Dec. 2i, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



625 



TYPE -WRITERS. 



A/TOST persons who can combine a little mechanical 

 ability with a knowledge of the use of tools and of 

 the construction of machinery, and who have also had 

 some experience with type-writers, must marvel at the 

 ingenuity, skill, and dogged perseverance of those who 



The Remington Type-writer. 



first attempted to produce a machine for writing in 

 printed characters, and who succeeded in producing 

 anything better than a troublesome toy. 



Some amateurs are endowed with a delicacy of mani- 



a satisfactory type-writer. Americans are as much 

 before us in bringing out and perfecting such things as 

 type-writers and sewing machine?, as they are behind 

 us in locomotive and marine engine work. 



The sewing-machine has not only taken the bread out 

 of the mouths of thousands of needlewomen, but its use 

 is far more injurious to those who remain, than sewing 

 in the old-fashioned way. The type-writer, on the other 

 hand, is rapidly creating a new industry which is 

 eminently adapted to female labour. 



Of the two main advantages offered by the type-writer, 

 perhaps legibility is more important than speed. A few 

 weeks' practice is sufficient to enable any one to write as 

 fast with a machine as with a pen, and constant use will 

 make it possible to attain some eighty words a minute, 

 or about three times the speed of fast writing. The 

 fatigue is far less, especially lor long spells of several 

 hours in succession. The legibility cannot be compared 

 so readily ; but a good machine, with well selected type, 

 produces a sheet, which, though it may contain errors 

 due to the attempt of the operator to work at too high a 

 speed, almost equals ordinary print, and has the great 

 advantage of perfect uniformity, each letter being distinct, 

 with none of those endings in which the last few 

 characters melt away into a wriggling line. 



The best known type-writers are the Barlock, Crandall, 

 Columbia, Hall, Hammond, Remington, and the World. 

 This alphabetical order places one of the latest inventions 



The Caligraph Type-writer. 



pulation and patience that is seldom to be found in a 

 skilled workman ; and the fruits of their labours are 

 often nothing more than marvellous ivory pagodas, balls 

 within balls, and snuff-boxes whose beauty is rivalled 

 only by their uselessness. We have not yet met with 



at the top 01 the list, while the well-known Remington, ot 

 which greatest numbers have been made, appears last but 

 one. These machines may be conveniently divided into 

 two classes : the Remington, Hammond, Caligraph, Cran- 

 dall, and Barlock, which are key machines, and the Colum- 



one who has had the skill to make, much less to invent, I bia, Hall, and World, which have moving type wheels or 



