IMPROVEMENTS IN TYPE WRITING MACHINES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Gustavus Palmer Harding at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 9th December 1870.
I, GUSTAVUS PALMER HARDING, of Paris, France, but at present of 35,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TYPE WRITING
MACHINES," to be as follows:-
The Invention has for its object improvements in type writing
machines whereby great simplicity of construction and operation are
obtained. For this purpose I use according to one arrangement a wheel
or segment provided with guides, spaces, or perforations to receive type
which are acted upon by a spring or springs to keep them in or return
them to their normal position and at the same time permit of each type
being separately operated as desired. The type wheel or segment is
mounted on a fixed axis and is operated by a handle or lever which is
capable of turning the type segment or wheel around its axis so as to
bring any particular type into the required position for printing. The
said lever or handle in some cases is jointed in such manner as to permit
of its moving at right angles to the direction in which the type segment
or wheel is moved, and at the required time it is operated so as to cause.

page_text: one end thereof to act upon one end of a lever or hammer which is
mounted upon a suitable axis of motion, and at its other end acts upon
the type which for the time being is in position to depress it, and to
cause an impression thereof to be printed on paper passing over a block
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fixed in a suitable position to receive the pressure of the type thereon.
The printing may be effected by means of ink or by the employment
of carbonised or other suitable paper running in contact with the paper
on which the printing is to be made. The paper to receive the im-
pression and the carbonised or other suitable paper are fed forward step
by step as required for each letter by means of a clawker or driver
operated by a link from the hammer and acting upon a ratchet wheel
fixed on the axis of one of a pair of feed rollers. Or the paper may be
fed forward by any other suitable means.
According to another arrangement a type wheel or segment is
employed in which the type are fixed, in this case the paper would at
the times required be pressed on to the type which for the time being
was in position for printing, in other respects the arrangement would be
very similar to that previously described.
If it be desired to employ ink with the apparatus a pair or more of
inking rollers are placed in position for the type as they are passed over
such rollers to receive a supply of ink therefrom.
In order to ensure any particular type being brought always to the
required point for printing I employ a series of guides or a guide comb
arranged in a circle or segment of a circle so that in depressing the
handle or lever by which the various motions are given, such handle or
lever is guided into position by passing into one of the spaces of the
comb, letters or signs being employed in connection with the guides
to indicate to the operator what letter or sign is in position for printing.
If it be desired to regulate the feed of the paper in such manner as
to equalise the spaces between the various letters or signs, then I employ
such a number of teeth in the ratchet wheel as will correspond with the
spaces required, that is to say, supposing three to be the number of
such varying spaces then a ratchet wheel with three times the number
of teeth would be employed that would be required if the spaces were
all equal, and when the largest space was required between the letters
or signs the ratchet wheel would be moved forward three teeth, but
when the next sized space was required then it would be moved the
distance of two of its teeth, and for the smallest space only one. This

page_text: moving of the variable number of teeth I effect by varying the depth
of the spaces in the guide comb whereby the amount of motion given to
the clawker or driver would be varied as desired. In this case the
clawker or driver would be arranged to act on the feed rollers in the
downward motion of the hammer, and the length of the type would be
varied as required so as to permit of the full action of the clawker before
the hammer strikes the type.