Rasmus Malling-Hansen
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Rasmus Malling-Hansen, born 1835, died 1890, Danish inventor, minister and principal at the Royal Institute for the deaf-mutes, and one of the true pioneers of the 19th century. He possessed a great urge to bring forward new ideas and new inventions and to reveal the secrets of the unknown connections in nature. Nothing was too small to arise the interest of Malling-Hansen, and in even the smallest things he saw a potentially meaningful detail. This lead him to be one of Denmark's most colourful inventors, a farsighted educational reformer and the discoverer of an unknown factor that affects all growth in nature.
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[edit] Inventor of the world's first commercially produced typewriter
Malling-Hansen's most famous invention was the Hansen Writing Ball, invented in 1865 and first patented and set into production in 1870. From Malling-Hansen's daughter, Johanne Agerskov's book, Hvem er Skrivekuglens Opfinder? we know that Malling-Hansen in 1865 made experiments with a model of his writing ball, made of porcelain. He marked the letters on the model, and while his brother in law took the time, he tried to write as fast as he could, with different placements of the letters. In this way, he found a way to place the letters on the keyboard, which made the writing speed very fast. He placed the letters that's used most frequently, to be touched by the fastest writing fingers, the vocals to the left and the consonants to the right. This, together with the placement of the letters on short pistons, made the Hansen Writing Ball a very fast speed writing machine. On the first model, the paper was attached to a cylinder, which moved by the help of an electromagnetic battery, and this made the writing ball in principal also the first electric typewriter. The writing ball is recognized by its finely crafted mechanical detailes, and Malling-Hansen developed his invention further throughout the 1870's and -80's, and in 1874 he patented a new model where the cylinder was replaced by a flat carriage on which the paper was fastened. In 1875 the writing ball found its well known, tall shape, and Malling-Hansen had now found a mechanical solution to the movement of the paper, and had removed the battery. The writing ball was sold in many countries in Europe, but probably due to the relatively high prize, it was never a great commercial success, even though it was a great success on different exhibitions - and Malling-Hansen received the first prize medal at a large industrial exhibition in Copenhagen in 1872, and at the world exhibitions in Wienna in 1873 and in Paris in 1878. Malling-Hansen in 1872 also invented a fast speed writing machine to be used for stenography, called the Takygraf. We know the patent application for this machine, and there also exist pictures of it, so it must have been made in at least one specimen. But nobody knows where this Takygraf is today. Malling-Hansen was also the first person to discover the unique possibilities of the blue carbon paper, and developed a copying technique - he called it the Xerografi, and he could, in a relatively short time, produce up to one hundred copies of letters and drawings.
[edit] Farsighted educational reformer
Malling-Hansen's period as a principal at the Royal Institute for the deaf-mutes, from 1865 to 1890, was a period of change and new ideas. Malling-Hansen very soon understood that the teaching of the deaf-mutes was ineffective because of the large variation of the pupil's abilities. Some of them were totally deaf and had no speech ability, and some were what we today would call mentally retarded, while others both had a small hearing ability, and could also speak. From Malling-Hansen came, in 1867, a proposal to devide the pupils into 3 different groups, depending on their abilities, and Malling-Hansen also saw to that the newest pedagogical method, the speech method(reading of the lips) was taken into use for the group called the not originally deaf, those who had a limited hearing ability and could also speak. The sign method was still to be used when teaching the group called the originally deaf, those who had no hearing ability and no language, and the mentally retarded. Together with the Keller Institutions the Royal Institute divided these groups between them. The Institute was to educate the originally deaf, and the Keller institutions the not originally deaf and the mentally retarded.
