@@61rampy65 Do you remember James Burke being the co-presenter of the British TV programme that accompanied the Apollo 11 landing on the moon? Its theme tune was Thus Spake Zarathustra (Alzo Spracht Zarathustra) by Richard Strauss, which as it had recently been used for The Dawn Of Man in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, was very appropriate and inspired. I will never see the moon landing without thinking of James Burke, Sir Patrick Moore and Strauss's fabulously dramatic piece of music. Play it loud on a really good hi-fi so you can feel those kettle drums.
My parents twisted my arm to take a typing class in 8th grade. That was perhaps the biggest payoff of any single semester course throughout my educational career.
Typing, later renamed, "Keyboarding" was a required course in my high school in order to graduate. That was in the 80s. Who knew that a tiny rural Iowa school was so cutting edge.
My grandmother, born in 1893, grew up in NYC's Lower East Side, after her parents emigrated from Austria. Her mother, a midwife, had wanted to be a doctor and encouraged her to do so, but Grandma wanted to be a secretary. She went to a "Normal School" after high school and was proud to make a "man's wage" as a secretary. After marriage, she taught secretarial skills at home, which helped greatly, especially during the great depression. I would spend a couple of weeks with her in the summer and she taught me (as a captive audience) how to type on her 1898 Underwood.
We had a twenty year old intern come into our office. He saw the IBM electric typewriter we still have (and still use occasionally) and he said, "What is that? It has a computer keyboard." We all suddenly felt very old.
When you visit the home of the writer, Pearl Buck, you’ll see displayed the typewriter she used in China to write “The Good Earth.” The guide said that when school students see it, they ask where the printer is. 🤣
In the mid to late oughts I still used typewriters to do my homework in high school. I wasn’t some hipster. Many classes required our assignments to be typed. Sometimes we also had to print out extra copies for classmates to review and critique. My printer at home was broken, (it never worked 100% even when brand new) so I would save the assignments on a floppy disk (later USB drive) and take it to the school library to use their computer lab to print. But sometimes computers were often occupied sometimes by other kids just playing Runescape and Newgrounds Flash games. So I would take the never used IBM Selectrics to the same library and make photocopies. Eventually my home computer broke down, (well the keyboard did) and I used an Olympia SM5 manual typewriter from the 1960s to type my assignments. It was funny because around the same time I had a PC rig that could run the then state of the art Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 at max settings but I had to use a typewriter for schoolwork.
My Father was a typewriter and adding machine repairman for many years, up till retirement in the early 90's. As a young boy I would watch him disassemble these machines of thousands of parts, clean adjust and reassemble them, it was quite fascinating to watch. He worked out of Cleveland/Akron Ohio for Remington Rand for quite a while. Great memories.
McCoy asks if giving Nichols the formula won't change history; Scotty replies that maybe he's the man who invented it. In the novelization of the movie, it's revealed that Nichols was the inventor of transparent aluminum.
Not surprised Remington was involved in this product, First they had an eye for diversified business but also just like a firearm a typewriter has lots of relatively small but at the same time fast moving parts that need to move with precise motions. A gun company had the perfect manufacturing experience for such a thing.
@@negativeindustrial Materials science. Metallurgy from "guns" = metallurgy for sewing machines and metallurgy for typewriters. Let's start our design at molecular crystalline level.
My boss is a typewriter repair expert. He still gets calls once in a while, mostly from hipsters trying to fix machines they bought at yard sales or wherever. He moved on to copiers in the 80's when typewriters became obsolete, but he kept his stock of typewriter parts and he gets excited when somebody wants help with one.
I'm a Librarian. Born in 1962, learnt to touch type in high school on a manual typewriter -- thump, thump, thump, DING! Typed my university papers on an electric typewriter. I worked at a State Library from 1987 to 2019, through the birth of the keyboard-driven Internet and the World Wide Web, through the development of early cellphones to 2021 smartphones and tablets. They told us back in the late 1980s that we would become a paperless society. That hasn't happened and likely won't in our near futures. Too many aficionados of books and printed material. The QWERTY system is now deeply ingrained in us, and human nature is very comfortable with printed/visible words -- I cant see voice recognition replacing visible paper or screen use any time soon. Not in this century, at least 🤷♀️
It was my understanding, I can’t remember where I heard it, but the QWERTY keyboard was invented based on which letters were most used in the English language, the most used letters, ESRT, etc. are closer to the center, while ZX and Q are toward the edges. Making it faster to type by keeping most of your letters within reach of your two most used fingers. Lesser used letters near your pinky. And the space bar by your thumb. When I was in Junior High, I took typing. We had those exact Underwood typewriters seen at the 12 minute mark, manual typewriters. And who knows why, but the girls in the class could always type faster than the boys. Perhaps this is the real reason women gravitated towards typing jobs? They were simply better at it.
I took a typing class in high school in the late 60's. An unexpected pleasure was that I was the only male in the class. Mom had a manual Underwood typewriter at home, so I could practice there, but I rarely did. I enjoyed writing, and that was my driving factor in learning how to type. The keyboard in the classroom was blank...no letters or numbers. There was a chart on the wall, but it was hidden during tests. We had to type from memory. I never exceeded 120 words per minute, and I type considerably slower now. Of course, I'm of the age that Everything I do now is considerably slower.
I would have failed that class. I am a fast typist, but my hands too big for the average keyboard and I have to use a fast "hunt and peck" method. I use only three fingers and my right thumb when I type and I manage 35+ wpm
I would have failed the class. Even in Junior High print shop my memory was so bad I was unable to memorize the Calif. Job Case used for type setting. My spelling was as bad as my memory so I would have used whiteout by the gallon. My wife used an old keyboard to teach me the alphabet and I would type fake letters until we got our first computer. A GateWay. Today I do ok but how I do things would have never been excepted in school!
I learned on a manual - partly from my mom, and the rest from a typing class. But I didn't get very fast (16 words per minute, and I only passed the class due to imagination for the paper we were to write - I used blank verse rather than prose - and that got me a D- for the year, the teachers goal was 45 words per minute. I didn't get near that until I started keypunching computer cards for homework in programming, then when the center started providing some CRT terminals, I was told I reached 125 words per minute - when I knew what i wanted to type (conditionals in programming languages, some formulae, and in the use of functions and subroutine calls in FORTRAN). And like you, everything i do is a bit slower now.
You're better than I am I couldn't type without having the letters on the keyboard I mean I touch type but I still don't know where the hell everything is after 40 plus years I mean that's just sadistic if you make a mistake and you can't figure out what the hell key you're supposed to hit but I guess it's a moot point now because I use a lot of voice recognition and just clean stuff up at the end
For a short time when I was ten (1965) we had an old manual typewriter. I was fascinated by it, and came up with the idea to write a weekly "kid's newspaper". It was just one page of brief stories about some of the fun things my neighborhood friends and I were doing. It was tedious work because I didn't know how to type, so I had to hunt and peck with one finger. Also, the only way to make duplicates was to use carbon paper. I could put two pieces of carbon paper between three sheets of typing paper, and if I mashed the keys hard enough I could make one original and two legible copies. Then I'd have to repeat that process to make more copies. I sold these "newspapers" door to door for a nickel.
I didn't learn touch typing back in middle school. (I am still a hunt-and-peck typist.) This was the early 1960's, so these were manual typewriters with great key feel that I gravitate to Lenovo ThinkPad computers, these days.;)
Gads, I did the same thing! Later went on to cherish electric typewriters (and learned proper typing.) The best of 'em all, IMHO, was the ultra-heavy IBM Selectric.
@@tyrssen1 same for me... those things seemed capable of blistering speeds with their ball mechanism. I was born in the late 60's and took 1 semester of typing, which sadly is now referred to as keyboarding. Its absolutely a useful skill, and quite rewarding when you test around 120-140 wpm! Long live the Selectrics... especially the model 2 (my personal favorite). To the OP, yup... t'was a common thing back when we were responsible for entertaining ourselves, vs sitting for hours in front of whatever variant of the boob tube one is currently addicted to, soaking up whatever schlock and misinformation they feed us by the truckload. All the while we're dying needlessly of sloth... quite literally a deadly sin. Get off yer collective arses folks, start a newspaper or somethin. Lol. And fwiw, carbon paper is seriously handy stuff, I still keep some around the house! Not as easy to find locally as it once was of course, but surprisingly, its still available.
At age 10 (1960), my parents noticed me hunting and pecking on the manual typewriter in our home. They were both were accomplished typists, and said that I could use the typewriter under either of two conditions: 1) You are learning and practicing how to touch type, or 2) You already know how to touch type. My Dad handed gave me a Smith-Corona touch typing course book and said "Get started". By the time I was in 8th grade I could type 86 WPM. My four siblings followed suit, and it became a competition for the top typing speed. Learning the QWERTY keyboard was one of the most important skills I ever picked up.
