Hansen's Writing Ball & Other Unusual Typewriters

In 1865 what many consider to be the true ancestor to true, efficient, and financially successful typewriter was developed by Rasmus Malling-Hansen: The Writing Ball. Not only was it efficient, but also strangely elegant, even beautiful: just look at it - a brass half-sphere covered with keys above a cylinder that held the paper. It was finely made, unlike some of the unsuccessful machines before, looking more like a gentleman's watch than a piece of office equipment:.
via darkroastedblend.com