The inking pad, as a substitute for the ribbon, found many advocates at one time because of one serious deficiency in the early ribbon machines. The automatic ribbon reverse is an old story now, and present-day typewriter users take it as a matter of course. Many of them may be surprised to hear that the typewriter was twenty-two years old before the first automatic ribbon reverse appeared on a writing machine. Some of the older generation of typists, however, can still remember the time when it was always necessary to operate the machine with one eye on the ribbon, in order to be sure to reverse it at the right time, or else suffer the consequences in a "chewed-up" ribbon and spoiled work. During the early nineties Jenne labored hard on the problem of an automatic ribbon reverse, the solution of which called for inventive skill of a high order. After several experimental devices had been designed, all of which were far too complicated, a simple solution was found by George B. Webb, and the first automatic ribbon reverse made its appearance on the Remington in 1896. Within a few years the old hand reverse became practically obsolete on all standard machines. In the meantime a new demand had been steadily growing, which was destined to influence quite radically the future course of typewriter development. All of the earlier type-bar machines were built on what is known as the understroke principle. The type bars were arranged in a circular "basket," underneath the carriage, and the type printed at a common point on the under side of the cylinder. These machines were satisfactory in speed and quality of work, but they had one practical defect--it was necessary for the operator to raise the carriage in order to see the writing line. The advantages of visible writing were so obvious that the problem began at an early date to engage the attention of typewriter inventors. On the type-wheel machines, visible writing was easily attained, but on the type-bar machines it called for real inventive effort. The first type-bar visible writer, the Horton, appeared as early as the year 1883. Most of the early type-bar visible writers were of the down-stroke type, the type bars striking downward to a common point on the top of the cylinder. Prominent among machines of this construction were the Columbia Bar-Lock (1888), the Williams (1890) and the Oliver (1894). The latter machine, in particular, secured and has since held a considerable market. Later on the front-stroke principle of construction took the lead in the general business field. The first front-stroke machine to attain prominence was the Underwood. This machine was the invention of Franz X. Wagner, whose earlier connection with the Caligraph we have already noted, and was placed on the market in 1897 by John T. Underwood, who had long been identified with the writing-machine industry as one of the pioneer manufacturers of typewriter ribbons and carbon papers. The