I was a clerk in the Army, early 1970’s. In the class teaching us to type, we also learned to “field strip” the machine, to clean or maintain it. But I don’t remember the brand.
@@robertewalt7789 By the 1970s, US armed forces were using Olympic and IBM brand machines. Olympic for field use and IBM Selectric in the office settings. Those "light weight" Olympic machines were a b***h to hump! I was a field radio operator, and I also got to hump a typewriter when we were setting up a command post.
@@FuzzyMarineVet My uncle was Signal Corps Intel/Counter Intel and they used typewriters to take down Soviet coded radio messages. A lot of times they had to use equipment that was NOT affiliated with the US military in any way. Other times, Olympic or Royal. They would use Italian made Olivetti or German made AEG typewriters a lot. AEG had east German counter parts, so.... There was a good east block machine to use.
Looking snazzy today, Lance. I did a typing course in the Army back in the Eighties, and learnt a little bit about the QWERTY. I had ten thumbs but still managed the forty five words a minute to pass, on a speedball. The instructor could achieve One Hundred and Seventy five and was mesmerising to watch. A little appreciated skill.
I was drafted into the US Army in 1971. In the first week of basic training, our Drill Sergeant came into the bay and snarled "Can any of you maggots type?" A short, mousy soldier with thick glasses stammered that he could type 60 words per minute. From then on, his name was "Sixty words per minute." Every evening, when Drill Sergeant Smith had to type up his daily reports, he would snarl from the orderly room, "Sixty words per minute, get in here!" Sixty words per minute had to spend at least an hour every evening typing reports, but he did get out of KP and latrine duty.
When people who remember manual typewriters ask me why their computer freezes up or otherwise needs to be reset, I tell them what in effect happened was the computer jammed up, like how their old manual typewriter would jam, when they would accidentally hit more than one key at the same time resulting in the the type levers jamming together and had to be separated or unjammed by hand. When both their computer and manual typewriters found themselves in a situation, which they didn't plan or were designed to get into, they can't figure how to get out of it, without human intervention.
@@GreenAppelPie You misunderstand. The computer side of the analogy concerns unintended situations in it's programming or use, not inadvertantly hitting more than one key at time.
Old Royal thumpers like me, have muscle memory to hammer the type keys so they would read legibly thru multiple carbons. Sometimes this is too hard for an electronic keyboard. Usually happens when I'm typing something long and try to get lyrical with my prose.
My mother learned typing and stenographic skills in high school. She hadn't even graduated when she got her first job, a secretary at General Mills. A couple years after that, she met my dad, who worked in the cereal lab. After they married, she left the Big G and dad worked there for nearly forty years. Mom later took her skills to Marine Midland Bank, later called HSBC.
My mother took her skills to the Pentagon, as part of the first group to move in (human resources - she said she always knew where dad was going to be assigned before dad did).
Brilliant.... this is why I love the History Guy. I'm 70 years old and often recall that the most important class I took in high school was "typing I". The teacher would require any student caught looking at the keys to his "dog house" where there were two typewriters with unlabeled keys. It was a tough way to learn, but since about 1967 I've been pounding keyboards at 60 wpm.... thanks to practice, practice, practice and the evolution from manual to electronic typewriters and now of course, desk top and lap top and even phones... though I love the swipe feature on my Samsung!
Thank you for this! I repaired typewriters in the late 70's and early 80's. I didn't know that Remington typewriters originated with the man behind Remington arms! I just remember they were heavy but easy to repair! Never did learn how to touch type, but did pretty good with the two fingers one thumb, sometimes, method I used throughout my 911 dispatching career. I kind of miss the old IBM "Selectrics" Lol! Amazing how a "forgotten item" influenced modern living so much! I guess that's why I always enjoyed history!
Brilliant. I remember learning touch typing in high school (~1970). Repetitively typing the letters viz. aaa bbb ccc…to create what is now called muscle memory. Then, ‘the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’ all the letters of the alphabet. Then, there was an amazing moment in the process when you stopped typing individual letters -the letters merged into words- in a single motion. ‘The’, ‘then’, ‘were’, indeed all the prepositions and most verbs became a single ‘stroke’. and your fingers typed entire words without thinking. However, I was an indifferent typist and never broke 90 wpm. Loved this episode.
Boy I enjoyed this video because I learned to type in High School in 1964 and I'm typing this in 2023 and NEVER KNEW about "QWERTY"~!!! Mr. History Guy you are a real Treasure to us all and thanks very much~!!!
I have been a computer teacher in an elementary/middle school for the past 25 years. I still teach keyboarding, starting in kindergarten. I have always given a short introductory talk about the QWERTY keyboard at the beginning of my introductory typing lesson. I will be using this video starting in August 2021 when we return to school. Please keep up the good work. Thanks for your content.
Interesting video THG. Growing up in the 50s and 60s I remember some of those old typewriter models that you pictured, and I vividly recall the snagging of the keys if you tried to go too fast.
Very interesting video that really hit home with me. I went to a technical school in the mid 70's to learn how to repair typewriters and landed my first job in 1978 as a typewriter mechanic working for the Smith Corona typewriter company. (SCM) I spent many years as a typewriter mechanic and have worked on every make of typewriter at one time or another including all of the IBM typewriters including the Selectric series, and also Royal, Remington, Olivetti, Olympia and many others. Thanks for making this video! Brought back a lot of memories.
I turned 65 this month and we had typing classes in Jr high school when manual typewriters were still the norm. Within 4 years we had IBM electrics with the ball that replaced the old style system. Same keyboards as my phone. Real history!💝
Being blind and growing up in the 50s and 60s, grade-school blind kids learned to touch type, in order to turn in homework to sighted teachers. My husband and I, being military BRATS, learned at different times. We still have two typewriters, and will never get rid of them, anymore than a sighted person would do without a pen. We own, not only our tried and true slates and Perkins braillers, but also have a working Selectric II, and a Hermes manual typewriter, left over from college days. You can still buy ribbons and accessories through Amazon, and the typewriter still has its use at our house, even though we are both proficient in using today's keyboards. Long live these machine!
Reasonable and usable voice recongnition exists today. For people like myself, I can type quicker than can speak. Until that variable changes, the QWERTY keyboard has many years ahead of it.
Also, there will always be circumstances when voice recognition isn't possible. For instance, people who are vocally handicapped need manual input. And then there are the situations where vocal input would be impractical. Can you imagine a busy office where everyone is dictating out loud to their computers at the same time?
When I was in middle school ('80) I took a typing class. The teacher was an "older" woman and she was amused that I wanted to learn to type. I dont think she knew anything about computers and the keyboards. Today every child learns how to "type".
My brother took typing in the early 60s. I don't know why your teacher would be amused 20 years later. Lots of guys have taken typing classes. I didn't, but sure wish I had. I'm a two fingered terror. I even knew guys in the late 50s who took Home Economics. I think back then it was mainly to hang around the girls.
I own a couple old typewriters, including a basically mint Smith-Corona portable of I'm guessing around 1959 vintage I bought for $10 in a thrift store (I wouldn't be surprised if it's worth at least a hundred), have used it on occasion to write letters, even a few school assignments. As someone who grew up in the digital age, I find it fascinating to see how it's design influenced the arrangement and function of modern computer keyboards, answering questions I'd never thought to ask. The "Shift" key shifts the entire mechanism up to use a different part of each type bar, and the "shift lock" key, predecessor to modern "caps lock," mechanically locks down the shift key. The reason for the key arrangement feels fairly obvious - it's to put letters commonly used together on opposite sides, so that type bars would be less likely to interfere with each other. One "mistake" in this arrangement is "T" and "H" - those are used all the time, in fact I see 19 of that combination so far in this comment. Those two frequently jam. Typing with it is certainly slower and far more effort than a modern keyboard, but once I get the hang of it it's far faster and easier - not to mention more legible - than handwriting.
The typing class I took back in high school, just to fill up that half-hour of my schedule, turned out to be the most useful thing I ever did in school.
I remember using a typing machine in highschool, it used to jam when I wrote fast. Qwerty keyboard may be more efficient in English but not so in other languages. Excellent video, I love your passion for history telling!
One of the best things my parents did for me was pay for an additional typing class in the summer between 8th and 9th grade, having had a basic typing class in 8th grade. That extra training made me fluent with the typewriter which facilitated my academic endeavors.
