Moore's Law

Mr. Pickett said:

...I recently bought myself a typewriter, which I love using, far more so than a computer keyboard. Though that could still be the novelty of it. ...

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Manual or electric, and who was the manufacturer? I'm just curious.

Mr. Pickett said:

...And just for the record - I know what carbon paper is. ...

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Of course you do; you have a typewriter.

Zombie_61 said:

Manual or electric, and who was the manufacturer? I'm just curious.

Of course you do; you have a typewriter.

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It's a manual portable Smith Corona Corsair which I think is mid to late 60's. It's in really great condition and compared to others I've seen online, looks hardly used (no discolouration etc.)

Mr. Pickett said:

It's a manual portable Smith Corona Corsair which I think is mid to late 60's. It's in really great condition and compared to others I've seen online, looks hardly used (no discolouration etc.)

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Nice. My first (and only, now that I think about it) typewriter was a manual Underwood that was in perfect working condition, and probably dated back to the early-60s or late-50s. I picked it up at a local thrift store some time around '76 or '77 when I chose to take a typing class in high school and wanted something to practice on at home. Thinking back, that class was one of the few high school courses that actually came in handy in my after-school/working life, especially at my last job. I wish I still had that typewriter, but it would probably be nothing more than decor these days.

Zombie_61 said:

Nice. My first (and only, now that I think about it) typewriter was a manual Underwood that was in perfect working condition, and probably dated back to the early-60s or late-50s. I picked it up at a local thrift store some time around '76 or '77 when I chose to take a typing class in high school and wanted something to practice on at home. Thinking back, that class was one of the few high school courses that actually came in handy in my after-school/working life, especially at my last job. I wish I still had that typewriter, but it would probably be nothing more than decor these days.

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That was the same with me, taking typing during High School turned out to be very usefull to me. When I moved to Germany I was surprised at how many of my peers in Engineering could not type with more than two fingers, one on each hand that is. It gave me a subtle, but important advantage when it came to turning out reports quickly.

Zombie_61 said:

Nice. My first (and only, now that I think about it) typewriter was a manual Underwood that was in perfect working condition, and probably dated back to the early-60s or late-50s. I picked it up at a local thrift store some time around '76 or '77 when I chose to take a typing class in high school and wanted something to practice on at home. Thinking back, that class was one of the few high school courses that actually came in handy in my after-school/working life, especially at my last job. I wish I still had that typewriter, but it would probably be nothing more than decor these days.

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Just did a quick search on the ol' google. Now that's how a typewriter should look! I'd love to have an earlier typewriter, but to be quite frank, what would I do with multiple typewriters? :S

It's also interesting that typing was a course in of itself? I was taught to touch type from around the age of seven. I guess thats just the way it goes.

One particular problem I have going from a computer keyboard to a typewriter keyboard - rather than the other way around - is that I'll try to type so quickly, that I'll miss a key and my finger will slip between two buttons - which can be quite painful.

kaiser said:

That was the same with me, taking typing during High School turned out to be very usefull to me. When I moved to Germany I was surprised at how many of my peers in Engineering could not type with more than two fingers, one on each hand that is. It gave me a subtle, but important advantage when it came to turning out reports quickly.

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At my last place of employment one of my supervisors typed with his two index fingers, but he was so proficient that he could type about 70 words per minute.

Mr. Pickett said:

...It's also interesting that typing was a course in of itself?...

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The high school I attended in the 70s tried at one point to include some elective subjects that weren't part of their normal curriculum, some of which barely existed for one semester before the Powers That Be decided they were a waste of time and money and cancelled them. Typing was one of the few that survived through the full school year, and I happened to be in the right place at the right time to take advantage of it.

My high school offered typing as an elective, but you needed to bring money for supplies and things. When I told my mom this, she bought me a how to type book, sat me down in front of a very old Royal we had and, over the course of several months, I taught myself how to type. It was a great skill for high school and, even more so, for college.

Then, once I started working in the 1985, I all but stopped typing until 1996 when the Internet started to come into homes and work. I was amazed that my typing skills (never great, always adequate) didn't seem to have atrophied much at all. I've been typing daily ever since - that how-to book was one of the best investments ever made for my future.

