The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-05-05


carriage machine in August last. The
alignment was perfect, and it had q
soft roller and purple ribbon. The col
oring of the address on the blue box is
purple. Witness identified the type
writer in evidence The typewriter has
blue ribbon on now, and he did not
know whether the ribbon was changed
at his place. Don't know in what con-
dition the machine was When it was re-
ceived back. No changes were made in
| it at the house unless the ribbon was
changed. 1t was only used to make out
few short reports and by lady Ste
nographer on the outside for half an
hour. Did not examine the alignment
the day it was received back, but it has
not been used enough since them to
change its condition any.
Gen. Childs, offered the typewriter in
evidence, and the defense objected on
number of grounds. The objection
was overruled. Mr. Beard was then
asked to write the words and characters
on the address on the blue box, using
the machine. This he did. Mr.. Beard
stated what he had observed as to the
alignment of the address on the box.
The peculiarities are not very noticeable
| in the first five letters. The re" in
! "Gebhardt' is a trife low, and too far
to the left. The 'h" is too far to the
right, leaving the Sd" standing alone
with more than its share of space on
each side. The ga" is a little too low.
The I'd" and st" show an unusual po-
sition, the I'd" standing by itself, while
the 1T" is little too low. One letter
in the next line is out of alignment,
while the last four letters, "Minn.," are
perfectly aligned. Mr.. Beard looked at
the words that he had printed and said
the popularity of the alignment is the
same as on the box. The copy made by
Mr.. Beard was offered i'm evidence. Mr..
Beard said that the easiest way to get
at the individuality of a typewriter is
through the alignment, as all machines
lose their alignment by use. Mr. Beard
explained the mechanism of the Smith
Premier typewriter. When the bars get
out of adjustment the machine gets out
of alignment. This machine has 81
bars. Would not expect any other
Smith Premier machine that had been.
i'm use for any considerable time to get
out of alignment in the same way. The
combination of letters on the box was
not made by person familiar with the
machine
The evening recess was taken here.
Morning Session.
H. p Beard was on the stand again
this morning. He said that the ad
dress on the blue box gave evidence of
being written slowly and by some one
not thoroughly familiar with the type
writer. Witness told wherein the shape
of some of the letters on a Smith Pre-
mier differ from those of any other
make. This was the only wide car
riage machine had i'm the st. Paul office
during November and December. 1t
was kept as sample, fifteen feet from
the desk of the witness. The serial
number of this machine is No. 80.
On cross examination by Mr.. Somer-
vile, the witness said that the st. Paul
office is branch and distributing point
There are about fifteen employees. Wit
ness has been in charge of the office for
ten months. The building is 30 by 80
feet. During November and December
there were about seventy five machines
in the office. Witness was able to give
record of every machine, tell when it
came in, what repairs were made on
| it, and to whom sold This was the
only wide carriage machine and for this
| reason it made more of an impression
on his mind and he kept close watch up
on it. the machine was shipped to
New Ulm Aug. 10th and returned to the
house Nov. LIST. 1t was returned to
New Ulm the last of December. The
first time witness ever paid any atten-
ton to the alignment of the machine
was in December. After the machine
came back from New Ulm only two
people used it, to his knowledge. The
Smith Premier company makes ten
types of machines, and has 100000 ma
chimes out. Ninetyfive per cent of these
have type like the machine in evidence.
There might be 1000 to 5000 Smith
Premier machines in Southern Minneso-
ia using this kind of type. Could not
tell from the sample of writing whether
| it was made on a narrow or wide gauge
machine. The parts of the different ma
chimes are interchangeable. Witness
would be surprised if any of the 3OO,-
900 machines sent out was in perfect
alignment. He could peck out one ma
chine from another by the alignment
of the letters.