Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/740

Rh 698 Y W R Y adopted. This machine consists of a frame of sufficient size containing a plate of tin on which the paper from which the impression is to be taken is rested. The paper is prepared in a particular way, and the &quot; pen &quot; with Avhich the writing is done consists of an ordinary wooden holder, at the end of which is fixed on a pivot a minute wheel. The edge of the wheel is studded with fine points, which, as it revolves and turns in the direction of the writing, pierce the paper, thus making a perfect stencil. The ink is passed over the top of this stencil by means of a roller, and the impression is left on a sheet of ordinary paper placed beneath. 1 The principal substitute for the pen, however, is the machine now generally known as the type-writer, which in its present form dates only from 1873, but it has within that time come into extensive use, especially in America, the country of its origin. Numerous attempts to produce type-writing machines had been previously made both in England and America. So long ago as 1714 one Henry Mill took out a patent for a machine which he described as &quot;an artificial machine or method for the impressing or transcribing of letters, singly or progressively, one after another as in writing, whereby all writings whatsoever may be engrossed in paper or parchment so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print&quot;; but his instrument is said to have been clumsy and useless, and led to no practical result. In 1867 the idea was taken up by Messrs C. Latham Sholes and Samuel W. Soule, printers in Milwaukee, and Mr Carlos Glidden, and, after many experiments and failures, a practical working machine was elaborated in 1873, which, being originally made by Messrs E. Remington and Sons, of Ilion, N.Y., is known as the Remington standard type-writer. The success of this machine has induced many inventors to enter the field, and now three principal classes of type-writers are more or less in use. These are (1) type-bar machines, (2) cylinder machines, and (3) wheel machines. The Remington is the type and original of all type-bar machines, which are so called because the steel types are fixed at the extremity of a bar or rod of iron. These bars are in the Remington arranged in a circle around a common centre, and by striking the key of any particular letter, a lever is moved which raises the type-bar, and causes the type at its point to strike on an inked ribbon, and impresses the letter on the paper, which lies against an india-rubber roller. The type-bars are so hinged that all the types as they are struck hit precisely the same spot, so that were the paper to remain stationary the impressions of all the types struck would be superimposed on each other ; but, by an automatic mechanism, the cylinder with the paper moves a space to the left after the impression of each type, and the depression of a wooden bar similarly moves the cylinder a space after each word without impressing any sign. In the recent forms of the Remington machine&quot; each type bar carries two types, capital and lower case, or other duplicate signs, the one a little behind the other, and when a capital letter is to be printed the depression of a key shifts the position of the cylinder so as to bring the second type in contact with the ink ribbon. In this way from one set of keys two sets of type can be with facility acted upon. With practice, an average writing speed of forty words per minute can easily be attained on Remington type-writer, and very expert writers have been able to keep up a speed of from sixty to seventy words for a short time. It is safe to say that type-writing can be ordinarily done at about three times the speed of 1 The trypograph is also a stencil-using device, in which a simple style is used for writing, but the paper is stretched over a fine and sharply corrugated metallic plate which punctures the paper us the style passes over it. ordinary handwriting. In the cylindrical machines the letters and signs are all upon a cylinder or &quot;sleeve,&quot; and the striking of a key produces a combined lateral and rotary motion for bringing the proper type to the common printing point. Thus, for every separate impression the entire cylinder has ordinarily to make two movements of variable length, and the instrument is noisy in operation, and does not possess the rapid direct action of the type-bar machines. On the other hand, it is a variable spacer, giving more space to such wide letters asm and w than to the narrow letters i, t, and 1, a distinct advantage over the type bar machines, where each letter, wide or narrow, occupies precisely the same space. Of such cylinder machines the newest form is the Crandall type- writer, an apparatus supplied with spare type cylinders or &quot;sleeves,&quot; which are easily separated and attached, so that many kinds of type can be brought into actual use. Of wheel machines the Columbia may be taken as one of the most recent examples. It is a simple and cheap apparatus in which the letters and signs are placed on the periphery of a wheel by the rotation of w 7 hich any desired type is brought into position for printing. The machine is furnished with a dial index and pointer to indicate the type which is in position. The wheel machine has the advantages of variable spacing, and w 7 heels with type of different character can readily be placed on it ; on the other hand, it is not capable of being run with a rapidity nearly so great as can be secured with type-bar machines. WRYNECK (Germ. Wendekals, Dutch Draaihalzen, French Torcol), a bird so called from its wonderful w r ay of writhing its head and neck, especially w r hen captured, as it may easily be, on its nest in a hollow tree. The lynx - torquilla of ornithology, it is a regular summer-visitant to most parts of Europe, generally arriving a few days before the Cuckow, and it is in many countries known by some name associating it with that well-known bird as in England &quot; Cuckow s leader&quot; and &quot;Cuckow s mate&quot; but occasionally it is called &quot;Snake-bird,&quot; not only from the undulatory motions just mentioned, but from the violent hissing with which it seeks to repel an intruder from its hole. 3 The very unmistakable note of the Wryneck, without having any intrinsic merit, is always pleasant to hear as a harbinger of spring. It is merely a repetition of what may be syllabled que, quc, que, many times in succession, rapidly uttered at iirst, but gradually slowing and in a continually falling key. This, how ever, is only heard during a few r weeks, and for the rest of the bird s stay in Europe it seems to be mute. It feeds almost ex clusively on insects, especially on ants, and may often be seen on the ground, busily engaged at their nests. Somewhat larger than a Sparrow, its plumage is not easily described, being beautifully variegated with black, brown, buff, and grey the last produced by minute specks of blackish-brown on a light ground the darker markings disposed in patches, vermiculated bars, freckles, streaks, or arrow-heads and the whole blended most harmoniously, so as to recall the coloration of a GOATSUCKER (q.v.) or of a WOODCOCK (q.v.}. The Wryneck builds no nest, but commonly lays its translucent white eggs on the bare wood of a hole in a tree, and it is one of the few wild birds that can be induced to go on laying by abstracting its eggs day after day, and thus upwards of forty have been taken from a single hole but the proper complement is from six to ten. As regards Britain, the bird is most common in the south-east, its numbers decreasing rapidly towards the west and north, so that in Cornwall and Wales and beyond Cheshire and Yorkshire its occurrence is but rare, while it appears only by accident in Scotland and Ireland. Some writers have been inclined to recognize five other 2 Frequently misspelt, as by Liunieus in his later years, Yunx. 3 The peculiarity -was known to Aristotle, and possibly led to the cruel use of the bird as a love-charm, to which several classical writers refer, as Pindar (Pyth. iv. 214; JVern. iv. 35), Theocritus (iv. 17, 30), and Xeuophou (Memorabilia, in. xi. 17, 18). In one part at least of China a name, Shay -liny, signifying &quot;Snake s neck,&quot; is given to it (Ibis, 1875, p. 125).