I learned to type on my mother's Corona portable when I was in junior high -- I didn't have any particular need for the skill at the time except that my handwriting has never been particularly good. I'd read a book on scriptwriting and it talked about the typing requirements, so I figured I'd better get cracking if I was ever going to write a screenplay.

I actually took typing in high school for two years using manual Royals with blank keyboards -- real secretarial touch typing with no hunt-and-peck foolishness -- and got pretty good at it. But it was my years in radio that really refined my typing skills -- when I worked as a reporter, I typed out every single word I wrote on a Royal manual office machine, untold thousands of pages worth of stuff, and by the end of it I was well over 80 words a minute. I didn't do well on electric typewriters because they threw off my rhythm, and I'm not as fast on a computer keyboard either, because my stroke still tends to be percussive -- I punch the keys rather than tap them, and the keyboards don't seem to like that.

I don't have a printer at home, so I still use my Royal Model 10 for all personal correspondence. It lives on a metal stand in my office under its cover, ready for use whenever I need it.

LizzieMaine said:

...I didn't have any particular need for the skill at the time except that my handwriting has never been particularly good...

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This was the reason I wanted to learn how to type. I can print legibly, but my cursive writing leaves a lot to be desired unless I form the letters v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. People can read my signature if they know my name, but otherwise it's "A-scribble G. R-scribble".

As I worked my way upward at my last place of employment, at one point one of my duties was to prepare "procedures", i.e. a step-by-step document outlining in detail how we would process specific parts. This was a regular duty, so at one point I was tested at 90 wpm simply because I'd had so much practice. The one thing I've never mastered are the number keys at the top of the keyboard; I can use them, but I much prefer the 10-key pads on most computer keyboards.

Zombie_61 said:

This was the reason I wanted to learn how to type. I can print legibly, but my cursive writing leaves a lot to be desired unless I form the letters v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. People can read my signature if they know my name, but otherwise it's "A-scribble G. R-scribble".

As I worked my way upward at my last place of employment, at one point one of my duties was to prepare "procedures", i.e. a step-by-step document outlining in detail how we would process specific parts. This was a regular duty, so at one point I was tested at 90 wpm simply because I'd had so much practice. The one thing I've never mastered are the number keys at the top of the keyboard; I can use them, but I much prefer the 10-key pads on most computer keyboards.

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I got stuck with the job of writting procedure and assembly instructions at one of the places I worked at because, you guessed it, my typing skills !

I was working in a law office this past week and they had a typewriter on display as a "relic" and conversation piece. I remarked to the 20 something receptionist that I actually knew how to use it! She laughed but also gave me a "look" that I interpreted to put me in the relic category as well.

kaiser said:

I got stuck with the job of writting procedure and assembly instructions at one of the places I worked at because, you guessed it, my typing skills !

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There were a number of reasons I got the aforementioned position (Quality Control Engineer) within the company, but my typing skills weren't among them initially; they didn't even know I could type. I was presented with the opportunity because they thought I was competent and would be a good fit, which wasn't a lie, but as soon as I'd settled into my new position the real reason became clear--the Quality Control Manager, my new immediate supervisor, wasn't particularly literate with regards to written communication and they needed someone to proofread and correct all of his correspondence before it was sent to the customers (this was during the days when fax machines were the norm and e-mail was still being developed). For example, this was a guy who ate pizza regularly, but spelled it "petsa". The first time I saw this I thought, "Hasn't he ever looked at the top of the pizza box?" There was more to it than that but, essentially, they didn't want any of our customers to get the impression that we were a bunch of unprofessional morons, especially since our list of customers included Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed, the Department of Defense, NASA, and many other well-known aerospace manufacturers around the world.

It was a good job that led to other opportunities within the company, and it contributed to my being employed there for 18-1/2 years but, considering the volume of documents we generated daily, if I hadn't learned to type in high school it would have been a real pain-in-the-you-know-what.

Typing was probably one of the most important, and certainly the most useful, subjects I took in high school. We had two courses, and I regret taking only the first one.