"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters."
I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.
"I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for the plays of W. Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected works of Francis Bacon."
...and before I knew what I was doing, I had kicked the typewriter and threw it around the room and made it beg for mercy. At this point the typewriter pleaded for me to dress him in feminine attire but instead I pressed his margin release over and over again until the typewriter lost consciousness. Presently, I regained consciousness and realized with shame what I had done. My shame is gone and now I am looking for a submissive typewriter, any color, or model. No electric typewriters please! -- Rick Kleiner
“In the enormous and empty Ministry of Foreign Affairs are to be heard only the sound of two typewriters. With his own hands Trotzky is conducting an active foreign policy....”
In 1905 Bridgeport was the principal manufacturing centre in Connecticut, the capital invested in manufacturing being $49,381,348, and the products being valued at $44,586,519. The largest industries were the manufacture of corsets--the product of Bridgeport was 19.9% of the total for the United States in 1905, Bridgeport being the leading city in this industry--sewing machines (one of the factories of the Singer Manufacturing Co. is here), steam-fitting and heating apparatus, cartridges (the factory of the Union Metallic Cartridge Co. is here), automobiles, brass goods, phonographs and gramophones, and typewriters. There are also large foundry and machine shops. Here, too, are the winter headquarters of "Barnum and Bailey's circus" and of "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show." Bridgeport is a port of entry; its imports in 1908 were valued at $656,271. Bridgeport was originally a part of the township of Stratford. The first settlement here was made in 1659. It was called Pequonnock until 1695, when its name was changed to Stratfield. During the War of Independence it was a centre of privateering. In 1800 the borough of Bridgeport was chartered, and in 1821 the township was incorporated. The city was not chartered until 1836. Entry: BRIDGEPORT
ILION, a village of Herkimer county, New York, U.S.A., about 12 m. S.E. of Utica, on the S. bank of the Mohawk river. Pop. (1890) 4057; (1900) 5138 (755 foreign-born); (1905, state census) 5924; (1910) 6588. It is served by the New York Central & Hudson river, and the West Shore railways, by the Utica & Mohawk Valley Electric railroad, and by the Erie canal. It has a public library (1868) of about 13,500 volumes, a public hospital and a village hall. The village owns its water-works and its electric-lighting plant. Its principal manufactures are Remington typewriters and Remington fire-arms (notably the Remington rifle); other manufactures are filing cabinets and cases and library and office furniture (the Clark & Baker Co.), knit goods, carriages and harness, and store fixtures. In 1828 Eliphalet Remington (1793-1861) established here a small factory for the manufacture of rifles. He invented, and, with the assistance of his sons, Philo (1816-1889), Samuel and Eliphalet, improved the famous Remington rifle, which was adopted by several European governments, and was supplied in large numbers to the United States army. In 1856 the company added the manufacture of farming tools, in 1870 sewing-machines, and in 1874 typewriters. The last-named industry was sold to the Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict Company in 1886, and soon afterwards, on the failure of the original Remington company, the fire-arms factory was bought by a New York City firm. A store was established on the present site of Ilion as early as 1816, but the village really dates from the completion of the Erie canal in 1825. On the canal list it was called Steele's Creek, but it was also known as Morgan's Landing, and from 1830 to 1843 as Remington's Corners. The post-office, which was established in 1845, was named Remington, in honour of Eliphalet Remington; but later the present name was adopted. The village was incorporated in 1852. Ilion is a part of the township of German Flats (pop. in 1900, 8663; in 1910, 10,160), settled by Palatinate Germans about 1725. The township was the scene of several Indian raids during the French and Indian War and the War of Independence. Here General Herkimer began his advance to raise the siege of Fort Schuyler (1777), and subsequently Ilion was the rendezvous of Benedict Arnold's force during the same campaign. Entry: ILION
In musical instruments the term "key" is applied in certain wind instruments, particularly of the wood-wind type, to the levers which open and close valves in order to produce various notes, and in keyboard instruments, such as the organ or the pianoforte, to the exterior white or black parts of the levers which either open or shut the valves to admit the wind from the bellows to the pipes or to release the hammers against the strings (see KEYBOARD). It is from this application of the word to these levers in musical instruments that the term is also used of the parts pressed by the finger in typewriters and in telegraphic instruments. Entry: KEY
DERBY, a city of New Haven county, Connecticut, U.S.A., coextensive with the township of Derby, about 10 m. W. of New Haven, at the junction of the Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers. Pop. (1900) 7930 (2635 foreign-born); (1910) 8991. It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and by interurban electric railways. In Derby there are an opera house, owned by the city, and a public library. Across the Housatonic is the borough of Shelton (pop. 1910, 4807), which is closely related, socially and industrially, to Derby, the two having a joint board of trade. Adjoining Derby on the N. along the Naugatuck is Ansonia. Derby, Ansonia and Shelton form one of the most important manufacturing communities in the state; although their total population in 1900 (23,448) was only 2.9% of the state's population, the product of their manufactories was 7.4% of the total manufactured product of Connecticut. Among the manufactures of Derby are pianos and organs, woollen goods, pins, keys, dress stays, combs, typewriters, corsets, hosiery, guns and ammunition, and foundry and machine-shop products. Derby was settled in 1642 as an Indian trading post under the name Paugasset, and received its present name in 1675. The date of organization of the township is unknown. Ansonia was formed from a part of Derby in 1889. In 1893 the borough of Birmingham, on the opposite side of the Naugatuck, was annexed to Derby, and Derby was chartered as a city. In the 18th century Derby was the centre of a thriving commerce with the West Indies. Derby is the birthplace of David Humphreys (1752-1818), a soldier, diplomatist and writer, General Washington's aide and military secretary from 1780 until the end of the War of Independence, the first minister of the United States to Portugal (1790-1797) and minister to Spain in 1797-1802, and one of the "Hartford Wits." Entry: DERBY
