In his 1908 " Typecasting and Composing Machinery, Legros mentions the Ballou machine without illustrating it (p. 1074). In Typographical Printing Surfaces (1916) , Legros & Grant mention it (p. 236) and illustrate it (fig. 211, plate XII). James Eckman, in "The Great Western Type Foundry of Barnhart Brothers and Spindler, 1869-1933." Printing and Graphic Arts. Vol. 9 (1961) , p. 16, notes that in 1895 the Barnhart Brothers & Spindler typefoundry in Chicago purchased a machine "built by George F. Ballou." Eckman cites an unpublished letter by Charles R. Murray to Henry L. Bullen (1931) as his source.
(The image above links to a 2048 pixel wide cropped reduction of the original. Here is the original 1200dpi scan (7288x11571 pixels, 23 Megabytes): legros-grant-1916-plate-012-1200grey-fig-211-ballou-matrix-engraving-machine.png)
I have not been able to discover any patent for this machine. Interestingly, though, the patent record suggests that Ballou had strong connections to typewriter manufacturers. He patented typewriter components (929,182, assigned to Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict), a typebar (1,059,923, assigned to Remington), a typewriter tabulating mechanism (971,939 and 971,960 (assigned to Remington) and 979,216 (assigned to Union Typewriter Co.)) He is also mentioned in two patents by Oscar Woodward assigned to the Yost Writing Machine Company (957,288 and 893,829) and two of John Waldheim (971,944 and 974,318, assigned to Union).
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