Malling-Hansen also wanted to improve the conditions under which the deaf-mutes lived. This was in a very early stage of the educational system, and the understanding of children's need to play and to relax was not very developed. They had to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, and in addition to the teaching they had to work in the workshops of the school in late hours. The death rate was extreme, and in the first period of the Institute, from 1824 until 1839 1/3 of all the children died, mostly of lung diseases. Malling-Hansen understood that the main reason to the lung diseases, was the lack of space in the school - there were too many children in a too small area. He therefore came up with the proposal to set up a new building, and also to install electricity, but unfortunately both proposals were refused by the authorities. But Malling-Hansen made sure to take into use all possible areas of the school, and he made improvements and enlarged the outside garden, and all children regularly worked with gardening, the girls more than the boys, as things were in those days. In Malling-Hansen's time as principal, the death rate sunk drasticly among the children, and in the last periods of his time the death rate was lower than in the similar population of hearing children. Since the authorities did not approve Malling-Hansen's suggestion to set up a new building in Copenhagen, Malling-Hansen in 1879 made a proposal to establish a new Institute in Jylland, and this time his plans were realized, and in 1881 the Royal Institute for the deaf-mutes in Fredericia was founded.
Rasmus Malling-Hansen was a man who had great impact on the development of the Danish and also the Nordic educational system of his time. He was often used in public commitees, and in 1890, shortly before his death, he held a lecture about the development of the education of the deaf-mutes on a large inter-Nordic conference in Copenhagen. His care and concern for the deaf children, who were among the weakest of the society, was unique, and they showed their appreciation by attending his funeral in 1890 in great numbers. They had lost a father figure and a true friend.
[edit] Discoverer of the growth of children in periods
At a certain point Malling-Hansen wanted to investigate if the growth and the increase in weight were satisfactory among the children at the Institute. With his usual thoroughness he started a scientific investigation, which included several weighings and measurings of the children's height every day. To shorten the time needed to perform the weighings, Malling-Hansen had some large weights made, where he could weigh up to ten children at the time. The results soon showed him that the growth of the children was not a constantly ongoing process throughout all the year, but that the children grew in periods, and this was totally unknown to science up til then. Malling-Hansen saw that the growth was affected by some unknown factor, and he also started measurements of trees, and here he found again the same factor. He also was in contact with scientists around the world, who reported their results from different measuring projects initiated by Malling-Hansen. There were still many unanswered questions to investigate further when Malling-Hansen died, but in 1886 he published a book where he presented the results of his studies. The book was called Perioder i Børns Vækst og i Solens Varme, and here he presented his idea, that it was the variations in the rays of the sun, that was the factor that caused the variation in the growth of the children, an in nature as such. His discoveries became well known not only in Denmark, but also internationally, and his book was also translated into German. In 1884 he had also held a lecture on a scientific conference in Copenhagen, attended by scientists from all over the world.
Rasmus Malling-Hansen did not become an old man. He worked extremely hard all his life, from he attended the Jonstrup school for teachers in 1852, during his theological education, in his work at the Institute, and with his inventions and scientific studies. He was married in 1865 to the daughter of the former principal, Cathrine Heiberg, and he became the father of seven daughters. His first wife was giving birth to two more daughters in 1876, when both she and the twin girls tragically died. Malling-Hansen remarried in 1880, to a woman he knew from his youth, Anna Steenstrup. He was also a free mason, and was known to always have an open door to everyone who wanted to see him, for he was a man of a good and friendly heart. He was an internationally known inventor and scientist when he died, on his way home from a meeting in his loge, a dark autumn night in 1890.
One of Malling-Hansen's daughters, Johanne Agerskov, together with her husband, Michael Agerskov, in 1920 published a religious, ethical and philosophical book, called Toward the Light.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Jonstrup-bogen, nr 6, 1928, Jonstrupsamfundets Forlag, Copenhagen, page 3-25, by Arild S. Ebbe.
- Det Kongelige døvstumme-institut i København 17. april 1807-17.april 1907 samt meddelser om døvstummesagens udvikling, by Dr. jur. C. Goos, Copenhagen 1907, page 226-284, about Malling-Hansen's period as principal.
- Opfindernes Liv, første del, by Helge Holst, Copenhagen and Kristiania 1914, page 348-352, chapter about Rasmus Malling-Hansen, written by Fritz Bech.
- Hvem er Skrivekuglens Opfinder? By Johanne Agerskov, Otto Markussen’s boghandel 1925.
- Die Biographie der Erfinder der Schreibkugel, R. Malling-Hansen by Johanne Agerskov, undated manuscript.
- Nietzsches Schreibkugel, by Dieter Eberwein, Typoskript Verlag, 2005