BEAVER FALLS, a borough of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on Beaver river, about 3½ m. from its confluence with the Ohio, opposite New Brighton, and about 32 m. N.W. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890) 9735; (1900) 10,054, of whom 1554 were foreign-born; (1910), census, 12,191. The borough is served by the Pennsylvania and the Pittsburg & Lake Erie railways. It is built for the most part on a plateau about 50 ft. above the river, hemmed in on either side by hills that rise abruptly, especially on the W., to a height of more than 200 ft. Bituminous coal, natural gas and oil abound in the vicinity; the river provides excellent water-power; the borough is a manufacturing centre of considerable importance, its products including iron and steel bridges, boilers, steam drills, carriages, saws, files, axes, shovels, wire netting, stoves, glass-ware, scales, chemicals, pottery, cork, decorative tile, bricks and typewriters. In 1905 the city's factory products were valued at $4,907,536. Geneva College (Reformed Presbyterian, co-educational), established in 1849 at Northwood, Logan county, Ohio, was removed in 1880 to the borough of College Hill (pop. in 1900, 899), 1 m. N. of Beaver Falls; it has a preparatory and a collegiate department, departments of music, oratory and art, and a physical department, and in 1907-1908 had 13 instructors and 235 students. Beaver Falls was first settled in 1801; was laid out as a town and named Brighton in 1806; received its present name a few years later; and in 1868 was incorporated as a borough. Entry: BEAVER
KENOSHA, a city and the county-seat of Kenosha county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on the S.W. shore of Lake Michigan, 35 m. S. of Milwaukee and 50 m. N. of Chicago. Pop. (1900), 11,606, of whom 3333 were foreign-born; (1910), 21,371. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western railway, by interurban electric lines connecting with Chicago and Milwaukee, and by freight and passenger steamship lines on Lake Michigan. It has a good harbour and a considerable lake commerce. The city is finely situated on high bluffs above the lake, and is widely known for its healthiness. At Kenosha is the Gilbert M. Simmons library, with 19,300 volumes in 1908. Just south of the city is Kemper Hall, a Protestant Episcopal school for girls, under the charge of the Sisters of St Mary, opened in 1870 as a memorial to Jackson Kemper (1789-1870), the first missionary bishop (1835-1859), and the first bishop of Wisconsin (1854-1870) of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Among Kenosha's manufactures are brass and iron beds (the Simmons Manufacturing Co.), mattresses, typewriters, leather and brass goods, wagons, and automobiles--the "Rambler" automobile being made at Kenosha by Thomas B. Jeffery and Co. There is an extensive sole-leather tannery. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $12,362,600, the city ranking third in product value among the cities of the state. Kenosha, originally known as Southport, was settled about 1832, organized as the village of Southport in 1842, and chartered in 1850 as a city under its present name. Entry: KENOSHA
During the 18th century Hartford enjoyed a large and lucrative commerce, but the railway development of the 19th century centralized commerce in New York and Boston, and consequently the principal source of the city's wealth has come to be manufacturing and insurance. In 1905 the total value of the "factory" product was $25,975,651. The principal industries are the manufacture of small arms (by the Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Co., makers of the Colt revolver and the Gatling gun), typewriters (Royal and Underwood), automobiles, bicycles, cyclometers, carriages and wagons, belting, cigars, harness, machinists' tools and instruments of precision, coil-piping, church organs, horse-shoe nails, electric equipment, machine screws, drop forgings, hydrants and valves, and engines and boilers. In 1788 the first woollen mill in New England was opened in Hartford; and here, too, about 1846, the Rogers process of electro-silver plating was invented. The city is one of the most important insurance centres in the United States. As early as 1794 policies were issued by the Hartford Fire Insurance Company (chartered in 1810). In 1909 Hartford was the home city of six fire insurance and six life insurance companies, the principal ones being the Aetna (fire), Aetna Life, Phoenix Mutual Life, Phoenix Fire, Travelers (Life and Accident), Hartford Fire, Hartford Life, National Fire, Connecticut Fire, Connecticut General Life and Connecticut Mutual Life. In 1906 the six fire insurance companies had an aggregate capital of more than $10,000,000; on the 1st January 1906 they reported assets of about $59,000,000 and an aggregate surplus of $30,000,000. In the San Francisco disaster of that year they paid more than $15,000,000 of losses. Since the fire insurance business began in Hartford, the companies of that city now doing business there have paid about $340,000,000 in losses. Several large and successful foreign companies have made Hartford their American headquarters. The life insurance companies have assets to the value of about $225,000,000. The Aetna (fire), Aetna Life, Connecticut Fire, Connecticut Mutual Life, Connecticut General Life, Hartford Fire, Hartford Life, Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co., National Fire, Orient Fire, Phoenix Mutual Life and Travelers companies have their own homes, some of these being among the finest buildings in Hartford. The city has also large banking interests. Entry: HARTFORD