1871.09.07 English

Handwritten letter from Rasmus Malling-Hansen – the reason being that he has sold out his stock of writing balls!  

The letter takes up 4 pages, but for a handwritten letter from RMH’s hand it is unusually easy to decipher. Unfortunately, the scanned copy is of poor quality, because both sides of the writing paper has been used.

In the upper left corner is an official stamp/seal displaying the words: ARNOLD STURGES??NEW YORK?? 23 September 1871.  

SA: This letter is most likely written to general Christian Thomsen Christensen, 1832-1905, who was Danish Consul in New York from 1870 to 1873.  Malling-Hansen decided to send the first writing ball directly to agent Clausen in USA, not to bother the General with the packing in and out of the writing ball. General Christensen was a Danish-American, who was known to be a very good supporter to many Danes in USA. 

                                     Kjeldby, Stege[1] September 7, 1871

                                      Your honorable,

My heartfelt gratitude for the latest tidings from you, conveyed by letter from your Honorables brother-in-law. You may already be aware through patent agent Clausen[2], that  I have by now dispatched a complete writing ball to America for Mr Clausen. However, since Mr Clausen does not have anybody with the ability to type speedily and also claims that he cannot find anyone willing to learn the skill at a fee below 50 dollars per month, the proper speed of the machine can hardly be shown, especially since the fee of 50 dollars is clearly unreasonable, and at any rate far beyond what I am prepared to defray under any circumstances.

A young man, recently confirmed[3], has been practising with us for around nine months and has achieved a dexterity of from 8 to 12 keystrokes a second. Initially I paid him 5 Rigsdaler per month and subsequently a pay increase, linked to each letter he could add per second. In recent months he has been earning 23 Rigsdaler monthly. Generally speaking, so far I have been extremely fortunate with the promotion of my writing ball. I managed to sell my English patent on very good conditions.

There are by now 10 writing balls in different parts of the world, and I myself have none at the moment. It has created quite a stir in Germany and given rise to extremely advantageous publicity. Please forgive me, Sir, for bothering you with these lines; but, General, you have manifested such a favourable interest in this endeavour, that I would so much like to keep you updated about the writing ball. The ball Mr Clausen has received writes beautifully, provided he can manage to adjust it properly. I am taking the liberty to attach a statement printed in Annalen für Typographie of 25 May this year concerning the writing ball.

I do hope that agent Clausen will send your Honorable a sample of text typed on the writing ball. I implore you to continue to take an interest in my invention and at least not loose sight of its progress.

                                                  With my highest asteem and respect, 

                                                  R. Malling Hansen

P.S.

The reason why I dispatched the machine directly to Mr Clausen and not to you, Sir, was that the unwrapping and packing of the machine is combined with so much trouble, that I dared not burden your Honorable with any arrangements in this respect and hence chose to send it directly.