Typewriter

a machine for printing correspondence, legal documents, bills, receipts, and other forms of manuscript. There are many makes. Although they are alike in general construction, there are two distinct classes of machines, the basket machine and the cylinder machine. The Remington is one of the earlier and more prominent of the basket machines. The Hammond may be regarded as a representative of the cylinder machine.

In the first or basket machine the paper passes over a vulcanized rubber roller. A type for each letter of the alphabet is affixed, hammer fashion, to the end of a narrow lever. The levers are pivoted in a frame. The free ends are arranged in a sort of keyboard, with small, circular keys, of which the action and fingering are somewhat like those of a piano. By striking the keys one by one with the tips of the fingers, the hammer-like types force an inked ribbon against the paper and print their letters on it. The types strike at precisely the same spot, but as each key is struck it releases a traveling frame in which the roller and paper are held. A spring carries the frame and paper one space to the left so that the next letter appears in its proper position. A blank key is struck to space between words.

The cylinder machine is constructed on a somewhat different principle. The type are all fixed in a cylinder. The keys cause the cylinder to revolve, so as to bring the characters into position. The paper is struck by a little hammer. A ribbon travels between the paper and the cylinder of characters. Each type of machine has its advocates. Punctuation marks are, of course, provided and, on the more complete machines, keys for the various signs used in billing and in business correspondence. By arranging sheets of paper with alternate sheets of carbon paper several duplicates may be struck off at one writing, or rather printing. Serviceable machines cost from $20 to $100. Typewriters are made with keys bearing the alphabets of many languages. The Arabic machine requires eighty-four characters.

A patent for a writing machine was issued in England as early as 1714. An ingenious Frenchman devised something of the sort in 1784. The first American machine was patented in 1843. The first machine to combine lightness of touch, speed, and accuracy was the Remington. It may be said to have become an assured success in 1873. Typewriters were introduced slowly, but their use is now general. It is not unusual to see from twenty to five hundred machines at work in a single counting room.

The manufacture of typewriters centers chiefly in the United States. About three out of every five American-made typewriters are produced in the state of New York. The city of Syracuse may be considered the world's center of the industry. Basing estimates on the statistics for 1906, it may be said 150,000 to 200,000 machines are made in the United States annually. They represent a wholesale value of perhaps $7,000,000. A full half are exported. Our best customers are naturally the nations having the largest business interests,--the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Russia, but shipments are made directly or indirectly to every commercial city in the world.