May 1 8, 1876] 



NATURE 



43 



" The particular advantage which attaches to this latest 

 modification of the now somewhat discountenanced Inter- 

 national Exhibition is, that it brings together apparatus 

 and models which the most attractive World Fair would 

 never have drawn from their retirement. Men of science 

 and students, as a class, are not influenced by the induce- 

 ments which are most operative with ordinary exhibitors ; 

 but none the less is it necessary for the advancement of 

 knowledge that their treasures should be, from time to 

 time, examined and criticised by their fellows. 



" There is much of interest in the geological and geo- 

 graphical sections, though nothing very new. Of the 

 metallurgical division — with a miserable dozen exhibits 

 out of a total of nigh on five thousand — what can be 

 said ? Is metallurgy devoid of scientific interest ? Or 

 has one of the greatest of England's industries no fol- 

 lowers who care to do anything for its advancement? 

 With this sole exception, the Science and Art Department 

 must be held to have scored a great success, and to have 

 saved the Government from the reproach of doing nothing 

 for science. It only remains to hope that the magnificent 

 collection which now fills the exhibition galleries will not 

 be dispersed without an effort being made to secure for 

 the nation such portion of it as may be obtainable, and 

 suitable to form the nucleus of a technical and scientific 

 museum, on the plan of the Conservatoire des Arts et 

 Metiers of Paris and the similar institutions to be found 

 in every large German city." 



Such is what may be called " lay " opinion upon the 

 importance and success of this unprecedented Collection; 

 and that this opinion is endorsed by that of men of 

 science themselves may be seen from the addresses of 

 Mr. Spottiswoode and Dr. Siemens, which we are able 

 to publish to-day. 



THE REMINGTON TYPE-WRITING MACHINE 



IN making comparison between the physical and the 

 biological sciences, it is not difficult to recognise how 

 it comes that they differ in one essential element. In the 

 physical the forces in action are comparatively few, and of 

 very different degrees of intensity. The centripetal and cen- 

 trifugal tendencies, for instance, of moons and planets so 

 far exceed the mutual attractions of the planets inter sese, 

 that in the rough calculations of their orbits the latter may- 

 be omitted from consideration . 



In the study of the phenomena of life, however, the 

 innumerable forces which are found to be in play are so 

 fairly balanced in their magnitude and tendencies, that 

 the task of dissociating and classifying them is almost 

 beyond the means at the disposal of the human mind. 



In the study of the various machines which have from 

 time to time been constructed with the purpose of econo- 

 mising or superseding the employment of the engine 

 — muscle, expensive in the nature of the fuel it requires, 

 although it is so economical in the way in which it uses it, 

 a similar division may be made. In the steam-engine 

 however developed, the waste of force essential to the 

 working of the valves is nothing in comparison to the 

 power employed, nor in the telegraphic needle is much 

 done by the current except the actual record which it 

 makes. 



But on looking at the sewing-machine or the more 

 novel type-printing apparatus we can see that the in- 

 genuity of America, stimulated by the idea of practical 

 advantage, has been developed in a direction, not towards 

 the discovery of more economic principles, but to the 



employment of forces already known in the mastery of 

 complicated operations previously thought to be beyond 

 the powers of any other mechanism than the hand of 

 man. To obtain these results an entirely different con- 

 ception has to be introduced. The power at the disposal 

 of the operator has not to be directed simply to the per- 

 formance of a single operation, like the movement of the 

 needle in the sewing-machine or the impressing of the letter 

 in the type-writer, but has to be distributed so that it may 

 perform a series of simultaneous operations, all leading 

 to a complicated result. The treadle of the sewing- 

 machine in its movement, besides the rise and fall of the 

 needle which it produces, works the thread loop-slip, 

 shifts the fabric, and unwinds the cotton. The pressure 

 on any one of the keys of the type-writer, besides the 

 impression which it stamps upon the paper, shifts that 

 paper, inks the type, and places each letter in its proper 

 sequence. 



In order properly to balance all these varied actions, 

 great ingenuity and much practical experiment are neces- 

 sary, and of the " Remington Type Writer," the only 

 satisfactory instrument of the kind yet brought to public 

 notice, the introducers, the most prominent of whom is 

 Mr. Jefferson M. Clough, superintendent of the Reming- 

 ton Armoury, tells us that " during the time required 

 to perfect the invention, about fifty machines were con- 

 structed, all upon the same general principle, but each 

 differing more or less in the minor details." 



This general principle is a most ingenious one. It is 

 evident that the great difficulty in the construction of 

 such an instrument is that it is necessary to have a large 

 number of signs — letters of the alphabet, figures, stops 

 &c., arranged in such a manner that any one of them 

 may, by the simple pressure on a corresponding key-note, 

 be printed in any required order or sequence upon a paper 

 sheet placed ready to receive it. There are many 

 more or less elaborate ways in which this may be accom- 

 plished ; none, we believe, so simple as that adopted by 

 the Messrs. Remington. Their apparatus may be com- 

 pared to a piano, even in its details. There is a key-board, 

 on each key of which the letter it impresses is to be found 

 indicated. The depression of each key raises a hammer. 

 This hammer, however, instead of being covered with a 

 felted pad, as in the piano, carries at its extremity a type- 

 cast letter, which, in place of a stretched wire, strikes on 

 a piece of paper the impression of the letter which it 

 bears. So far the similarity between the two instruments 

 is very close. But to produce sounds and to perpetu- 

 ate impressions in black and white in any definite 

 sequence, are two very different things, the latter 

 being much the more difficult ; and herein lies the 

 ingenuity of the principle adopted in the type- 

 writer. The hammers, instead of being arranged in one 

 line, as in the piano, form a circle, in the exact centre of 

 which each type-letter at the end of its hammer-lever 

 strikes upv/ards. Two keys struck at the same time must 

 consequently cause two type-letters to clash in their 

 attempt to reach the same spot, the centre of the circle. 

 This, however, does no injury to the instrument, although 

 care must be taken not to cause it. Above the circle of 

 levers the recording paper is situated, rolling on a drum, 

 towards the operator, the whole being so placed that just 

 before any letter of a word is struck that part of the 



