CHAPTER VI.

HIGH SPOTS IN TYPEWRITER PROGRESS We have noted the fundamental features contained in the original typewriter of 1873. It had the step-by-step escapement mechanism which caused the letter-spacing travel of the paper carriage. It had type bars on which type were mounted which printed at a common center. It fed the paper around a cylinder on the paper carriage. It was equipped with a line spacing and carriage return mechanism. It printed through a ribbon, which traveled across the printing point with the movement of the carnage. It had the standard number of printing keys, placed in four rows, and the characters on these keys, and the corresponding type bars, followed the arrangement now known as "universal." To these fundamental features the Model 2 Remington of 1878 added the shift-key mechanism, with two type mounted on a single bar. Every one of the features above described is standard in all the leading writing machines of the present day. It must not be supposed, however, that the reign of each and all of these basic features has been undisputed throughout the entire fifty years of typewriter history. In time other typewriters appeared on the market, which represented radical departures from one or another of these principles. Some of these machines proved practical in actual service and won a considerable popularity, and some of them are manufactured and sold today. A review of typewriter history would not be complete which failed to take note of these departures from the type of construction generally known as "standard." One of the earliest issues in the typewriter field concerned the relative merits of the type-bar principle versus the type wheel. Mention of the type wheel brings us back to John Pratt's Pterotype and the article concerning it in the Scientific American of July 6, 1867, which is said to have suggested the idea of a typewriter to Sholes and his colleagues. Pratt is said to have actually built and sold some of these machines in England, but they were not a success, and he for a time despaired of being able to construct a machine on which the printing wheel would move quickly and yet stop instantly. He worked over the problem for years, and when, at last he approached the United States Patent Office he found himself in interference with two other inventors, James B. Hammond and Lucien S. Crandall, both of whom appeared with writing machines built on the type-wheel principle. A deadlock ensued which was finally settled by Pratt yielding precedence to Hammond upon a type-wheel machine and receiving a royalty, while Crandall proceeded with his application for a patent on a type-sleeve instrument. The first Hammond patents were taken out in 1880, and the machine was placed on the market shortly thereafter. The early Hammond had what was called the "ideal" keyboard, semi-circular in shape, but later Hammonds have conformed to the "universal" keyboard arrangement. The Hammond was the first practical type-wheel machine and is today the leading machine of this class. The type-wheel construction has always had strong advocates, but these machines have never been very serious competitors of the type-bar machines in the general commercial field. Soon after the advent of the Hammond, another important typewriter issue arose--that of single versus double keyboard. The first double-keyboard machine was the Caligraph, placed on the market in 1883, an enterprise upon which Yost entered after it became evident that he could no longer retain his interest in the Remington. The Caligraph was devised under the direction of Yost, principally by a skilled German mechanic named Franz X. Wagner, who afterwards won prominence as the inventor of the Underwood Typewriter. Yost's aim was to construct a typewriter which would evade the Remington patents, but, failing in this, he was subsequently granted a license. In after years the Smith Premier became the leading double-keyboard machine. This machine, the invention of Alexander T. Brown, was placed on the market in 1890 by Lyman C. Smith, the gun manufacturer of Syracuse, and during the next few years attained a wide popularity. It was urged in behalf of the double-keyboard machine that the key for every character made its operation easier and simpler for the beginner. The construction, however, was more complicated, because it doubled the number of type bars and connecting parts, and there was a further disadvantage in the enlarged keyboard, which time made evident. The double keyboard would probably have yielded to the shift key sooner or later, but it was the advent of the touch method of typewriting which really settled the matter. For use in connection with the touch system, the compact keyboard of the shift-key machine proved so obvious an advantage that the double keyboard lost ground rapidly and machines with this keyboard began in time to disappear from the market. The present Smith Premier Typewriter, invented by Jacob Felbel, is a shift-key machine of standard design. Another early issue in typewriter construction concerned the relative merits of the ribbon and the inking pad. This brings us to the last enterprise of G. W. N. Yost, which he undertook after severing his connection with the Caligraph. In 1888 Yost brought out the machine, developed by Alexander Davidson, Andrew W. Steiger and Jacob Felbel, that ever since has borne his name. The most notable departure of the Yost Typewriter from the standard design was the elimination of the ribbon and the use instead of an inking pad, on which the face of the type rested. The first Yost was a double-keyboard machine, but later models embody the shift-key principle. Of late years this type of machine has been hardly known on the American market, although it has always enjoyed a considerable sale in Europe. The inking pad, as a substitute for the ribbon, found many advocates at one time because of one serious deficiency in the early ribbon machines. The automatic ribbon reverse is an old story now, and present-day typewriter users take it as a matter of course. Many of them may be surprised to hear that the typewriter was twenty-two years old before the first automatic ribbon reverse appeared on a writing machine. Some of the older generation of typists, however, can still remember the time when it was always necessary to operate the machine with one eye on the ribbon, in order to be sure to reverse it at the right time, or else suffer the consequences in a "chewed-up" ribbon and spoiled work. During the early nineties Jenne