileges which were extended to