In 1962 I was going to a vocational high school and wanted to take a one semester typing course as an additional elective. I was told I needed to also take two other courses - 10 key adding machines and operating and using a mimeograph machine. I showed them I could use a 10 key adding machine that I had learned having a paper route for the prior 4 years and I could make and mount a stencil, and operate a mimeograph machine having learned to do it in 7th and 8th grade. Remember 10 key adding machines, stencils, and mimeo machines? Still was denied the course as that grouping oft courses was standard and no other options available. So at 74 I'm still a hunt and peck typist.
@@tnate6004 My father paid for a few lessons from a stenographer, but I didn't stick with it. I should have, it would have made note taking so much easier as you noted.
What a good video. I took typewriting in HS because I didn't want to go to whatever class. I then went into the US Navy and was made a radioman - morse code and ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore teletype. When I got out of the Navy I was typing 75wpm. Did all my college papers on a manual typewriter - getting fingers blacked trying to correct the ribbon. QWERTY!!! And the right hand is {POIU. The set up is - left hand - ASDF. The right - JKL;.
Thank you History Guy, as always learning the history is so important. My Mom was a fantastic typist. I will always remember when I was growing up that when a new and improved type writer would come to market how excited she would be.
A piece on the fastest typist of them all, Cortez Peters, would be interesting. He could type more than 300 words per minute--even with mittens on his hands! He also sold a typing instruction curriculum that I used to teach to my students in the 1980s.
@tradde11 I topped out at 100/minute. I had one student who could beat me--and she was blind in one eye! Now I have carpal tunnel and would be lucky to hit 60/minute...
As a side note: a few years back there was a competition: who could send more information faster: someone using telegraphy (where you have to type the message as you receive it) or someone using texting. Telegraphy won hands down.
IBM made a fortune with their electric typewriter that was manufactured in Lexington Kentucky where I lived and sold professional video equipment they had a very elaborate cctv human factors lab to analyze how their machines were being used and how good were their instructions manuals at being effective information that was being understood.
There was a reason IBM had almost 90% of the electric typewriter market at one point and it wasn't because of that funny little ball with the typefaces on it. The keyboard on a Selectric typewriter was absolutely brilliant. When IBM came out with the IBM PC in 1982 they carried the same human factors over to the design of the keyboard for their computer. The "buckling spring" keyboards are just amazing to use. Over the years every other computer I owned since I equipped with an IBM keyboard, I even have a couple NOS in original packaging unused against the day when I might need to replace one of my beloved keyboards. Yet not one key on any of them has ever failed. These were from a time when we still knew how to make stuff in the USA...
@@jeffsutherland1602 Even now, the touch sensitivity of a full keyboard is exactly the pressure and rebound pressure that IBM developed when the Selectric was in production. Keyboards which don't have that sensitivity are much harder to use.
Bachelor of I.T student here, this was mentioned in one sentence in a text lecture and not even in class, thankfully there's channels such as this that cover things that even Universities don't believe are worth being remembered lol Keep up the great work.
Great Video My mom was a field reporter to a regional newspaper She covered a small town and county If there was a fire or event she had until 3.0 am to send the article and her photos. We would go to the fire with her in our PJs Once she had the article and photos we would rush back to the house to type it out I can still hear the sound of the keys of her Underwood as she pounded out the story The distinct ring of the bell at the end of the carriage Her hands flew across the key board. If Roy the courier got the article and the photos in by 4. They could make the morning addition at 7.0 Her work Was so good it would go right to the press room. Some of her work was picked up by the UP and went around North America particularly her photographs Unfortunately to get equal pay she worked under a “Ghost Name” that she made up that sounded like a man. She had a wall of awards but was never recognized She retired when then the newspaper bought her a new IBM Selectric “too quiet “!
I had always wondered what was the relationship between Remington Arms and Remington typewriters. The gunmaker L.C.Smith was the parent company of Smith-Corona.
I am a weird person since I walk around the house at times marveling at the easy to use items I have just in the house care/cooking. The internet is a magical place since it provides me with my window to the world.
What an absolutely delightful and fascinating piece of history...Qwerty. Thank you History Guy. I can see now that I'll have to pull out my Mom's 1936 portable typewriter from storage and give it a more prestigious display in the house. :-)
I completely agree with you that the QWERTY keyboard has been transformational. It brought the written word to the English-speaking world with a degree of speed and legibility (by supplanting handwriting) that has brought about countless other innovations and societal developments.
The high school that I attended was so small that one had to take, and pass, all offered classes-including typing, wood-shop and driver's education. However, as a visually-impaired person, I nearly failed all three. Ironically, I spent decades working at a keyboard, kept a home wood-shop and earned a driver's license. The later two accomplishments tended to freak out insurers.
@@bob-ny6kn - Respectfully, I did pass driver's ed, shop and typing. Else, I wouldn't have been handed a diploma. Altho I pass all these classes, the grades were not stellar. Likewise, I also passed the DMV drive test. Nevertheless, I didn't drive. In the old days, before state id cards, you had to offer a driver's license as proof of identity. It was a more undeveloped, and stranger, time. Not better, just different.
@@dankolar6066 you are fine, it is the system that licenses "blind" and drivers like my father on the road. It is a murder scene out there with "normal" people lowering one-ton(ne) murder weapons. Laws must be stricter, restrictions more permanent or even more innocent drivers and passengers will be murdered. I have decades of perfect driving, but HUNDREDS of times I should have been dead - due to incapable drivers - and my ability to recognize the poor driver, exercising their "right." It's not.
Among those of us in the Typosphere, today is World Typewriter Day, because of the U.S. Patent date. Ongoing pandemic concerns have prevented the annual, week-long exhibit with my own collection, many of which are Remingtons. It is amazing how many college students are fascinated by this not-yet-forgotten, historical technology.
I worked for a State government agency that tried several times to introduce voice recognition software for field workers, thinking it would spped up and simplify lengthy reports. It has not worked out to this date.
That's because most people don't have the time or patience to learn how to talk to a computer to get the V.R. to understand them and work properly. That, and the gov probably isn't using the best (read 'expensive') V.R. software out there.
When I was a kid I had a manual typewriter and then IBM came out with the IBM Selectric. That was a dream machine but way too expensive. Watching the ball spin around to type each letter was amazing.
There is a pseudo-museum of typewriters here in Wilmington, DE. Its located within a legal office firm. The founder/principal of the business collected them. I haven't been in there in years, but it was quite a collection!
I suppose there wouldn't be enough interest, but it might be interesting to see how the Linotype machine helped automate typesetting, and its own keyboard ETAOIN ... specifically designed to maximize the letter matrices being returned to the magazine.
josephgaviota, you sound like an old printer.At the Charleston Museum, there is an old STILL WORKING Linotype machine on display. When I was working at THE POST AND COURIER (Charleston, S.C.;I was an offset pressman for 32 years), the older men who were there would talk about what they called THE HOT TYPE DAYS.💪💪💪✌✌✌✌
When I was in journalism school, we were taught to insert ETAOIN SHERDLU in a space which we were to later correct with the right name, once we found it out. Also I was told the QWERTY configuration came about as copied from the cases of type sets hand typesetters used. Individual letters set in bins were pulled by printers and composed line-by-line [backwards &reversed] to set the type. A paragraph was set in a block and compose in a frame, galley by galley, and a page was set and clamped in a frame. Then inked and pressed. Kind of why most small town daily periodicals only ran about 4 - 6 pages. Linotype changed that. The printer sat at a machine, typed the line, a row of letters appeared in a jig, and hot lead filled it in, making one line of type called a ''slug''.
@@dbmail545 I never thought of that, but it sounds about right. A young ''Printer's Devil'' [apprentice] would have to be extra careful when selecting both those letters [with a tweezers in fine points] since they look so much like each other in reverse. I also wondered why the Brits used a lower case d for Pence, instead of p?
Typing is absolutely one of the greatest skills I have learned in life, and probably the most valuable thing I learned in high school. (BTW, the previous sentence contains 49 backspaces :-)
My first personal typewriter was Corona. But the first time I ever typed was in college on a teletype formerly belonging to the army. It also had a paper tape mechanism on the left side to punch a three hole combination of large or small holes into the folded, stiff, paper tape. That could be fed later into a computer as a primitive, Morse code kinda programming. A hodgepodge of ideas all rolled up together for the modern army. Lol. Then I decided to take a typing course. My teacher demonstrated a typing speed of 235 wpm, but it was a relatively simple paragraph of about 100 words. Took about twenty seconds or so. We thought she was joking till she passed it out to the class. It was perfect.
At the beginning of the U.S. entry into WW2. The Govt ordered production of typewriters to cease. But the Govt did not think of the increased needs for typewriters in the War effort. At first they requested any unused typewriters to be donated. Later they had an approved typewriter to be built.
Thanks for this awesome channel! It's one of the best on UA-cam. Typing and coding have been part of my life since highschool and I didn't even realize how much I wanted to see this video.
