Hansen Writing Ball

The Hansen Writing Ball, an early typewriter, was the first model to be sold commercially. Its inventor, the Reverend Rasmus Malling-Hansen, who served as principal of the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mutes in Copenhagen, created the device in 1865, with a patent and production launch following in 1870.

The machine’s design was both unusual and ergonomic. Its most striking feature was a large brass hemisphere holding 52 keys, which gave the device the look of an oversized pincushion. Malling-Hansen experimented with a porcelain model to find the fastest key arrangement.

He placed the most common letters under the quickest fingers and grouped most vowels on the left side and consonants on the right. Short pistons ran directly through the ball, contributing to a high typing speed. Like many early typewriters, the Hansen Ball did not let the user see the paper as it was being typed on.

Early designs

In its earliest versions, the machine typed onto paper fastened to a cylinder. The cylinder could move both rotationally and lengthwise, allowing the user to manually format and space letters.

The paper was attached with clips, and a sheet of coloring paper was used alongside the white sheet. These early models also included an electromagnet, powered by a 10- or 12-cell battery, which controlled the typewriter’s movement and made it the first electric typewriter. The magnet operated a mechanical escapement in the clockwork, shifting the carriage a set distance each time a key was pressed.

Improvements

Malling-Hansen improved his invention through the 1870s and 1880s. In 1874 he patented a new model that replaced the cylinder with a flat mechanical paper-frame.

The electromagnetic battery still moved the paper forward, and the design reduced the chance of errors. A further improvement came with a semi-cylindrical paper holder, patented in 1875, which replaced the battery with a mechanical escapement. These changes made the machine simpler and more compact.

Sale and popular use

The writing ball was shown at a major industrial exhibition in Copenhagen in 1873, the world exhibition in Vienna that same year, and the Paris Exposition Universelle. It won several awards during the 1870s. The device sold across Europe and was still used in London offices as late as 1909. However, because each unit was hand-crafted, it was eventually overtaken by the mass-produced Sholes and Glidden typewriter, which E.