little miss austin

If you want to say what is the biggest harvest of this year, it should be the replica of the typewriter from the Patent Office.

Tom left London, and Henry couldn't always go to London, so he entrusted the matter to his cousin Thomas, who was a small government servant, and asked him to find the relatives of the inventor who applied for the patent back then, signed the patent transfer contract, and actually The original complete design drawings were found.Cousin Thomas used his spare time to find a craftsman to make a prototype typewriter according to the drawings.

After Alice tried it, she felt that it was too unsuitable. You have to press hard to press the button. This is obviously unscientific. Users can't type a page, and their wrists will feel sore.

So keep improving.

Alice asked cousin Thomas to rent a residential house with warehouses in the suburbs of London not far from Hyde Park, and centralized the management of engineers and workers.She did not have the money herself, and wrote to Mr. Hastings, saying that she found this invention very useful, and briefly and vividly explained the commercial prospects of the typewriter. Mr. Hastings gave her 500 pounds in batches. , used to rent houses and hire workers.

The patent cost £150, Henry and Eliza's money.

No accountant has been hired yet. Eliza and Alice kept two ledgers respectively, and agreed to compare the two ledgers at the end of the year to see if there was any discrepancy, and how much money was spent in a year.

He also asked Henry to register an "Austin Typewriter Company", whose main business was Austin brand typewriters.

Alice went to the factory every Sunday to try out the improved typewriter.Various problems include the pressure sensitivity of the keys, the ink ribbons of different manufacturers, the smoothness of the rollers, and the letter layout of the keyboard. If you want to achieve easy use and clear writing, you have to trial and error and continue to improve.

At the beginning of October 1798, the Austin factory finally produced a typewriter that could pass Alice's acceptance.

This typewriter was named "Dr. Pepper" by Alice.

After passing the acceptance, it is the question of how to mass produce.

Alice asked the factory to make 5 more "Dr. Pepper", which she wanted to use for marketing.

She took the "Dr. Pepper" machine zero back to Becker's house and showed it to Mrs. Becker.

"Dr. Pepper" Unit One sent home to Jane.

The "Dr. Pepper" No. [-] machine was taken by Henry to Mr. Hastings.

Cousin Thomas took the "Dr. Pepper" No. [-] to his own government department first, and demonstrated it to his superiors.Then go to other government departments to demonstrate.

"Dr. Pepper" Unit [-] was sent by Henry to Tom Lefroy's tutor at Lincoln's Inn.

"Dr. Pepper" No. [-] was sent to Oxford University and asked Wesley to show it to William. William's noble father is related to William Beckford, the author of "The History of the Vasak Caliphate". William and Beckford are representatives. brother.

Wesley didn't show Alice's letter to William, but just relayed Alice's meaning and asked him to give the typewriter to Beckford.

William was suffering from a splitting headache after a hangover. Hearing him say this, he raised his eyebrows, "Ha! Doesn't little Alice know Beckford's reputation? Father really wants to pretend that we never knew that guy."

William Beckford's reputation... Well, Wesley knew a little bit about it, too.Beckford's father used to be the mayor of London for two terms, and he was also a member of the city council. He didn't have a noble title, but if we follow the development path of ordinary people, Beckford only needs to follow his father's path and be a member of the House of Commons for a few years , getting the title of "Lord" is just around the corner.

The Beckford family started out by opening up sugar cane plantations in Jamaica. The sugar trade was a hugely profitable industry in the early days of the colonial era. The Beckford family accumulated a huge fortune in just three generations, and they could have the money to pursue politics. status.William Beckford is the fourth generation heir.

He was born rich, precocious and intelligent. When he was 5 years old, his first music teacher was Mozart, who was only 9 years old at the time. He also received systematic training in architecture and painting, with extremely high artistic accomplishment and taste. In 1770, his father, Beckford Sr., died. Beckford, who was only 10 years old, inherited a huge estate of one million pounds, and thus began a dissolute life.

He collected Eastern and Western art everywhere, sponsored artists, and was a bohemian in love.He is beautiful, rich and tasteful, the object of admiration of countless ladies, and the object of prey of countless mothers. At the age of 18, Beckford met William Courtney, who was only 10 years old at the time. Courtney was the only son of the second Viscount Courtney. Boy," Beckford wrote numerous letters to the teenage Courtney.

But this did not prevent Beckford from marrying Lady Margaret Gordon, the daughter of the fourth Earl of Albany a few years later.Mrs. Margaret is 2 years younger than Beckford. She is beautiful and noble. It can be said that this is a happy marriage.Beckford cultivated his mind and decided to enter the House of Commons to be a promising politician.