The QWERTY keyboard was engineered to solve the problem on manual typewriters of keys getting stuck when the impression arms collide. As we drifted away from manual typewriters, the QWERTY keyboard isn't the most efficient keyboard layout, but it is the most familiar keyboard. I remember a study declaring the Dvorak was more efficient English language keyboard based on finger movement. An analogy might be guitar tuning. We are taught standard tuning being EADGBE. Many guitarists have learned alternate tunings (i.e., DADGAD, DADGAD, CGDGBE, and others) which allow more comfortable finger patterns. I find DADGAD is very useful playing blues.
Typing class for me during Jr HS back in the 80’s, was the only class i definitely received an F grade in, as the teacher was always extremely frustrated with me being more fascinated with how the typewriters functioned, then using them; he’d come around to my table & see it nearly half taken apart & about have a dang heart attack… every time i’d dig into it! 🤣… later on tho, i’d inevitably find myself working a summer job, servicing IBM Selectronic Typewriters… made some decent pocket change during those summers that helped fund my then obsession of vinyl record collecting, as then, CD’s and still to some degree, compact cassette tapes, were all the rage & most record albums could be had for between 0.25¢ to about $2.00; generally in pristine condition still. By the end of 1993, I had collected about 800 albums on vinyl, mostly acquired from $ earned repairing them crazy IBM Selectronic Typewriters!
It would be an immense undertaking, but the thought occurred to me that it might be quite popular for you to have a "You were born today, and it's a date that deserves to be remembered." 365 shorts that cover interesting things that happened on this day in history...
Learn to type??? Haha!!! Just kidding, but they are the two best things ever. You can defend yourself from a bear or tyrant and get the opportunity to quickly and legibly write home about it.
I live in Milwaukee Wisconsin and a number of years ago i got a job as a carriage driver another driver showed me a route that took me and my passengers past Mr. Sholes house
Have you ever had the misfortune to have to type on a non-QWERTY keyboard? When I was in university back in the 1960s I had no typewriter. I had an assignment that had to be typed. There were three Dutchmen living in the flat above me. I borrowed their typewriter. The keyboard made 'hunt'n'peck' a whole new adventure!
I had a friend in the 80's, who was so unhappy with his qwerty computer keyboard, he was manually rewiring it to what he wanted. He never really completed it, because when I saw him in 2019, he still had it wrapped up on his work bench. I wonder if there is anything to the thought that the current configuration forces us to use both sides of our brain, and that usage makes learning to type easier? Nice one. Thanks.
I have numerous friends who use Dvorak... A little bit better for someone who types all the time, but really not much and just doesn't matter if you aren't typing for hours and hours a day. QWERTY is fine, and I'm very locked into to it (I do a lot of programming and use vi).
As a Comm Center Operator in the Marines....1980.... we had to be able to type 65 wpm error free on large pieces of equipment that was both keyboard and held rolls of paper with carbon paper in-between for three ply printing. They also held paper tape rolls. This was the "grey gear" Teletype Model 28 you would see in the old style Wester Union Office's. I learned to type in the sixth grade on IBM type writers.
Typing is the one class from high school that I use everyday. I learned on a manual typewriter. My family had an electric typewriter and I had to learn to press more gently to avoid double and tripled letters. I much prefer typing on a computer. I am more relaxed and make fewer mistakes because of how much easier they are to fix. I've also learned to be a much better touch typist with daily computer keyboard use.
Around 1983 I took a high school typing class in one room full of MANUAL typewriters - the teachers wanted you to have 'finger muscles', especially the 'pinky'. However, in the NEXT room were a few Commodore PET computers with an electronic keyboard, like those today - and after the class saw them, told him what he could do with his pinky - but we still learned on typewriters that didn't plug in.
Same here. I can’t imagine going through college and law school with poor handwriting, and not being able to type as I did with all my examinations I only regret is that I did not apply myself sufficiently in secondary school to improve my skills. I did not recognize the. Utility of the skill until much later. 15:13
Excellent video! I am no longer capable of typing using a QWERTY keyboard, as I learned Dvorak about 30 years ago. My job was being a secretary and I had terrible carpal tunnel syndrome from typing all day. Dvorak cleared that up and I've been using that ever since. I have no problem using QWERTY on my phone, though.
During the First World War, my grandmother worked as a clerk for a company in Aberdeen. The owner of the company hated typewritten letters and swore he'd never accept typed correspondence, and insisted that all HIS company correspondence be hand-written. It wasn't very long before he was losing business, as, increasingly, typed business letters became the norm, seen as modern, efficient, more legible. My grandma's handwriting was, until it became illegible with age, the standard she had learned in school, the same taught in schools of that age all over the United Kingdom, and yet I, an American who learned the American standard of the 1950s, always had difficulty reading it.
I worked for Olivetti fixing typewriters that was in the early 1970's the business was undergoing rapid change from manual machine to electronic to obsolete . I left the industry for a City job in 1990 and I was very glad I did. Thanks for the brief history of the typewriters now how about carbon paper and stencils
Fun fact about typing in spanish: since Spanish uses accents for a lot of words and when you typed in upper-case letter the accent mark would mix with the letter, lots of people grew up with the idea that upper-case letters didn't have to be accentuated correctly And until typing in computers became common place, lots of teacher still said that upper case lettering didn't have to be accentuated
I was forced to take a typing course in Junior high back in.. oh 1983-ish. Always thought... well I don't PLAN to be a receptionist or office worker that needs typing... Then I got my hands on an Apple ][+ and started learning programming. All these years later, I have been earning a good living using those "unneeded skills" from 1983.
Besides the fact this came out on my birthday (thank you), I have never seen HG so animated and excited. But I can see why. This was an invention that has become entrenched around the world, and yet we never thought about it. Thanks for this one!
In Tallin or Riga, I saw a unique typing machine that consisted of a left side ceramic dish with the English letters printed in a square pattern in alphabetical order. Suspended above was a "pen" with which the operator spelled out words, letter by letter. The dish providing constant spacing between the pen and the dish surface, limiting parallax errors. Via a lever and arm system the corresponding cast letter was selected (as normal). On the right side was the "print" button. After each selection of a letter in the dish, the right side button was depressed to print the letter on the paper. There were others in the shop, antiques with barrel shaped mechanisms etc.
Voice recognition will never replace the keyboard. Just for the fact everyone has a phone now. People still text just as much or more then the talk on the phone. Specially in public.
@@shawnr771 I remember a computer class from 8th grade (1980 or so) the teacher had a hard drive and was so proud. It was the size of a filing cabinet and could store 40 mb!
@@brianroys1868 My ex could type 150 wpm. On the old Macs she could clear the screen until she had to turn the page and it gave the computer time to catch up. My kid uses Dvořak partly as a security measure - nobody can type anything on his computer!
If I hadn't had to be able to use whichever typewriter I was in front of at any given time, I would use Dvorak. I've tried them a couple of times and been impressed with the speed that I was able to hit, but I just can't take the time to get used to a QWERTY pattern when I need to use a different machine.
The T9 keyboard layout is my very favorite. The T9 format perfect for using on a cell phone. You can quickly type with one hand almost like they do on Star Trek.
AS ALWAYS THE HISTORY GUY, AN EXCELLENT VIDEO!! Your subject choices never fail to astonish me. In(I believe) in the 70's, IBM came out with an electric typewriter that had a "writing ball". 👏👏👏🌞🌞🌞✌✌✌✌
I collected typewriters for a while. Had an Underwood similar to the one @ 12:16. And a Remington spreadsheet model with a platen half the size of a baseball bat. Today all I have is an example of the LAST manual typewriter made in the U.S. A Smith-Corona I got new in 1974.
![【DDR WORLD】 逆月[Sakazuki] / BEMANI Sound Team "HuΣeR" feat.Fernweh [DOUBLE CHALLENGE] 譜面確認+Clap](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gyaMRjgnl1Y/mqdefault.jpg)
I was a history major (US post Civil War)-- I love history and how important it is!
Hearing echoes of James Burke and his Connections series here History Guy, and I mean that as a sincere compliment.
Connections was an amazing show, I watched every episode. James Burke reminded me of a mad scientist sometimes when his hair was wild.
I miss that show.
I liked the shows.
I love the Connections series. I still love to watch them. My favorite was the first series he did.
@@61rampy65 Do you remember James Burke being the co-presenter of the British TV programme that accompanied the Apollo 11 landing on the moon? Its theme tune was Thus Spake Zarathustra (Alzo Spracht Zarathustra) by Richard Strauss, which as it had recently been used for The Dawn Of Man in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, was very appropriate and inspired. I will never see the moon landing without thinking of James Burke, Sir Patrick Moore and Strauss's fabulously dramatic piece of music. Play it loud on a really good hi-fi so you can feel those kettle drums.
