A TYPEWRITER OF THE FUTURE. A MACHINE THAT WILL WRITE IN A BOOK AND MAKE A DOZEN COPIES OF A DOCUMENT AT A TIME.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 6, 2 April 1906, Page 151

A TYPEWRITER OF THE FUTURE. A MACHINE THAT WILL WRITE IN A BOOK AND MAKE A DOZEN COPIES OF A DOCUMENT AT A TIME.

Written for Progress. By general consent the typewriter is the greatest labour-saving invention of the ags, and the most appreciated It is in use everywhere, not excepting the offices of the very men who might be supposed to regard it with the least favour — the pen manufacturers. It has been hailed as a " boon and a blessing to men " more generally than the most famous of the articles made by the last-named gentlemen. But its very popularity has blinded us to what, when pointed out, is a glaring defect m the principle of its construction. We should explain here that we refer to the typewriters of the ordinary kind — the kind with which the business men of the country are most familiar. There are, of course, quite a number of different makes of these machines, but while they vary m the details of their construction, they have one feature m common, m accommodating the paper, and typing upon a cylindrical roller, or, as it is technically termed, platen. The roller was the least happy idea of the inventor, as were he now alive he would be the first to admit. It severely limited the machine's field of usefulness in two ways. In the first place it required that the writing material should be flexible and thin. In the second place it ignored an important factor m printing, by making the flat surface of the types work upon its own convex surface. This made for illegibility, though with a rubber roller the defectiveness of the principle is generally only realised when the machine is called upon to make a number of carbon duplicates. But the most regrettable fact about the roller is that it did not enable the machine to perform the universal task of writing in books. It was an extraordinary mischance that the roller principle should have been adopted m preference to the flat surface principle, when the advantages of the latter were so obvious. But since we have grown accustomed to the one, it is less astonishing to learn that the superiority of the other is only just beginning to be recognised. The new-style typewriter had its origin (like one or two other things), in America, where in the few years it has been on the market, it has been enormously successful, one company alone — the Pennsylvania Railroad Companv — having 2, in use. It was introduced into England only a short time since, but has at once jumped into the first rank. The new typewriter is made in two styles : one known as the Elliott machine, for general office work ; the other, known as the Pisher machine, specially designed for invoicing and order work, and for book-keeping generally. The work the machine does is, at first sight, little short of marvellous. It will write a letter, make a loose carbon copy for vertical or flat filing, and also make a carbon copy in a letter-book — all at one writing. It will write an invoice, a copy of it in a book, a shipping receipt, and as many as ten auxiliary records, with the envelope, all in one operation. It will write on index or postcards, on the pages of bound books, on loose sheets, regard-

less of shape, size, or thickness, at top speed. It will write on mimeograph stencil sheets without bending, creasing, or breaking In short, where ever the pen will write the new machines will typewrite. The key to their capacity has already been indicated — they have a fiat stationary writing surface, and the printing mechanism moves over it. They do not wind the paper round a cylinder. The page of

the book, the packet of forms, the letter paper, or whatever else has to be typed, is simply laid upon the hard, flat table of the machine, the frame carrying the writing mechanism is dropped down and the writing begins, the mechanism travelling across the surface. By reason of its much greater field of operation the fiat writing machine has an immense advantage over all the machines on the roller principle, and it is undoubtedly a typewriter of the future. Take order and invoice work for instance. In the ordinary way copying the particulars of one transaction involved at least several, and sometimes twenty distinct transcriptions. The capacity of the ElliottFisher machines for duplicating work is such that the whole of the copies can be obtained m one operation, and all possibility of error m transcription vanishes. The various forms, interleaved with carbon sheets, are typed as one document. Should it be necessary to omit certain particulars, say prices, name and address, special notes, etc., from some of the forms m the batch, this is easily done by using forms of various sizes or by using different sized carbons. Sets of forms are, of course, designed to meet the special requirements of the system in use m the particular office. One set, for example, provides for the writing in one operation of the invoice,

acknowledgment of order, advice to traveller, analysis copy, the order, several departmental orders, consignment note, despatch receipt, and sales sheet entry. The packets of forms are holed and fastened over studs on the bed of the machine perfect registration being thus secured. In book-keeping on the loose -sheet method, which it is interesting to note is becoming very popular m this country, the Elliott-Fisher machines are able to render valuable assistance. But it is hardly possible m a newspaper article to enumerate the many purposes for which they are of service. One may appreciate them best for manifold work, another for their wax-stencil cutting ability, another for the admirable and clean way in which they type a letter and a copy m the letter book. Some of the machines are made to carry rolls of paper and transverse rolls of carbon. In others the platen is fitted with a belt of carbon, enabling a folder sheet to be typed and copied in a minimum of time, one large drapery house in America using sixty machines so fitted. The actual typewriting mechanism of the Elliott-Fisher machine leaves nothing to be desired. It is fitted with a doublecoloured ribbon, a change being effected by the movement of a switch. It has the " universal " keyboard and is a " visible writer " Where the light is poor a small electric lamp is fitted to the machine, and this lights up automatically when the machine is in operation. In the course of an interview with the representatives, Messrs. Yerex, Barker and Fmlay, Limited we understand that already there is a demand for the book typewriter in this colony. A number of wholesale houses have already adopted it, whilst it is also being used by some of the City Councils as a means of keeping their records, even the minutes of the Council meetings being typewritten direct into a book. In America the sale has been phenomenal, no less than thirty thousand having been sold during the last six years.

Rail motor-cars were to be substituted for trains between Brighton and Kemp Town, England on and after ist January. The new service -\\i\l be performed by petrol-driven cars of one class, only capable of seating 48 passengers

The London General Omnibus Company is expending 000 for providing three hundred and fifty motor 'buses during the >ear.