808 



TYPE-WRITERS. 



wooden ink wheel, which was thrown up against 

 the faces of the types as they passed over it. 

 The second machine was radically different in 

 the construction of many of its parts from the 

 first, but, while both showed great ingenuity, 

 neither ever came into practical use. 



The Fairbanks Machine. The next was 

 that of Fairbanks, in 1848. It consisted of sev- 

 eral series or systems of 

 vertical, converging rods, 

 the rods of each systgm 

 adapted to be pushed up 

 vertically, like piston rods 

 against a common imping- 

 ing peint. On the upper 

 end of each rod was a type. 

 The machine was original- 

 ly designed for printing 

 colors on cloth, but in its 

 construction it belongs to 

 the type-writing art, and is 

 now properly so classed. It 

 was impracticable, and was 

 never used. 



The Foucault C6co- 

 graph was patented in 

 France by Pierre Foucault, 

 a blind man of the Paris 

 Institute for the Blind, 

 Jan. 19, 1849. His machine printed embossed 

 letters to be read by the blind. The letter was 

 fixed in the end of a metallic rod, which could 

 slide longitudinally into a groove. The rods 

 were placed in a row of fan-like form, and each 

 had the same letter at the lower as at the upper 

 part. The mechanism was so arranged that all 

 the letters converged to the same point, and at 

 the stroke of a letter the paper was moved for- 

 ward a given space for the formation of the 

 next letter. The line being terminated, the pa- 

 per displaced itself perpendicularly, was re- 

 turned, and a new line begun. Letters, figures, 

 and stops were among the characters, and mani- 

 folding was accomplished. The machine was 

 small, portable, simple in construction, and rapid 

 in action. It proved a success. Several were 

 used in the institutions for the blind in Eu- 

 rope. It was exhibited at the World's Fair in 

 London' in 1851. 



The Eddy Machine, of 1850, was patented 

 by Oliver T. Eddy, in November of that year. 

 No model of the invention can be found, and no 

 machine of the kind seems to have come before 

 the public. His application and specification 

 for the patent are on file in the Patent Office, 

 No. 7,771, but, from the illustration, it was evi- 

 dently too cumbersome to be of practical service. 



The Jones Typographer. On June 1, 1852, 

 a patent was issued to John Jones for a machine 

 for the alleged purpose of "copying manuscript." 

 There is a model on file in the Patent Office, and 

 an examination of the mechanism places it in the 

 series of type-writer inventions. Like many 



any sort in the way of positive improvement. 

 Mr. Beach was one of the proprietors of the- 

 " Scientific American." He produced a machine 

 to "print raised letters for' the blind." It con- 

 tained the principles that were afterward pur- 

 sued to success in the regular type-writers. All 

 the printing was designed to be at one point, the 

 center of a circle, and the machine was planned 



THE BEACH TYPE-WRITER. 



with bars converging like the spokes of a wheel. 

 In order to make the raised letters, a pair of 

 printing or embossing levers, answering to the 

 letter key, were struck together, one coining up 

 and the other falling, grasping a strip of paper 

 between a die and matrix, and meeting at a com- 

 mon center. The paper was drawn from a reel 

 by a ratchet wheel that fed the paper on each 

 up-stroke of the printing levers. This machine 

 was first exhibited in operation at the Crystal 

 Palace Exhibition of the American Institute, in 

 the autumn of 1856, where it took the highest 

 prize, the gold medal, as one of the most novel 

 exhibits of the occasion. It did elegant work,, 

 operated with great rapidity, and the alignment 

 of the lettering was almost perfect. It was made 

 in brass, and presented an ornamental appear- 

 ance. It is still treasured in the office of the 

 " Scientific American." 



The Francis Machine. A type-writer em- 

 bracing the same principle as the Beach machine 

 was made by Dr. Samuel W. Francis, of New 

 York, in 1857, who was the first to complete a 

 type-writer. His invention, as a whole, was in 

 advance of everything known, and similar to 

 those which first became generally acceptable. 

 The principle of the piano-forte action was taken 

 as a basis for experimenting, and that construc- 

 tion was modified for the new purpose. He ar- 

 ranged a series of hammers in a circle, each ham- 

 mer with the face of a letter, and throwing them 

 up, as piano hammers are thrown, they converged 

 and struck a point at a common center. The ap- 

 paratus complete was inclosed in a wooden case, 



other inventions, it seems to have perished in its and occupied less than two feet square of space 



infancy, as but a meagre scrap of history remains Francis's instrument had a much more cornpli- 



to tell that certain important principles were in- cated action than the type- writers of the present 



volved which possibly have been utilized at a time. But then, as now, the depression of a 



later day. given key caused the movement of a correspond- 



The Beach Machine. Alfred Ely Beach, of ing type lever on the end of which the steel tyj>e 



New York city, on June 24, 185(5, took put a was cast, upward to the paper, where by its 



patent for a machine that was the first device of stroke the impress was given through an inked 