I used to tell my students that the most important courses they could take were: typing, public speaking, and technical writing.
My parents twisted my arm to take a typing class in 8th grade. That was perhaps the biggest payoff of any single semester course throughout my educational career.
The most useful class I took in high school was typing. That was in the early ‘60’s (yes, .I’m that old) and thank it every day.
I took typing in high school because my dad said when he was in the army, because he knew how to type, he didn't have to go out on training exercises.
Typing, later renamed, "Keyboarding" was a required course in my high school in order to graduate. That was in the 80s. Who knew that a tiny rural Iowa school was so cutting edge.
Mechanical drawing was mine
My grandmother, born in 1893, grew up in NYC's Lower East Side, after her parents emigrated from Austria. Her mother, a midwife, had wanted to be a doctor and encouraged her to do so, but Grandma wanted to be a secretary. She went to a "Normal School" after high school and was proud to make a "man's wage" as a secretary. After marriage, she taught secretarial skills at home, which helped greatly, especially during the great depression. I would spend a couple of weeks with her in the summer and she taught me (as a captive audience) how to type on her 1898 Underwood.
We had a twenty year old intern come into our office. He saw the IBM electric typewriter we still have (and still use occasionally) and he said, "What is that? It has a computer keyboard." We all suddenly felt very old.
When you visit the home of the writer, Pearl Buck, you’ll see displayed the typewriter she used in China to write “The Good Earth.” The guide said that when school students see it, they ask where the printer is. 🤣
Ana- tell him to put his finger on the paper in the middle and you will show him how it works :-O
In the mid to late oughts I still used typewriters to do my homework in high school. I wasn’t some hipster. Many classes required our assignments to be typed. Sometimes we also had to print out extra copies for classmates to review and critique. My printer at home was broken, (it never worked 100% even when brand new) so I would save the assignments on a floppy disk (later USB drive) and take it to the school library to use their computer lab to print. But sometimes computers were often occupied sometimes by other kids just playing Runescape and Newgrounds Flash games. So I would take the never used IBM Selectrics to the same library and make photocopies.
Eventually my home computer broke down, (well the keyboard did) and I used an Olympia SM5 manual typewriter from the 1960s to type my assignments.
It was funny because around the same time I had a PC rig that could run the then state of the art Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 at max settings but I had to use a typewriter for schoolwork.
Should have just said it was an early prototype blue-tooth keyboard.
My Father was a typewriter and adding machine repairman for many years, up till retirement in the early 90's. As a young boy I would watch him disassemble these machines of thousands of parts, clean adjust and reassemble them, it was quite fascinating to watch. He worked out of Cleveland/Akron Ohio for Remington Rand for quite a while. Great memories.
Scotty: "Hello, computer!"
Dr. Nichols: "Just use the keyboard"
Scotty: "Keyboard. How quaint"
That was the most prophetic scene. Just substitute "computer" with "Alexa".
We had no idea.
Its him picking up the mouse to talk into it that makes me laugh lol
McCoy asks if giving Nichols the formula won't change history; Scotty replies that maybe he's the man who invented it. In the novelization of the movie, it's revealed that Nichols was the inventor of transparent aluminum.
@@tygrkhat4087 the movie was great, that novelization was seriously lame, but a lot of Star Trek books are weak sauce
Transparent aluminium exist : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride
Not surprised Remington was involved in this product, First they had an eye for diversified business but also just like a firearm a typewriter has lots of relatively small but at the same time fast moving parts that need to move with precise motions. A gun company had the perfect manufacturing experience for such a thing.
Sewing machines too. Much of our technology today still relies on this type of metallurgy
Only Thompson was the one to manufacture the Chicago typewriter.
Guns are necessarily and intentionally extremely simple mechanical devices. The Typewriter is nothing like a gun from a design perspective.
@@negativeindustrial Materials science. Metallurgy from "guns" = metallurgy for sewing machines and metallurgy for typewriters. Let's start our design at molecular crystalline level.
@@negativeindustrial Yes, but it's not easy dissembling and assembly a 1911 firearm.
My boss is a typewriter repair expert. He still gets calls once in a while, mostly from hipsters trying to fix machines they bought at yard sales or wherever. He moved on to copiers in the 80's when typewriters became obsolete, but he kept his stock of typewriter parts and he gets excited when somebody wants help with one.
It's good to hear you get really passionate about a topic. Thanks for sharing.
I'm a Librarian. Born in 1962, learnt to touch type in high school on a manual typewriter -- thump, thump, thump, DING! Typed my university papers on an electric typewriter. I worked at a State Library from 1987 to 2019, through the birth of the keyboard-driven Internet and the World Wide Web, through the development of early cellphones to 2021 smartphones and tablets. They told us back in the late 1980s that we would become a paperless society. That hasn't happened and likely won't in our near futures. Too many aficionados of books and printed material. The QWERTY system is now deeply ingrained in us, and human nature is very comfortable with printed/visible words -- I cant see voice recognition replacing visible paper or screen use any time soon. Not in this century, at least 🤷♀️
side note: there is only one U.S state that can be typed on one row of the qwerty keyboard, Alaska.
So?
@@pantherplatform dont be an ass.
You can spell ass on one row also.
It was my understanding, I can’t remember where I heard it, but the QWERTY keyboard was invented based on which letters were most used in the English language, the most used letters, ESRT, etc. are closer to the center, while ZX and Q are toward the edges. Making it faster to type by keeping most of your letters within reach of your two most used fingers. Lesser used letters near your pinky. And the space bar by your thumb.
When I was in Junior High, I took typing. We had those exact Underwood typewriters seen at the 12 minute mark, manual typewriters. And who knows why, but the girls in the class could always type faster than the boys. Perhaps this is the real reason women gravitated towards typing jobs? They were simply better at it.
And you were the type to show-off 07734 on a calculator upside-down, eh? :-)
As a typewriter, an old definition for a person who uses a typewriter as in typist, and a keyboard specialist, this story was made for me.⭐
I took a typing class in high school in the late 60's. An unexpected pleasure was that I was the only male in the class. Mom had a manual Underwood typewriter at home, so I could practice there, but I rarely did. I enjoyed writing, and that was my driving factor in learning how to type. The keyboard in the classroom was blank...no letters or numbers. There was a chart on the wall, but it was hidden during tests. We had to type from memory. I never exceeded 120 words per minute, and I type considerably slower now. Of course, I'm of the age that Everything I do now is considerably slower.
To this day i still have drummed in my head.....A S, D F, J K, L;.....we made such fun of it but turned out to be a very practical skill.
I would have failed that class.
I am a fast typist, but my hands too big for the average keyboard and I have to use a fast "hunt and peck" method. I use only three fingers and my right thumb when I type and I manage 35+ wpm
I would have failed the class. Even in Junior High print shop my memory was so bad I was unable to memorize the Calif. Job Case used for type setting. My spelling was as bad as my memory so I would have used whiteout by the gallon. My wife used an old keyboard to teach me the alphabet and I would type fake letters until we got our first computer. A GateWay. Today I do ok but how I do things would have never been excepted in school!
I learned on a manual - partly from my mom, and the rest from a typing class. But I didn't get very fast (16 words per minute, and I only passed the class due to imagination for the paper we were to write - I used blank verse rather than prose - and that got me a D- for the year, the teachers goal was 45 words per minute. I didn't get near that until I started keypunching computer cards for homework in programming, then when the center started providing some CRT terminals, I was told I reached 125 words per minute - when I knew what i wanted to type (conditionals in programming languages, some formulae, and in the use of functions and subroutine calls in FORTRAN).
And like you, everything i do is a bit slower now.
You're better than I am I couldn't type without having the letters on the keyboard I mean I touch type but I still don't know where the hell everything is after 40 plus years I mean that's just sadistic if you make a mistake and you can't figure out what the hell key you're supposed to hit but I guess it's a moot point now because I use a lot of voice recognition and just clean stuff up at the end
For a short time when I was ten (1965) we had an old manual typewriter. I was fascinated by it, and came up with the idea to write a weekly "kid's newspaper". It was just one page of brief stories about some of the fun things my neighborhood friends and I were doing. It was tedious work because I didn't know how to type, so I had to hunt and peck with one finger.
Also, the only way to make duplicates was to use carbon paper. I could put two pieces of carbon paper between three sheets of typing paper, and if I mashed the keys hard enough I could make one original and two legible copies. Then I'd have to repeat that process to make more copies. I sold these "newspapers" door to door for a nickel.
I didn't learn touch typing back in middle school. (I am still a hunt-and-peck typist.) This was the early 1960's, so these were manual typewriters with great key feel that I gravitate to Lenovo ThinkPad computers, these days.;)
Great story!
