The Encyclopedia britannica; a dictionary of arts, sciences, and general literatureWith new maps, and original American articles by eminent writersWith American revisions and additions, bringing each volume up to date . theblind ; it appeared about 1784. Until 1841 thereis no record in the English Patent Office of anyother writing machines. But from that date anumber of devices, all more or less impracticable,made their appearance, and more than a hundredinventions of writing machines have been patentedin England, not one of which has done its work ina satisfactory manner. American records sho
The Encyclopedia britannica; a dictionary of arts, sciences, and general literatureWith new maps, and original American articles by eminent writersWith American revisions and additions, bringing each volume up to date . theblind ; it appeared about 1784. Until 1841 thereis no record in the English Patent Office of anyother writing machines. But from that date anumber of devices, all more or less impracticable,made their appearance, and more than a hundredinventions of writing machines have been patentedin England, not one of which has done its work ina satisfactory manner. American records show that, in 1843, CharlesThurber, of Worcester, Mass., took out a patentfor a writing machine, followed by dn improve-ment two years later. The Thurber machine wrote,but so slowly that it remained a curiosity andnothing more. The accompanying cut shows itsoperation. The keys are small steel rods, fourinches long, with common types inserted in thelower end, and bearing buttons on the top withthe corresponding letters marked on them. The T Y 1 E W li 1 T E K S, ir>i7 keys are placed in a vertical position around tlierim of a horizontal brass wheel, sixteen inchesacross, which turns about a central post, and each. SMITH key-rod is surrounded by a spiral spring, whichraises it after it has been pressed down upon thepaper. Mr. A. Ely Beach, now one of the proprietors ofthe Scientific American, obtained a patent In1856 for a machine intended to print embossed let-ters for the use of the blind. It covered a princi-ple afterward developed into success. All theprinting was done at one point, the center of acircle, and the machine was made with type-barsconverging as the spokes of a wheel Soon afterward Dr. Samuel W. Francis adoptedthe pianoforte action and arranged his hammers,each with the face of a letter, in a circle, throwingthem up as piano-hammers act, each one strikingat a common center. A silk ribbon saturated withink was made to pass under the paper very muchas is
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidencyclopedia, bookyear1892
