Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/689

* TYPESETTING MACHINES. 595 TYPEWRITERS. type-casting machine. The function of the key- board is to punch a series of holes in a moving strip or ribbon of paper, which is unwound from one spool to another, passing under a series of punches in its journey. These punches are ope- rated by striking the keys on the keyboard. The result of the keyboard operation is, therefore, a roll of perforated ribbon. This ribbon, when fed to the casting machine, initiates and controls all the operations which produce the cast type set in column width ready to take printed proofs from, bee Printing. TYPEWRITERS. ^Machines for producing legible characters without the aid of movable type. Like most important inventions its con- struction was gradually developed through many years of experimentation. Eably Typewbitebs. The first typewriter of which we have any record was patented in Eng- land as early as 1714. Over a century later, in 1829, the first American typewriter, called a typographer, was patented by W. A. Burt. In 1833 a typewriter was produced in France, hav- ing a separate key lever for each letter. In 1844 and in 1846 typewriting machines were invented in England, which, like many of the other early machines, were designed primarily for the use of the blind and so produced embossed characters. Between 1840 and 1800 Sir Charles Wheatstone invented several typewriters which are now in the South Kensington Museum. Among early American inventors were Charles Thurber and A. E. Beach. The Thurber ma- chine, brought out in 1843, is simply a set of type-bars in a vertical position around a horizon- tal brass wheel, si.xteen inches across, which re- volves about a central post, the characters being brought into position by hand from either direc- tion. Common tj'pes are inserted in the lower ends of the type-bars. In 1850 A. E. Beach, who, as early as 1847, had constructed a fairly suc- cessful but never perfected typewriter, took out a patent for a machine intended to print em- bossed letters for the blind. This is worthj' of record, because it covered a principle afterwards developed into the modern typewriter — namely, a basket of levers arranged on a circle, so as to deliver their impressions on a common centre. In order to make raised letters there were two sets of bars, one coming up and the other down, one having a raised letter and the other its mate, a sunken or intaglio letter. The strip of paper was grasped between tlie two. Beach was followed by S. W. Francis. To the Beach principle of a circle of type-bars Francis ad<led the pianoforte action. Another of the early inventors was Tliomas Hall, who was carry- ing on independent experiments about the same time as Beach and Francis. Although his ma- chine embodied the principle of a circle of type- bars, yet their movement, instead of being from below upward, was from above downward, con- verging at a common centre, an inked ribbon in- tervening between the type and the paper. But Hall was compelled to abandon his efforts with- out realizing his great expectations, and only a few of his typewriters were ever made. In 1881 he took out a patent on a tvpewriter made on an entirely different plan. It had a perforated dial plate, two inches square, containing seventy- five characters. Underneath this dial plate in his latest machine, called the Century, patented in 1889, was a rubber-faced cylinder with let- ters on its surface corresponding to those on the dial plate. When the stylus is brought to any perforation in this dial plate, the cylinder beneath is turned to present the corresponding letter to the paper, and the stylus being pressed into the hole the letter is printed. The under cylinder revolves against an inked pad. About 1807 Charles Latham Slioles, Samuel V. Soule, and Carlos Gliddcn, of Milwaukee, Wis., began to experiment on the construction of a typewriter, and from their experiments the Rem- ington typewriter had its origin. The first crude working model was completed early in 1808. Soule dropped out of the enterprise almost immediately and Gliddcn finally disposed of his interest also. Slides, encouraged by the suggestions and finan- cial aid of .James Densmore, of Meadville, Pa., who early purchased an interest in the machine, continued his experiments. Several models were built and were tested by practical stenographers. One after another these machines were demol- ished, and Sholes wovild probably have given up the enterprise if it had not been for the en- ergy and perseverance of Densmore, who insisted that, as the machines were designed for popular use, the severe practical tests were just what was necessary to enable them to arrive at correct principles of construction. In 1873 the inventors considered the machine sufficiently perfected to warrant manufacture up- on a larger scale than their facilities or means permitted. A successful efl'ort was made to in- terest the gun manufacturers, E. Remington & Son. of Ilion. X. Y., in the manufacture of the machine. In spite of all the money and in- genuity already expended upon the device, it was still in a verj- defective condition. More than a year of patient work by the skilled mechanics of the Remington factory followed, resulting in a complete remodeling of the crude device of the inventors. The first model was put upon the market in 1874. It retained only the principles of the original construction. It may be briefly described as follows: Pivoted about a horizontal ring are type-bars, some thirty-eight in number, with steel types inserted in their lower ends, and so arranged as to rise vertically to a common centre. The short arms of these levers are con- nected by wire rods with the levers proceeding from the keyboard. The paper to be printed passes around a rubber cylinder, and the lower side of this cylinder receives the imitaet of the types. An inked ribbon intervenes between the type and the paper. This ribbon, in the operation of the machine, is gradually unwound from a spool at one side of the machine to another on the other side, and when the spool is exhausted the motion is reversed. With each release of a key by the finger of the operator, a ratchet movement at the' back of the c,vlinder allow's the carriage to move along one space, thus making room for the next letter. The tension is kept on the carriage by a coiled spring and strap. At the end of a line the carriage is drawn back to the starting point by means of an arm depending in front, and the same movement turns the cylinder, and carries the paper to make ready for the following line.