Gads, I did the same thing! Later went on to cherish electric typewriters (and learned proper typing.) The best of 'em all, IMHO, was the ultra-heavy IBM Selectric.
@@tyrssen1 I took a typing course in high school and learned on the Selectric.
@@tyrssen1 same for me... those things seemed capable of blistering speeds with their ball mechanism. I was born in the late 60's and took 1 semester of typing, which sadly is now referred to as keyboarding. Its absolutely a useful skill, and quite rewarding when you test around 120-140 wpm! Long live the Selectrics... especially the model 2 (my personal favorite).
To the OP, yup... t'was a common thing back when we were responsible for entertaining ourselves, vs sitting for hours in front of whatever variant of the boob tube one is currently addicted to, soaking up whatever schlock and misinformation they feed us by the truckload. All the while we're dying needlessly of sloth... quite literally a deadly sin. Get off yer collective arses folks, start a newspaper or somethin. Lol.
And fwiw, carbon paper is seriously handy stuff, I still keep some around the house! Not as easy to find locally as it once was of course, but surprisingly, its still available.
At age 10 (1960), my parents noticed me hunting and pecking on the manual typewriter in our home. They were both were accomplished typists, and said that I could use the typewriter under either of two conditions: 1) You are learning and practicing how to touch type, or 2) You already know how to touch type. My Dad handed gave me a Smith-Corona touch typing course book and said "Get started". By the time I was in 8th grade I could type 86 WPM. My four siblings followed suit, and it became a competition for the top typing speed. Learning the QWERTY keyboard was one of the most important skills I ever picked up.
This is why the clerks in the Marine Corps are called, "Remington Raiders."
I was a clerk in the Army, early 1970’s. In the class teaching us to type, we also learned to “field strip” the machine, to clean or maintain it. But I don’t remember the brand.
@@robertewalt7789 By the 1970s, US armed forces were using Olympic and IBM brand machines. Olympic for field use and IBM Selectric in the office settings. Those "light weight" Olympic machines were a b***h to hump! I was a field radio operator, and I also got to hump a typewriter when we were setting up a command post.
I is too Batman. Cover today
@@FuzzyMarineVet My uncle was Signal Corps Intel/Counter Intel and they used typewriters to take down Soviet coded radio messages. A lot of times they had to use equipment that was NOT affiliated with the US military in any way. Other times, Olympic or Royal. They would use Italian made Olivetti or German made AEG typewriters a lot. AEG had east German counter parts, so.... There was a good east block machine to use.
@@Satchmoeddie Thanks for the 411.
Looking snazzy today, Lance. I did a typing course in the Army back in the Eighties, and learnt a little bit about the QWERTY. I had ten thumbs but still managed the forty five words a minute to pass, on a speedball. The instructor could achieve One Hundred and Seventy five and was mesmerising to watch. A little appreciated skill.
175 is extremely impressive. My mom was really proud of her 120.
175 is stunning!
35 but my tab and center game is epic
I was drafted into the US Army in 1971. In the first week of basic training, our Drill Sergeant came into the bay and snarled "Can any of you maggots type?" A short, mousy soldier with thick glasses stammered that he could type 60 words per minute. From then on, his name was "Sixty words per minute." Every evening, when Drill Sergeant Smith had to type up his daily reports, he would snarl from the orderly room, "Sixty words per minute, get in here!" Sixty words per minute had to spend at least an hour every evening typing reports, but he did get out of KP and latrine duty.
@@GreenAppelPie My mom was somewhere around 100. I was supposed to get to 25WPM in my HS typing class, never got more than 22. I still passed.
When people who remember manual typewriters ask me why their computer freezes up or otherwise needs to be reset, I tell them what in effect happened was the computer jammed up, like how their old manual typewriter would jam, when they would accidentally hit more than one key at the same time resulting in the the type levers jamming together and had to be separated or unjammed by hand.
When both their computer and manual typewriters found themselves in a situation, which they didn't plan or were designed to get into, they can't figure how to get out of it, without human intervention.
An old computer will miss keys pressed too fast but it would never crash it.
@@GreenAppelPie You misunderstand. The computer side of the analogy concerns unintended situations in it's programming or use, not inadvertantly hitting more than one key at time.
Old Royal thumpers like me, have muscle memory to hammer the type keys so they would read legibly thru multiple carbons. Sometimes this is too hard for an electronic keyboard. Usually happens when I'm typing something long and try to get lyrical with my prose.
My mother learned typing and stenographic skills in high school. She hadn't even graduated when she got her first job, a secretary at General Mills. A couple years after that, she met my dad, who worked in the cereal lab. After they married, she left the Big G and dad worked there for nearly forty years. Mom later took her skills to Marine Midland Bank, later called HSBC.
My mother took her skills to the Pentagon, as part of the first group to move in (human resources - she said she always knew where dad was going to be assigned before dad did).
Brilliant.... this is why I love the History Guy. I'm 70 years old and often recall that the most important class I took in high school was "typing I". The teacher would require any student caught looking at the keys to his "dog house" where there were two typewriters with unlabeled keys. It was a tough way to learn, but since about 1967 I've been pounding keyboards at 60 wpm.... thanks to practice, practice, practice and the evolution from manual to electronic typewriters and now of course, desk top and lap top and even phones... though I love the swipe feature on my Samsung!
Thank you for this! I repaired typewriters in the late 70's and early 80's. I didn't know that Remington typewriters originated with the man behind Remington arms! I just remember they were heavy but easy to repair! Never did learn how to touch type, but did pretty good with the two fingers one thumb, sometimes, method I used throughout my 911 dispatching career. I kind of miss the old IBM "Selectrics" Lol! Amazing how a "forgotten item" influenced modern living so much! I guess that's why I always enjoyed history!
Brilliant. I remember learning touch typing in high school (~1970). Repetitively typing the letters viz. aaa bbb ccc…to create what is now called muscle memory. Then, ‘the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’ all the letters of the alphabet. Then, there was an amazing moment in the process when you stopped typing individual letters -the letters merged into words- in a single motion. ‘The’, ‘then’, ‘were’, indeed all the prepositions and most verbs became a single ‘stroke’. and your fingers typed entire words without thinking. However, I was an indifferent typist and never broke 90 wpm. Loved this episode.
The more i type, the more impressed I amwith the brilliant and intuitive layout of the QWERTY keys. Thanks for the story!
Boy I enjoyed this video because I learned to type in High School in 1964 and I'm typing this in 2023 and NEVER KNEW about "QWERTY"~!!! Mr. History Guy you are a real Treasure to us all and thanks very much~!!!
I have been a computer teacher in an elementary/middle school for the past 25 years. I still teach keyboarding, starting in kindergarten. I have always given a short introductory talk about the QWERTY keyboard at the beginning of my introductory typing lesson. I will be using this video starting in August 2021 when we return to school. Please keep up the good work. Thanks for your content.
Fascinating. You do tell the darndest stories.
Interesting video THG. Growing up in the 50s and 60s I remember some of those old typewriter models that you pictured, and I vividly recall the snagging of the keys if you tried to go too fast.
@Lawofimprobability I see one NOW (I own a 1920s Underwood No. 4, LOL)
Very interesting video that really hit home with me. I went to a technical school in the mid 70's to learn how to repair typewriters and landed my first job in 1978 as a typewriter mechanic working for the Smith Corona typewriter company. (SCM) I spent many years as a typewriter mechanic and have worked on every make of typewriter at one time or another including all of the IBM typewriters including the Selectric series, and also Royal, Remington, Olivetti, Olympia and many others. Thanks for making this video! Brought back a lot of memories.
I turned 65 this month and we had typing classes in Jr high school when manual typewriters were still the norm. Within 4 years we had IBM electrics with the ball that replaced the old style system. Same keyboards as my phone. Real history!💝
Being blind and growing up in the 50s and 60s, grade-school blind kids learned to touch type, in order to turn in homework to sighted teachers. My husband and I, being military BRATS, learned at different times. We still have two typewriters, and will never get rid of them, anymore than a sighted person would do without a pen. We own, not only our tried and true slates and Perkins braillers, but also have a working Selectric II, and a Hermes manual typewriter, left over from college days. You can still buy ribbons and accessories through Amazon, and the typewriter still has its use at our house, even though we are both proficient in using today's keyboards. Long live these machine!
Reasonable and usable voice recongnition exists today. For people like myself, I can type quicker than can speak. Until that variable changes, the QWERTY keyboard has many years ahead of it.
This!
The other problem with voice recognition software for transcribing is that it is difficult getting used to talking to yourself aloud.
I can type faster than I can correct the crap translation of what I said.
And all equipment fails up from time to time and the manual input will be a keyboard...
Also, there will always be circumstances when voice recognition isn't possible. For instance, people who are vocally handicapped need manual input. And then there are the situations where vocal input would be impractical. Can you imagine a busy office where everyone is dictating out loud to their computers at the same time?
When I was in middle school ('80) I took a typing class. The teacher was an "older" woman and she was amused that I wanted to learn to type. I dont think she knew anything about computers and the keyboards. Today every child learns how to "type".
Same year for me was high school. Took typing for same reason: Commodore PET computers. Only guy in a typing class with 19 girls. Good times!
My brother took typing in the early 60s. I don't know why your teacher would be amused 20 years later. Lots of guys have taken typing classes. I didn't, but sure wish I had. I'm a two fingered terror. I even knew guys in the late 50s who took Home Economics. I think back then it was mainly to hang around the girls.
I had a great-great aunt who was a typist for the Remington Typewriter Company in Paris when World War I was declared in 1914.
Enthusiasm for history is contagious. 🙂
QWERTY will remain. I can’t imagine being in an cube farm with everyone talking at once, it would be maddening.
Also would be a nightmare for healthcare with HIPAA.
Yeah, talking to computers has its place, but it isn't going to make typing obsolete.
Ha, I just said the same thing and saw this comment 30 seconds later.
Put everyone in their own soundproof box
Maybe they'll invent a hat you just put on and you can think the words onto the screen!
Just don't think of titties! :p
I love learning the history of things that are so common in our everyday life. Thank you for the fantastic content.
Will he teach us the history of the tampon, too? Love to hear THAT introduction from THG.
I own a couple old typewriters, including a basically mint Smith-Corona portable of I'm guessing around 1959 vintage I bought for $10 in a thrift store (I wouldn't be surprised if it's worth at least a hundred), have used it on occasion to write letters, even a few school assignments. As someone who grew up in the digital age, I find it fascinating to see how it's design influenced the arrangement and function of modern computer keyboards, answering questions I'd never thought to ask. The "Shift" key shifts the entire mechanism up to use a different part of each type bar, and the "shift lock" key, predecessor to modern "caps lock," mechanically locks down the shift key. The reason for the key arrangement feels fairly obvious - it's to put letters commonly used together on opposite sides, so that type bars would be less likely to interfere with each other. One "mistake" in this arrangement is "T" and "H" - those are used all the time, in fact I see 19 of that combination so far in this comment. Those two frequently jam. Typing with it is certainly slower and far more effort than a modern keyboard, but once I get the hang of it it's far faster and easier - not to mention more legible - than handwriting.
The typing class I took back in high school, just to fill up that half-hour of my schedule, turned out to be the most useful thing I ever did in school.
I remember using a typing machine in highschool, it used to jam when I wrote fast. Qwerty keyboard may be more efficient in English but not so in other languages.
Excellent video, I love your passion for history telling!
One of the best things my parents did for me was pay for an additional typing class in the summer between 8th and 9th grade, having had a basic typing class in 8th grade. That extra training made me fluent with the typewriter which facilitated my academic endeavors.
In 1962 I was going to a vocational high school and wanted to take a one semester typing course as an additional elective. I was told I needed to also take two other courses - 10 key adding machines and operating and using a mimeograph machine. I showed them I could use a 10 key adding machine that I had learned having a paper route for the prior 4 years and I could make and mount a stencil, and operate a mimeograph machine having learned to do it in 7th and 8th grade. Remember 10 key adding machines, stencils, and mimeo machines? Still was denied the course as that grouping oft courses was standard and no other options available. So at 74 I'm still a hunt and peck typist.
@@patrickchambers5999 Ah, the smell of fresh mimeograph.
@@tygrkhat4087 Mimeo's smelled like ink. The smell of hectograph (spirit duplicator) copies was better, especially in a small area.
In addition to typing, I wish I had taken shorthand in high school. Would have made taking notes in college much easier.
@@tnate6004 My father paid for a few lessons from a stenographer, but I didn't stick with it. I should have, it would have made note taking so much easier as you noted.
Love listening in the morning on my way to the office, better than today's news and that's history to be remembered
What a good video. I took typewriting in HS because I didn't want to go to whatever class. I then went into the US Navy and was made a radioman - morse code and ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore teletype. When I got out of the Navy I was typing 75wpm. Did all my college papers on a manual typewriter - getting fingers blacked trying to correct the ribbon. QWERTY!!! And the right hand is {POIU. The set up is - left hand - ASDF. The right - JKL;.
Thank you History Guy, as always learning the history is so important. My Mom was a fantastic typist. I will always remember when I was growing up that when a new and improved type writer would come to market how excited she would be.
A piece on the fastest typist of them all, Cortez Peters, would be interesting. He could type more than 300 words per minute--even with mittens on his hands! He also sold a typing instruction curriculum that I used to teach to my students in the 1980s.
Dear Strong Bad, how do you type with mittens on your hands?
@@karenhaller9988 Very carefully.
@tradde11 I topped out at 100/minute. I had one student who could beat me--and she was blind in one eye! Now I have carpal tunnel and would be lucky to hit 60/minute...
As a side note: a few years back there was a competition: who could send more information faster: someone using telegraphy (where you have to type the message as you receive it) or someone using texting. Telegraphy won hands down.
Oh, I can type 300 words per minute. That number drops significantly if you want them spelled correctly.
The IBM Selectric must have felt like a piece of heaven had fallen out of the sky. No more jammed keys!
IBM made a fortune with their electric typewriter that was manufactured in Lexington Kentucky where I lived and sold professional video equipment they had a very elaborate cctv human factors lab to analyze how their machines were being used and how good were their instructions manuals at being effective information that was being understood.
There was a reason IBM had almost 90% of the electric typewriter market at one point and it wasn't because of that funny little ball with the typefaces on it. The keyboard on a Selectric typewriter was absolutely brilliant. When IBM came out with the IBM PC in 1982 they carried the same human factors over to the design of the keyboard for their computer. The "buckling spring" keyboards are just amazing to use. Over the years every other computer I owned since I equipped with an IBM keyboard, I even have a couple NOS in original packaging unused against the day when I might need to replace one of my beloved keyboards. Yet not one key on any of them has ever failed. These were from a time when we still knew how to make stuff in the USA...
@@jeffsutherland1602 Even now, the touch sensitivity of a full keyboard is exactly the pressure and rebound pressure that IBM developed when the Selectric was in production. Keyboards which don't have that sensitivity are much harder to use.
Bachelor of I.T student here, this was mentioned in one sentence in a text lecture and not even in class, thankfully there's channels such as this that cover things that even Universities don't believe are worth being remembered lol
Keep up the great work.
Once again...a story that entertains and educates. Why 28 people didn't like this amazes me.
Great Video My mom was a field reporter to a regional newspaper She covered a small town and county If there was a fire or event she had until 3.0 am to send the article and her photos. We would go to the fire with her in our PJs Once she had the article and photos we would rush back to the house to type it out I can still hear the sound of the keys of her Underwood as she pounded out the story The distinct ring of the bell at the end of the carriage Her hands flew across the key board. If Roy the courier got the article and the photos in by 4. They could make the morning addition at 7.0 Her work Was so good it would go right to the press room. Some of her work was picked up by the UP and went around North America particularly her photographs Unfortunately to get equal pay she worked under a “Ghost Name” that she made up that sounded like a man. She had a wall of awards but was never recognized She retired when then the newspaper bought her a new IBM Selectric “too quiet “!
I had always wondered what was the relationship between Remington Arms and Remington typewriters. The gunmaker L.C.Smith was the parent company of Smith-Corona.
The sewing machine company Singer, made guns for a while during WWII. The Singer Thompson sub machine gun is a pretty sought after collectable.
@@mikeumm Singer M1911A1s in .45ACP are also at a premium.
So there's the hidden meaning of "firing off a reply"!
I am a weird person since I walk around the house at times marveling at the easy to use items I have just in the house care/cooking. The internet is a magical place since it provides me with my window to the world.
Best channel on UA-cam, hands down.
What an absolutely delightful and fascinating piece of history...Qwerty. Thank you History Guy. I can see now that I'll have to pull out my Mom's 1936 portable typewriter from storage and give it a more prestigious display in the house. :-)
As someone who has a beautiful 1968 Sears Cutlass and a dusty 1910's L.C.C Smith & Corona typewriter, I love this video.
I completely agree with you that the QWERTY keyboard has been transformational. It brought the written word to the English-speaking world with a degree of speed and legibility (by supplanting handwriting) that has brought about countless other innovations and societal developments.
The high school that I attended was so small that one had to take, and pass, all offered classes-including typing, wood-shop and driver's education. However, as a visually-impaired person, I nearly failed all three. Ironically, I spent decades working at a keyboard, kept a home wood-shop and earned a driver's license. The later two accomplishments tended to freak out insurers.
I am glad you failed driving, or the system would be flawed... oh, wait!
@@bob-ny6kn - Respectfully, I did pass driver's ed, shop and typing. Else, I wouldn't have been handed a diploma. Altho I pass all these classes, the grades were not stellar. Likewise, I also passed the DMV drive test. Nevertheless, I didn't drive. In the old days, before state id cards, you had to offer a driver's license as proof of identity. It was a more undeveloped, and stranger, time. Not better, just different.
@@dankolar6066 you are fine, it is the system that licenses "blind" and drivers like my father on the road. It is a murder scene out there with "normal" people lowering one-ton(ne) murder weapons. Laws must be stricter, restrictions more permanent or even more innocent drivers and passengers will be murdered. I have decades of perfect driving, but HUNDREDS of times I should have been dead - due to incapable drivers - and my ability to recognize the poor driver, exercising their "right." It's not.
I love the passion in your delivery. It's infectious.
Among those of us in the Typosphere, today is World Typewriter Day, because of the U.S. Patent date. Ongoing pandemic concerns have prevented the annual, week-long exhibit with my own collection, many of which are Remingtons. It is amazing how many college students are fascinated by this not-yet-forgotten, historical technology.
I worked for a State government agency that tried several times to introduce voice recognition software for field workers, thinking it would spped up and simplify lengthy reports. It has not worked out to this date.
That's because most people don't have the time or patience to learn how to talk to a computer to get the V.R. to understand them and work properly.
That, and the gov probably isn't using the best (read 'expensive') V.R. software out there.
When I was a kid I had a manual typewriter and then IBM came out with the IBM Selectric. That was a dream machine but way too expensive. Watching the ball spin around to type each letter was amazing.
There is a pseudo-museum of typewriters here in Wilmington, DE. Its located within a legal office firm. The founder/principal of the business collected them. I haven't been in there in years, but it was quite a collection!
I suppose there wouldn't be enough interest, but it might be interesting to see how the Linotype machine helped automate typesetting, and its own keyboard ETAOIN ... specifically designed to maximize the letter matrices being returned to the magazine.
josephgaviota, you sound like an old printer.At the Charleston Museum, there is an old STILL WORKING Linotype machine on display.
When I was working at THE POST AND COURIER (Charleston, S.C.;I was an offset pressman for 32 years), the older men who were there would talk about what they called THE HOT TYPE DAYS.💪💪💪✌✌✌✌
When I was in journalism school, we were taught to insert ETAOIN SHERDLU in a space which we were to later correct with the right name, once we found it out.
Also I was told the QWERTY configuration came about as copied from the cases of type sets hand typesetters used. Individual letters set in bins were pulled by printers and composed line-by-line [backwards &reversed] to set the type. A paragraph was set in a block and compose in a frame, galley by galley, and a page was set and clamped in a frame. Then inked and pressed. Kind of why most small town daily periodicals only ran about 4 - 6 pages. Linotype changed that. The printer sat at a machine, typed the line, a row of letters appeared in a jig, and hot lead filled it in, making one line of type called a ''slug''.
@@HootOwl513 isn't this the origin of the expression "mind your P's and Q's" which came from, lower case p's and q's being inverses of each other?
@@dbmail545 I never thought of that, but it sounds about right. A young ''Printer's Devil'' [apprentice] would have to be extra careful when selecting both those letters [with a tweezers in fine points] since they look so much like each other in reverse.
I also wondered why the Brits used a lower case d for Pence, instead of p?
@@colinward3268 Interesting.
Typing is absolutely one of the greatest skills I have learned in life, and probably the most valuable thing I learned in high school. (BTW, the previous sentence contains 49 backspaces :-)
The ONE SINGLE SKILL I learned in highschool that I use every day, that I'm using RIGHT NOW.... Typing.
My first personal typewriter was Corona. But the first time I ever typed was in college on a teletype formerly belonging to the army. It also had a paper tape mechanism on the left side to punch a three hole combination of large or small holes into the folded, stiff, paper tape. That could be fed later into a computer as a primitive, Morse code kinda programming. A hodgepodge of ideas all rolled up together for the modern army. Lol. Then I decided to take a typing course. My teacher demonstrated a typing speed of 235 wpm, but it was a relatively simple paragraph of about 100 words. Took about twenty seconds or so. We thought she was joking till she passed it out to the class. It was perfect.
At the beginning of the U.S. entry into WW2. The Govt ordered production of typewriters to cease. But the Govt did not think of the increased needs for typewriters in the War effort. At first they requested any unused typewriters to be donated. Later they had an approved typewriter to be built.
I learned to type on a qwerty before I could write and that was 36 years ago! I love this episode and my father will too.
Thanks for all the wonderful research you do to be able to present such a cool video.
Thanks for this awesome channel! It's one of the best on UA-cam. Typing and coding have been part of my life since highschool and I didn't even realize how much I wanted to see this video.
The QWERTY keyboard was engineered to solve the problem on manual typewriters of keys getting stuck when the impression arms collide. As we drifted away from manual typewriters, the QWERTY keyboard isn't the most efficient keyboard layout, but it is the most familiar keyboard. I remember a study declaring the Dvorak was more efficient English language keyboard based on finger movement.
An analogy might be guitar tuning. We are taught standard tuning being EADGBE. Many guitarists have learned alternate tunings (i.e., DADGAD, DADGAD, CGDGBE, and others) which allow more comfortable finger patterns. I find DADGAD is very useful playing blues.
The day voice recognition replaces manual typing is the day I find myself a cabin someplace and check out of the world.
Already have done so. I recommend it highly.
@@dbmail545 The fact that you can comment on a UA-cam video means you haven’t gone anywhere near as far as I was thinking.
@@joebykaeby off grid Android phone. Left civilization but still love THG
Typing class for me during Jr HS back in the 80’s, was the only class i definitely received an F grade in, as the teacher was always extremely frustrated with me being more fascinated with how the typewriters functioned, then using them; he’d come around to my table & see it nearly half taken apart & about have a dang heart attack… every time i’d dig into it! 🤣… later on tho, i’d inevitably find myself working a summer job, servicing IBM Selectronic Typewriters… made some decent pocket change during those summers that helped fund my then obsession of vinyl record collecting, as then, CD’s and still to some degree, compact cassette tapes, were all the rage & most record albums could be had for between 0.25¢ to about $2.00; generally in pristine condition still. By the end of 1993, I had collected about 800 albums on vinyl, mostly acquired from $ earned repairing them crazy IBM Selectronic Typewriters!
It would be an immense undertaking, but the thought occurred to me that it might be quite popular for you to have a "You were born today, and it's a date that deserves to be remembered." 365 shorts that cover interesting things that happened on this day in history...
It makes perfect sense that the two most dangerous things typewriters are guns both made by the same companies
Good point. They owned both the "pen" and the "sword."
And both used by honest and experienced persons can save or take lives.
Learn to type??? Haha!!! Just kidding, but they are the two best things ever. You can defend yourself from a bear or tyrant and get the opportunity to quickly and legibly write home about it.
And shavers
In the wrong hands they can be dangerous :-)
@@somethingelse4878 just ask Samson
I live in Milwaukee Wisconsin and a number of years ago i got a job as a carriage driver another driver showed me a route that took me and my passengers past Mr. Sholes house
Have you ever had the misfortune to have to type on a non-QWERTY keyboard? When I was in university back in the 1960s I had no typewriter. I had an assignment that had to be typed. There were three Dutchmen living in the flat above me. I borrowed their typewriter. The keyboard made 'hunt'n'peck' a whole new adventure!
I had a friend in the 80's, who was so unhappy with his qwerty computer keyboard, he was manually rewiring it to what he wanted. He never really completed it, because when I saw him in 2019, he still had it wrapped up on his work bench. I wonder if there is anything to the thought that the current configuration forces us to use both sides of our brain, and that usage makes learning to type easier? Nice one. Thanks.
I have numerous friends who use Dvorak... A little bit better for someone who types all the time, but really not much and just doesn't matter if you aren't typing for hours and hours a day. QWERTY is fine, and I'm very locked into to it (I do a lot of programming and use vi).
As a Comm Center Operator in the Marines....1980.... we had to be able to type 65 wpm error free on large pieces of equipment that was both keyboard and held rolls of paper with carbon paper in-between for three ply printing. They also held paper tape rolls. This was the "grey gear" Teletype Model 28 you would see in the old style Wester Union Office's.
I learned to type in the sixth grade on IBM type writers.
Burt! I just heard of this guy in the History of the Earth series. What an awesome connection! