246 SCIENTIFIC RECREATIONS. 



As the paper passes the needles, the electricity sent over the line from the 

 transmitting machine seeks the earth through the wet paper and the machine, 

 and in passing discolours the paper, each stain representing a dot or dash, and 

 the message is printed on the paper in a double row of marks at the same 

 speed with which it was dispatched. In practice, a Morse key and sounder 

 is placed at each end of the line, and on sending a message the transmitting 

 operator calls the receiving station, and when the operator at the distant end 

 replies, both turn the cranks in their machine swiftly, and the message is sent 

 and received at an average speed of one thousand words a minute. The 

 message received is given to a person using a type-writer, and at once 

 translated into print and sent out by the messenger boy. It is found in 

 practice that two operators, one at each end of a single wire of indefinite 

 length, can keep fifteen operators fully employed in preparing the messages, 

 and fifteen girls busy in translating and printing the messages for delivery. 

 The system is of American origin." 



Of the hundred and one uses to which electric wires are now appropri- 

 ated of the alarms, fire-calls, clocks, etc. we need not speak. We must 

 pass on to the Writing Machine (fig. 258) before we make mention of 

 Mr. Edison's inventions. 



The Writing Machine is as remarkable for the simplicity of its mechanism 

 as for the facility and ease with which it can be used. It was invented by 

 Remington, the American, whose name is so universally known in connection 

 with a repeating rifle. He makes these writing machines in his own factory, 

 where he associates them with rifles and sewing machines implements for 

 war and peace. 



The appearance of the Writing Machine may be easily perceived from 

 the illustration (fig. 258), which is drawn to scale one-fourth of the actual 

 size. It comprises a key-board, upon which there are forty-four keys or stops, 

 including numbers from 2 to 9, the i and o of the alphabet serving for 

 numbers i and o, and all the letters of the alphabet arranged in the manner 

 most convenient for manipulation. There are also the various accents and 

 stops, with note of interrogation, etc. The flat ruler at the base of the key- 

 board is struck when it is necessary to separate one word from another. 



In the interior of the apparatus every letter is attached to a small 

 hammer, and corresponds to the pressure bestowed upon the notes, which are 

 disposed in a circle. If A, for example, be touched upon the key -board, the 

 hammer will bring A to the centre of the circle, and so every letter of the 

 word will be, by such action, brought to the centre of the circle in succession. 

 The paper upon which the letter is printed is wound upon a cylinder 

 mounted upon a slide, as seen in the upper portion of the illustration. 



When the letter is pressed down on the key-board the corresponding 

 hammer strikes against the cylinder, between which and the hammer is a 

 ribbon prepared with a special ink. The letter being in relief like ordinary 

 type is impressed upon the paper. The slide upon which the paper is 

 mounted is so arranged as to move from right to left exactly a letter-breadth 