But then, in a homosexual scandal that broke out in 1784, an uncle of the young Courtney discovered Beckford's explicit letters to Courtney, so the scandal was exposed because Courtney was Not yet of age, all public opinion pointed the finger at Beckford for seducing the young and ignorant Courtney Jr.

Beckford had to flee to a foreign country with his wife.Two years later, Lady Margaret died of puerperal fever after giving birth to her daughter Susan in Switzerland.Beckford took his young daughter and continued to wander in Europe, going to countries such as Spain and Portugal, before returning to England in 1796.

William took Wesley to Beckford's manor, so Alice knew that the most notorious gay rich man in the country was still alive and had returned to England.

Wesley showed William the "Dr. Pepper" typewriter sent by Henry. William was very interested and hurriedly typed a letter with the typewriter.

After typing the letter, he took out the letter paper and looked at it for a moment, "I know what you mean, you want Beckford to buy this——typewriter, is that the name? Is that so?"

"No," Wesley smiled, "Alice wants Mr. Beckford to recommend the typewriter to his relatives and friends."

William froze for a moment, "You have to know, Beckford's eccentric temper, I really don't know if he would think that a machine like a typewriter ruins the fun of writing letters by hand."

"Who asked you to write letters? The typewriter is mainly used for fast typing, for example, it can be used directly to write novels."

William immediately understood, "I understand! But to be honest, people like Beckford would rather use a dip pen than a machine. But," he scratched his chin, "this machine is very suitable for use In government departments, record documents and the like. Courts are also suitable. Both my father and brother complained that if they encountered government clerks with not so good-looking handwriting, those documents would really have to be deciphered word by word.”

This era still pays attention to writing beautiful handwriting, but it is impossible for everyone to write fluently and clearly and easily recognizable. There are many civil servants at the bottom of the government with poor education and handwriting. After all, the popularization of basic education is just like this. 50 years thing.Therefore, the most suitable use of typewriters is not currently home word processing, but government departments and courts with a large number of text files.

The encounters of the "Dr. Peppers" are different.Jane wrote to Alice, saying that although the typewriter is easy to use, it is not conducive to her writing and will interrupt her thoughts. She is still used to writing by hand; now it is mainly used by her father, and her mother has learned to use the typewriter to write letters. Akane also used a typewriter to write letters.

Cousin Thomas reported that although the boss thinks the typewriter is very suitable for their department, he doesn’t know the price of the typewriter and whether the boss’s boss will approve the purchase. Ask the Austin Typewriter Company to provide the price of the machine so that he can go to the boss Submit your budget.And asked cryptically, is there any kickback.

Tom Lefroy’s mentor is also a judge of the Supreme Court in London. He believes that typewriters are suitable for recording legal documents, and standardized fonts are suitable for long-term preservation of documents, but he doubts whether the handwriting can be preserved for decades without fading—current legal documents Unless the legal provisions can be printed and published for study and retrieval, the case files are just handwritten documents, with age-old ink faded and blurred, and they are often unrecognizable when needed.

In response to this problem, Alice was going to ask Henry to bring their chemical engineer to demonstrate to the judge the degree of ink fixation of the handwriting typed out by the typewriter after blistering.

Mr. Hastings wrote back and praised the typewriter for its usefulness. He is now preparing to write his memoirs, which are usually dictated and then recorded by the secretary, but the secretary does not write so fast, and there is no systematic and easy-to-use shorthand method developed in this era. Therefore, the efficiency is very low, and I haven’t written a few pages so far. The secretary is working hard to practice typing. He typed out all the previous scattered documents with a typewriter and bound them into a book, which is also convenient for storage and searching. I can start working on my memoir as soon as possible.He then asked her if she still needed money, when it would be officially produced, and what the output would be. In the spring of next year, as the major shareholder, he would go to the factory to visit and inspect it.

Alice wrote back and said, sir, it is hard to say whether you will be the major shareholder. After the new year, she will go to Daylesford first to confirm the shareholding of the major shareholders.

The current investors are: Mr. Hastings, 500 pounds; Henry and Eliza, 150 pounds, various miscellaneous expenses 150 pounds; Wesley, 1000 pounds.

Alice did not directly invest her 50 pounds of private money in it, but counted it as a "technical investment" for herself.

The specific shares of each person are currently divided into 10 shares, Wesley 3 shares, Mr. Hastings 2 shares, Henry and Eliza 3 shares, and Alice 2 shares.She has to wait until the various parts of the typewriter are disassembled and sent to an outside casting factory for mass production, then calculate the cost, calculate how much principal is needed, and see if the two major shareholders who contributed capital can bear all the funds, and then decide whether to increase the cost. Shareholders—no, Eliza still has 1 pounds, but she certainly won't invest all the money in it, even if she can pay 5000 to 7000 pounds.

