also in its place in the line. If stationary keys were employed, a key would be required for each letter, which would increase the first cost a hundred and fifty times, and the liability to get out of order in the same ratio, besides making a machine more difficult to learn, and without increasing the speed. But the advantages of the single key are found to be many besides its simplicity and cheapness. It allows the use of any number of different characters, it is not liable to get out of order, its parts are all in plain sight, and it is limited in speed only by the skill of the operator. One of its greatest advantages is that the line of type being set is always before the eye of the compositor. He is constantly observing the process of its formation; and there is therefore no occasion for the “outs” and “doublets” that are so frequently made in the machines that carry the line away from the operator’s sight. This Type-setter was brought to perfection several years ago; but the necessity of a distributing machine was soon realized. In the setting of types by machinery, it is needful that they be ranged in lines, instead of being laid in boxes, as for hand-composition. To do this by the slow process of hand-distribution would more than counterbalance the time gained by the setter. It was first attempted to employ cheap labor for the work; but this was not satisfactory, and was soon abandoned. For the full utility of the setter, therefore, some method of distribution is imperative. Consequently Mr. Brown sought among the distributers already projected by other inventors something that might be adapted to accompany his setter. But a careful examination of everything that had as yet been produced found nothing that promised to be satisfactory; and he turned his attention to the only remaining expedient, namely, to create a new one. After five years of study and labor, he produced a distributer which, for simplicity of design and reliability of action, is a fit complement and companion for the setter.