labored hard on the problem of an automatic ribbon reverse, the solution of which called for inventive skill of a high order. After several experimental devices had been designed, all of which were far too complicated, a simple solution was found by George B. Webb, and the first automatic ribbon reverse made its appearance on the Remington in 1896. Within a few years the old hand reverse became practically obsolete on all standard machines. In the meantime a new demand had been steadily growing, which was destined to influence quite radically the future course of typewriter development. All of the earlier type-bar machines were built on what is known as the understroke principle. The type bars were arranged in a circular "basket," underneath the carriage, and the type printed at a common point on the under side of the cylinder. These machines were satisfactory in speed and quality of work, but they had one practical defect--it was necessary for the operator to raise the carriage in order to see the writing line. The advantages of visible writing were so obvious that the problem began at an early date to engage the attention of typewriter inventors. On the type-wheel machines, visible writing was easily attained, but on the type-bar machines it called for real inventive effort. The first type-bar visible writer, the Horton, appeared as early as the year 1883. Most of the early type-bar visible writers were of the down-stroke type, the type bars striking downward to a common point on the top of the cylinder. Prominent among machines of this construction were the Columbia Bar-Lock (1888), the Williams (1890) and the Oliver (1894). The latter machine, in particular, secured and has since held a considerable market. Later on the front-stroke principle of construction took the lead in the general business field. The first front-stroke machine to attain prominence was the Underwood. This machine was the invention of Franz X. Wagner, whose earlier connection with the Caligraph we have already noted, and was placed on the market in 1897 by John T. Underwood, who had long been identified with the writing-machine industry as one of the pioneer manufacturers of typewriter ribbons and carbon papers. The design of the front-stroke machines represented a new departure in the arrangement of the type bars, which were placed in a segment in front of the carriage, the type printing on the front of the cylinder. This front-stroke principle proved to be a satisfactory solution of the problem of visible writing, and all of the leading standard machines are now of the front-stroke type. Prominent among these machines today are the Underwood, the front-stroke Remington, which was largely the work of Oscar Woodward, followed by later improvements; the "L. C. Smith," brought out by Lyman C. Smith, the original manufacturer of the Smith Premier, and the Royal, followed some years after its first appearance by a new model. Visible writing is an old story today, the last non-visible machines having disappeared from the market many years ago. Doubtless, when this problem had been solved, it seemed to some as though the typewriter had attained finality. But there is nothing final on this earth, and a new demand has been growing of recent years until it has become as strong and insistent as the demand for visible writing of twenty years ago. The familiar "clicking" noise of the typewriter has been with us as long as the machine itself, and in the early days people did not seem to mind it. But when the use of the typewriter had grown until whole batteries of them had invaded every department of business, the accumulated noise became a disturbance, and users began to wish that the machine would imitate, if it could, the one and only virtue admittedly possessed by the pen--that of silence. The development of quiet typewriting brings us to the present-day stage of typewriter progress, which hardly belongs to this story. It is sufficient to say that the writing machine, which has always been equal to any demand made upon it, has run true to form in this case. During recent years one typewriter has appeared, the Noiseless, built around this central idea, also quiet models of at least three of the standard makes. It seems a far cry from the first typewriter of 1873 to the shift-key, front-stroke, visible-writing, quiet machine of 1923. Equally great has been the progress in the skill of the operator, from the first would-be typists who awkwardly tried their hands on the early machines, to the standards attained by the best typists of the present day. The progress of the operator, however, has not been marked by the same slow, successive stages. It has been the outcome of one great development--the introduction of the scientific method of key fingering known as touch typewriting. We have referred more than once to the article in the Scientific American of July 6, 1867, which started so many brain cells working to such good purpose. One more quotation from this article, which has a special application to the operator, is now in order: "The weary process of learning penmanship in the schools will be reduced to the acquirement of writing one's own signature and playing on the literary piano." Note the words "playing on the literary piano." They were suggested spontaneously in connection with the idea; they were an unconscious prophecy which time has fulfilled. To operate the machine with the eyes resting not on the keys but on the copy, as the eyes of the pianist rest on the music, to use all the fingers, to regulate the touch so that the best results are obtained, thus gaining time in the execution and excellence in the work; these are the ends secured by the touch system, a method now taught universally in business schools. "Who was the first touch typist?" is a question now frequently asked. The answer is, the first blind typist, whoever that person was. We have recorded how the needs of the blind figured in the efforts of so many of the early typewriter inventors. Pen writing is almost an impossibility for blind people. A frame of parallel wires fitted over the writing paper, with one wire for each line of writing, is of some help to the blind in pen writing, but if they lose the line they cannot find it again, and it is the same with words and spaces between words. The human hand has no automatic spacing mechanism, like the typewriter, and that is what the blind person needs. But where sight is lacking there is only one possible method of operation--by touch. The touch method was a