Sholes and Glidden typewriter length. The redesigned platen also introduced the modern spacing functionality (horizontal and axial movement providing letter and line spacing, respectively). The cylindrical platen became "an indispensable part of every standard [typewriter]". By the end of 1872, the appearance and function of the typewriter had assumed the form that would become standard in the industry and remain largely unchanged for the next century. Although the machine possessed a cylindrical platen and what was essentially a QWERTY keyboard, two design elements that would later become essential were lacking: the ability to write in upper and lowercase letters and "visible" print. Although the
Typewriter in the Sky inexpertly carried out". "The New York Times" reviewer Villiers Gerson found "Typewriter" to be "an ironic and jaunty adventure story." Damon Knight gave the book a mixed review, commenting, "The problem [of how de Wolf can 'change the story and avert his doom'] is a tough one, and Hubbard does not so much solve it as slide around it... This weakness is more than compensated for by the ending of the story itself – Three immortal lines". In a 1988 article for the "Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts", Harlan Ellison called the work "great pulp fiction I can