Hansen's Writing Ball, also known as Malling-Hansen Writing Ball
Printing & Writing
1875-1880
Malling Hansen Writing Ball, patented in 1865, of about 1875, a typewriter with keys radiating to a common printing point.
The Malling Hansen “writing ball” displayed all the significant refinements of writing machines introduced 40-50 years later: automatic carriage return and line spacing, a space bar, a bell to signal the end of the line, provision for carbon paper copies, a ribbon reverse and — most significant of all — visible writing by raising the typing mechanism.
The main component of the writing ball is a hemisphere of 54 spring-loaded and engraved alpha-numeric typebars supported on three nickel plated columns with set-screw adjustment and geared mechanism. Each of the fifty-four typebars is aligned at a different angle, yet all converge on the paper at a common point.