Pastor George knew that Henry and his wife were tinkering with the typewriter company, but he didn't know that Alice was also involved, let alone Wesley was also involved in the investment.

He quickly accepted the new technology, and he was already using a typewriter to type letters and some sermon speeches. He also wrote a letter to give feedback to Henry, and then wrote to Edward in Kent, saying that Henry was making typewriters. What do you think about this? Like, have no commercial prospects.

Edward quickly wrote back, saying that he thought the typewriter was good, and asked Henry to send him one next time, so that he could help him advertise it in Kent.

Henry also quickly wrote to Edward, saying that he was preparing to mass-produce typewriters. The price of each typewriter must be affordable only to nobles and rich people in the early stage. I hope he can ask more money from wealthy families in Kent sell.He also said that a typewriter company had been registered in London, and that the company's business would do well in the future, and the name of "Austin" would become a household name.

This is of course a bit of an exaggeration now, but what's wrong with it?Edward also wanted Henry and his family to be richer so that his parents could live a better life.

It's not that he is stingy and unwilling to help his parents, but Pastor George thinks that Edward has already adopted him, so as long as he lives well with his wife and children, he doesn't have to worry about his family.Pastor George feels that raising children is the responsibility of parents, and children cannot be burdened with brothers and sisters.Besides, the fact that the family needs to support now is only 3 daughters and George, which is much better than when there were up to 8 children.

Do the math again, because Alice only goes home for two months a year now, and the pocket money for meals and even the biggest expense, clothes, do not need to be spent at home.

And in fact, Edward supported the family.The diocese of Dean was given to Reverend George when Knight Knight was alive, and then the diocese of Steventon was given to him. The churches in these two villages have land, which is leased to the villagers for farming. The income of the diocese is the field. That's how the rent and the priest's allowance come from.After Knight Knight passed away, Edward inherited the estate. Of course, it is impossible to take back the parish, and his father still holds the teaching position.

Pastor George earns 200 pounds a year in two dioceses. After giving the diocese of Dean to his eldest son James, his income has been reduced by 100 pounds. However, the annual income of 200 pounds is enough to support a family of 6 people. He never thought of needing the help of his sons. financial aid.

Edward's properties are all fields, manors, and houses. The cash mainly depends on real estate and rental income, and he has children one after another. To be honest, there is not much spare money that can be used. If Henry does well in business, he will be able to do well financially. Support my sisters.What happened to Cathy made the brothers very sad; Jane had to be separated from her fiancé because of financial problems, so Jane's marriage could not encounter any more twists and turns.

Moreover, when Alice grows up, she will never encounter the embarrassment of her sisters again when she is rich, and she can choose her fiancé at will.

Edward is actually dissatisfied with the two Toms: Fall is an idiot, and it would be good to ask Craven directly for the parish, but he is so stupid that he insists on going to South America, and loses his life in the end; Very smart, but being poor is the original sin, what kind of marriage is there to propose without money!

He secretly made a decision, first, to support Henry's career; second, he must take the time to tell his father that he must carefully choose Alice's suitor.

Inexplicably, Alice in London has an additional possible obstacle related to marriage.

By Christmas of this year, Alice Austin turned 9 years old.

She has grown into a slim young girl, her face is still chubby, her stature has been raised a lot, she is wearing the latest style of dress in London, her smile is elegant after practice, and her demeanor is dignified after training. Let her take off the rustic atmosphere of a country girl, even if you say that she is the Lady of any duke's family, people will definitely believe her.

Wesley couldn't say whether this was a good thing or not.

He likes 7-year-old Alice very much, and thinks she is like the most luxuriant wildflower in the field in spring, vigorous, full of sunshine and vitality.But there is nothing wrong with Alice now, and he is a little bit entangled, not knowing what he wants from Alice.

Mrs. Gresham did not have such entanglements. Instead, she praised Alice for going to London to study with an educated lady, which was of great benefit, but she also said that Pastor George might have harmed her youngest daughter.

Wesley didn't understand, "Why do you say that?"

"Look! Alice is the pastor's daughter. The most likely thing she will do in the future is to marry a young pastor like Cathy. This is a marriage in line with her current status, and she is well-matched. But she is receiving a better education now. In the future, it is very likely that she will come into contact with young people with a higher social status than her, and her upbringing is no problem, but she does not have the corresponding property, and it is very likely that she will not be able to find a suitable husband."

