The typographer consisted of a wooden box with a swinging lever on one end for impressing. The typeface letters were mounted on a short sector attached on the underside of the lever. Pressing down imprinted the letter selected onto the paper. The paper was on a large continuous roll and the printed part was torn off giving the typed document or letter wanted. One could print both upper and lower case letters. The first writing machine Burt built did not live up to his expectation, so he built an improved version six months later that wasn't much faster. The improvements were mostly in looks and appearance for marketing the machine to investors. While Burt's typographer generated a lot of interest and did a very good job of typing clear and neat letters. It did not become a commercial success as his typographer was "born out of season". Burt's typing machine was before a time of much need for such a machine. No market was found for the device or his patent during his lifetime.