AtoZ Challenge – K: Keyboard Invention at Haverfordwest

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is for bloggers who wish to participate, by publishing a blog post every day in April except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B, April 3 will be C,  and on it goes. By the end of April, a blog post for every letter of the alphabet will have been published.   Blog posts are usually on a theme, or you can choose to post each day with no theme at all. My theme for 2024 is “Haverfordwest in the News”. Haverfordwest is a town in the county of Pembrokeshire, Wales.

from: Noncomformist, Wednesday 13 September, 1871, page 17 
REPORTING BY MACHINERY
The tachytypograph„or rapid type-writer, is an invention which is being patented by Mr. J. S. Davies, of Haverfordwest, and consists of a machine for obtaining verbatim reports of speeches, debates, sermons, &c, in the ordinary English characters. It will be generally applicable to all purposes where rapid writing or printing is desired, and is intended particularly to supersede shorthand, for reporting purposes; it is manipulated by means of an ordinary keyboard, and can be made of a convenient size for portability and use in public assemblies.

One alphabet of type is used, one type or character is affixed in a socket at one end of each twenty-six levers. These “type-levers” are actuated by a series of “key. levers.” When any key is depressed, the corresponding type-lever brings down and imprints it’s type or character on a roll of paper which directly over the “printing point,” and thus a legible impression is produced on the paper, either by an endless band of carbonised or transfer paper passing round both wheels outside the paper, and over it at the “printing-points,” or a strip of silk stretched directly above the “printing-point,” at a distance of 1/4 inch above the paper, and suspended on two rollers saturated with suitable ink, and receiving motion from the paper-carrying apparatus. – Mechanics Magazine.

**Please note: Punctuation and paragraphs have been added to the above transcription for ease and speed of reading.

1871, ‘REPORTING BY MACHINERY’, The Nonconformist, Wednesday, 13 September, 1871, Retrieved 01 November 2023, from britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

© 2024 Copyright. all rights reserved: haverfordwesthistory.com