Weiss figured it out and understood.

Good family status is very important at any time. The man is allowed to find a wife with a lower social status, but the gap cannot be too far. For example, if Jane is a farmer's daughter, even if she looks better than a little fairy, Mrs. Gresham will definitely not marry her. She would agree to his love and pursuit, and would rather send him away immediately, or immediately force him to be engaged to a lady of the right family.

The same is true for Alice. If he waits for Alice to grow up and proposes to her, there is nothing wrong with it. But if William wants to marry Alice, unless the Austin family can come up with a dowry of tens of thousands of pounds, otherwise it is all right. impossible.

Just like William Beckford was able to marry the daughter of an earl because he had no noble title but had millions of property. If he was rich enough, class differences would not matter much.

Together, Alice and Henry went to Wesley to discuss investment issues. The typewriter had been disassembled into parts and ordered from 5 foundry factories in different regions. The first order was 100 units, and all the parts were shipped back to the factory in the suburbs of London for manual assembly and debugging. .This is to try to avoid possible technology leaks.Typewriters are expensive, priced, and profitable, and it takes a lot of money and manpower to promote them. She doesn't want to see someone seeing the huge market for typewriters and making counterfeit products.

She also talked about the registration of patent rights. She registered patent rights for almost all possible components, including the design of the typewriter, keyboard layout, etc., and also registered a trademark for "Dr. Pepper". The registered products include existing Almost all types of goods, the legal awareness is very strong.

The LOGO of "Dr. Pepper" is a silhouette portrait drawn by someone. A typewriter is placed in front of a man, and a line of words is wrapped around the portrait: Austin Typewriter Company, founded in 1798; Dr. Pepper, rewriting and writing history.

Wesley originally said that the name "Dr. Pepper" was too strange, why not just call it "Austin Typewriter"?Alice replied, saying strange names can make people remember them better.Sure enough, he only mentioned it to William once, and William remembered this weird name, and asked how it came to be, but Wesley didn't know how Alice came up with this name, so he couldn't answer him.

Before returning to Gresham Manor, Wesley and William sent "Dr. Pepper" to Welbeck Manor.Sure enough, William Beckford felt that this typewriter was too ugly and did not conform to his aesthetic taste, so he didn't like it.So Wesley took the typewriter back to Gresham.

Wesley asked what to do with the typewriter, and Alice asked him to keep it for writing letters.

He asked again: "How much more do you need?"

Henry said: "I don't want to have any other shareholders. If you can contribute another 1 pounds, you will have 25% of the shares." Before Henry did not say how many shares his 1000 pounds accounted for. Now, the Austin brothers and sisters will hold 100% of the shares. Split into [-] shares.

Weiss thought about it for a while, and then said: "Yes." The 1 pounds is almost all of his deposits. He has spent a lot of annuities in the past two years, and the amount of deposits has not increased.

After thinking about it again, "I should be considered the major shareholder now, right? When I go to London after the New Year and transfer the money to you, you have to tell me who else is the major shareholder and how much shares they hold."

That made sense, and Henry agreed.

Henry is full of enthusiasm for his new venture.He and Eliza have a different division of labor. Eliza pays and he contributes. The couple discussed that once the typewriter market is developed and starts to make a profit, Henry will retire from the militia and focus on sales and management of the company.

Cousin Thomas resigned from the government department before the Christmas holiday. He moved to a factory in the suburbs of London by himself and was responsible for the management of the factory. Henry made him a factory manager with a salary that was double his previous annual salary. Cousin Thomas also Very motivated.

The author has something to say:

*The typewriter has actually been repeatedly invented by many people. In Britain, a designer named Henry Muller applied for a patent for the typewriter in 1714, but it did not enter commercial production.

*It is said that the "QWERTY" keyboard pattern was finally determined in 1874. The wiki version says that the designers at that time thought this arrangement was more efficient and easy to use.

*Specific technical issues and commercial issues are purely nonsense by the author, please do not take it seriously.

*Minor fix to Pastor George's parish income.It is said that the eldest brother James took the post of pastor in three dioceses in the future, and his annual income reached as much as 3 pounds. He should have at least one large diocese.After Reverend George retired, James had at least two incomes from the diocese of Dean and Steventon. Taking inflation into account, £1100 was more reasonable.

*England first stipulated the "Bread Trademark Law" in the form of law in 1266, stipulating that the bread produced by bakers must have a logo.

*Stealing the name "Dr. Pepper". DrPepper is a beverage brand that is now part of the Seven-Up Corporation.