He was offered the position of cashier in national banks at Chattanooga and Knoxville, but declined. In 1892 he conceived the idea of the Fisher Book Typewriter and Billing Machine, for writing in bound books and for billing in commercial houses. During the succeeding four years he devoted every spare moment to improving his machine, to making his own drawings therefor, to taking out numerous patents, and to overcoming the problems and difficulties which only those who attempt to originate a machine of more than two thousand parts can appreciate. In 1896 he resigned his position in the bank, to devote his entire attention to his inventions. The Fisher Typewriter Company was organized, and two years and one hundred thousand dollars were spent before his first perfect machine was produced. The machines were manufactured at Athens for several years, notwithstanding Mr. Fisher was laughed at when he stated that he was going to manufacture in the South a piece of mechanism as nice as a watch, and in which measurements of one-half of one-thousandth of an inch were common; but the machines were made in the South as accurately as they could have been made anywhere. After a few years, realizing that it would require a million of dollars to successfully manufacture and introduce his machine, and that this money could not be obtained in the South, he sold his stock and royalty interests in the company to eastern capitalists. A large factory, employing nearly one thousand skilled mechanics, now manufactures his machines at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and several millions of dollars have been invested in the business. The principal office of the company is in New York, with branches in all of the principal cities of the world. There is scarcely a large business in the North and East that does not use his machine, one firm in Chicago alone using four hundred of them. For several years after disposing of his interests in the company, Mr. Fisher retained a connection with it as its inventor. After returning to Athens, Mr. Fisher erected the Athens Hosiery Mills, of which he is the sole proprietor, and which is the largest individual business enterprise in his native county. Although this business lays a heavy tax on his time and energy, it does not prevent the continuance of his inventions. Over seventy-five different patents, in this and foreign countries, attest his unabated zeal in this work. In 1900 he was awarded the John Scott Medal for meritorious invention by the city of Philadelphia, on the recommendation of Franklin Institute. The Fisher home, in Athens, is one of typical Southern comfort, Mrs. Fisher, who comes from the prominent Gauche family of New Orleans, delighting in the exercise of hospitality no less than in her devotion to the welfare of her husband and two young sons. * * * * *