1873.04.25 English

[1] This is a hand-written letter to the Danish consul in New York.

[2] CB: RMH used specially trained typists – young men – to use and demonstrate the writing ball. Unfortunately, we know nothing about the identity of such typists. Obviously, the need to send a typist to America for the purpose of demonstration made it extremely costly for RMH to exhibit his machines.

[3] Mr Clausen was the Danish consul in Washington, in addition to being RMH’s agent

[4] CB: See the scanned picture of this letter below, showing the big, flat model. Apparently, at the time RMH spent money on this kind of ‘marketing’. Unfortunately, later on he could not afford it!

SA: The flat model was not the first model of the writing ball – the very first model was the one with a cylinder in a wooden box. The design of the flat model was finished on the drawing board already in 1870, but it wasn’t built until the end of 1871. It was used, among others, by “Store Nordiske Telegrafselskab” (= the Great Nordic Telegraph Company) in Copenhagen and Newcastle. The advantage of the flat version was that one could type several sheets of paper simultaneously, even with carbon paper in between, so that one by means of a satiner press could make copies later on, using the Malling-Hansen copying method – xerography. Incidentally, throughout the 1870s Malling-Hansen made letterheads with all of his various models of writing balls.

[5] CB: From other letters we know that RMH demanded – as far as I remember – 5000 USD for his US patent. However, unfortunately it was NEVER sold. If it had been sold, today’s keyboard would have been COMPLETELY different.

[6] CB: This sentence is very important – but difficult to make out – and hard to understand. I read it as follows:
‘Dersom der er sket noget Bud på Patentet’ = “if/in case a bid for the patent is made/occurs/materialises/appears”. In other words, RMH is asking whether anyone has made a bid for his patent? Rather odd question – there was a functioning transatlantic telegraphic service as from 1866 and onwards.  It is a great pity this part of the letter is so difficult to decipher. This letter could well be of HUGE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE, since the Americans who invented the Remington typewriter in 1872 with the insane QWERTY keyboard had indeed negotiated with RMH about his patents!!! Is this the business deal that came to naught? With today’s hindsight we realize that the American parties involved UNFORTUNATELY did not copy or buy the American RHM patent on the writing ball, but that they instead invented their – far cheaper and extremely much slower – QUERTY typewriter.
SA: It was only some years later that RMH negotiated with James Densmore who had bought the patent of the American machine – the Sholes – Glidden version, named after its two inventors. It was patented in its first, very primitive, version in 1868. Densmore spent considerable sums of money in order to further develop the machine and managed to have it produced at the Remington factories in 1873. RMH offered Densmore to buy his writing ball patent; he was given an offer, but rejected it, finding the offer too low. Incidentally, it is not correct that the Remington machine was cheaper than the writing ball – in fact, it was the other way round. Dieter and I have compared the prices of a Remington and a writing ball in 1878, and the writing ball was cheaper. However, Remington had sales offices all over the USA and Europeand they were able to exhibit their product, so that the customers could see it before purchasing. In contrast, each and every writing ball had to be custom-built from Copenhagen.

[7] CB: ‘All the finished writing balls’ ??? This was in 1873 – and, as far as I am aware, the only model at this point in time was the giant, flat model, able to make 20 copies, adorning the letterhead of this letter. If he had sold his machine – and several other specimens – for export – where are they today? And how come that RMH didn’t have a SINGLE specimen for himself? According to this letter there MUST have been built several copies of of this big flat model!!! One wonders where the specimen of the National Museum of Science and Technology in Elsinore comes from??
SA: We know of the existence of several specimens of the flat model, among others there is one in Berlin, incidentally with the serial number 1. This machine was, in fact, not the first to be built, but for some reason or another, RMH did not number the first cylinder writing balls, with or without a wooden box. Otherwise, it was a commonplace thing that RMH would sell all the writing balls he had at his disposal – including his own – and hence he would have to manage without a writing ball until the mechanics were able to build new ones. According to the National Museum of Science and Technology their big, flat model as well as their model with a cylinder in a wooden box originate from mrs widow Malling-Hansen. I suppose this must be RMH's second wife, Anna Malling-Hansen, who died in 1897.

[8] CB: Quite impossible to read this word – it seems to be ‘Unitryk’ (=uniprint)?

[9] SA: General Georg Christensen (1819 – 1883) had the now obsolete title of ‘Rustmester’ = responsible for the procurement, maintenance and supply of hand weapons for the Danish army. However, he was also one of the initiators and organizers of the great art-, industry- and agricultural exposition in Copenhagen in 1872; in addition, he was a key person of the Danish Industrial Union. RMH corresponded frequently with him.