discovery of the blind, and a gift by them to all the typists of the world. It took time, however, for this idea to become diffused among schools and operators generally, and during the early years of the typewriter the style of typing now known derisively as "peck and hunt" was universal among sighted operators. Here was a paradox, where the gift of sight caused blindness and only the blind could see what was hidden from everybody else. In a few years, however, the art of touch typing was acquired by a few sighted typists of exceptional skill. The first of whom there is record was Frank E. McGurrin, who taught himself the art on a Model 1 Remington in 1878, while a clerk in a law office in Grand Rapids, Mich., and afterwards became the champion speed operator of his time. The exhibitions given by McGurrin in different cities of the country during the eighties were of the very highest educational importance. The most notable of these was the contest between McGurrin and Traub; decided at Cincinnati on July 25, 1888. The modern typewriting contests are interesting mainly as demonstrations of the utmost capacity of the operator, but the contest between McGurrin and Traub had a far deeper significance. It was really a contest between two different systems of typing--the new and the old. Louis Traub was an instructor in typewriting and agent and expert operator of the leading double-keyboard machine of that day. Both in the keyboard used and the method used, he stood in opposition to McGurrin. The conditions called for forty-five minutes writing from dictation, and forty-five from copy, unfamiliar matter being used. McGurrin won decisively on both tests, but the significant fact was that his speed increased three words per minute when writing from copy, while Traub's speed fell off twelve words per minute on the same test. The reason is obvious. McGurrin's eyes were always on the copy, while Traub was compelled to write an "eyeful" at a time. Traub was open to conviction and accepted the logic of the result without reserve. He subsequently became an expert touch operator of the shift-key machine. The exhibitions of McGurrin and other self-taught touch typists of this early period served a useful purpose in demonstrating that the idea was feasible, but to make it practical for all typists was the task of the educator. The first business school to begin systematic instruction to pupils by the touch method, or the all-finger method as it was then called, was Longley's Shorthand and Typewriter Institute of Cincinnati. The credit for the introduction of this system belongs to Mrs. M. V. Longley, wife of Elias Longley, whose name is well known to the shorthand fraternity of America through his prominent association with the development of phonography. This was in 1881. In the following year her "Remington Typewriter Lessons" were published, the first printed system for teaching the all-finger method. The advertisement describes the system as "a series of lessons and exercises--by a system of fingering entirely different from that of other authors and teachers"; a very conservative statement considering the radical departure it represented from the prevailing usage of the day. The first typewriter man to interest himself in the system was H. V. Rowell, for many years manager of the Remington office at Boston, who is still living at an advanced age. It was a paper read by Mrs. Longley before the First Annual Congress of Shorthand Writers, held at Cincinnati in 1882, that gave Rowell his first inspiration on the subject, and from that time he became an ardent and constant advocate of the touch system. The first business educator who took up this method at Rowell's suggestion was W. E. Hickox who introduced it in his private shorthand school at Portland, Me. Hickox, who began to teach touch typing in 1882, was the second educator in America and the first in the East to adopt this method, but it was some years before he had any imitators. Rowell, however, continued ceaseless in his efforts, and in 1889 he interested B. J. Griffin of the Springfield Business School, Springfield, Mass. Griffin became a touch typewriting enthusiast. He introduced it in his school to the exclusion of all other methods, and the remarkable typing skill of some of his graduates soon produced a deep impression on other business educators. In the same year, 1889, Bates Torrey of Portland, Me., published "A Manual of Practical Typewriting." The word "touch" seems such a natural one as applied to this method that it would seem almost futile to search for its originator, but, as a matter of fact, Bates Torrey was the first one to use it in a printed manual. We also note in this book a great advance in the point of view over Mrs. Longley's "Typewriter Lessons." Mrs. Longley's method was a genuine touch system in its results, but not in its main purpose, which was avowedly to secure an improved method of fingering. Seven years later the all-finger method had become simply a means to an end--the ability to write by touch. The developments of the year 1889 set the ball rolling, and during the next few years many new "touch" manuals appeared and one school after another took it up until the touch method was firmly established in the East. The growth of the system in the West was due mainly to the efforts of another typewriter man, O. P. Judd, for many years manager of the Remington office in Omaha. Judd, writing in 1897, says that "Omaha has become the storm center of the commotion over the touch method of typewriting." Two educators of that city, Van Sant and Mosher, urged on by Judd, entered into a friendly competition, and the rival exhibitions given by their splendidly trained pupils soon spread the method far and wide. Early in the year 1901 the Remingtons made a complete canvass of the schools of America to ascertain definitely the extent to which the touch system was then in use. It was found that half of the schools of the country had already begun instruction by the touch method and, of the remainder, the great majority announced their intention of doing so with the beginning of the fall term. Very soon after, the old "peck and hunt" plan of teaching had disappeared entirely from the schools, and the old style operators have become fewer and fewer with each passing year until one of them in a present-day business office is almost a curiosity. The seeming impossibility of thirty-five years ago, when people watched McGurrin and wondered, has become the universal commonplace of today.