New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-08-15

NNl 90 III
Yes I found it, Carleton replied as he
crossed the room and shut the door: but |
dldn stop YESTERDAY. I took advantage
OF II. We don't have TO stop IL The other side
VIII attend 10 that after a few more DAYS like
tins. Stil II YOU re IN a hurry" He drew
some sheets OF paper from his pocket, and. Sc
lectlng one Of them, land II before his partner.
Cast Your eagle eve over that"
Lorlng picked up the creased and somewhat
soiled page Of typewriter paper and studied II
sense 10 tins. John he sand. Its lust a Jun
Die OF wordS-no. they aren't words at all
just mess o.; typewriter letters, as If some
one had been striking the keys at random"
And yet. SAID Carleton. ks ewes dancing
=" that Is Just the sort Of random work that has
cost the firm more than a hundred thousand
dollars-until this morning, when We got some
OF II back on Rubber"
Is it a cipher. John," asked Loring. 81
don't possess the key - II, II II Is.
Look ~ II closely, chief. Its letter. See.
after the somewhat cahNiiStic address, IT reads
Swll a.aNpn rbbwe ahoei Bitton Oil deep our
tpnomeo implas ., yoi JADE. Can you make
II out'"
No Can you'"
IL means. chief. that an enterprising firm of
brokers has hired the room above mine. across
the shaft from Miss Marshals and has en-
ployed an expert Typewriter operator TO watch
your stenographers fingers through fieldglaSs
She writes your letters. Miss Marshall uses
tlCe, never looking ~ his own machine, but
keeping ms eyes fixed on the movements of her
fingers, and following their motions with ms
own on the keys Of his typewriter, this keen
sighted young man was able 10 come somewhere
near the sense OF the letters she was transcrlb-
lng. Of course, he could not be sure 10 strike
the exact key every time, but he often did,
and could generally hit one pretty near II, any
how. Then, 10y studying the keyboard and
picking out the letters that would make sense
he IL J.. .
what our orders were"
" Hold on a minute" interrupted Loring
What's the principle OF tins touch system
How does Il work,
WHY, the keyboard is conceived to be di-
vided INTO eight parts, one for each finger,
the thumbs being used for the space bar, and
the keys IN each Of these eight divisions OF
groups, always struck by the same finger.
which, with practice, Is soon taught TO select
the proper one. The eyes Of the operator &C
cordingly need never be shifted from the copy
10 the keyboard. In the case Of an operator
who follows the movements OF the fingers OF
another operator, even If he never touches the
same key, he Is hound, If he uses the same
finger, 10 strike within the same division. Then
II the result does not make words that he can
read. he has only 10 set down under each letter
all the other letters IN that group. and 10 select
such as do make words The context Will and
HIM IN selecting the words that probably
used. and so enable him 10 learn what the opera
tor he IS following mas written. In the only IN
stance Of that sort OF work that has come under
my observation. the operator very often struck
the night key, which sinplified the translating
Take that first word on the sheet you are
looking at Swll,' for example. There is no
vowel. + IS next 10 " on the keyboard. Sub
stitute II. and YOU have sell y axpn comes
next. The comma Is obviously out Of place
and NJ IS alongside Of II the machine. Try
that We now have 'Amaxpn. Any school
boy could put a and an o IN the next two
places and get Amazon Amazon nbbwe'
looks as If It might be ribbon but II ISN'T.
Its rubber
q" You can work the whole thing out IN the
same way Is the inquisitive young man on the
floor above undoubtedly did on the sheets ne
took away with HIM last night. He probably
thought the scrubladY who cleaned up his Of
fee would not care 20 spend the time 10 work
out the puzzle and 50 CONSIDERABLY left the
original copies on the floor for me 10 pick up,
with her innocent connIVancc.
The apparently meaningless tumble Of let
tiers would then read, Sell Amazon Rubber
short Bottom will drop out tomorrow. I'm
load al YOU have That Is one Of the letters
Miss Marshall wrote for me yesterday. They
went into my pocket ana not into the mail.
however That made II easy for me 10 construe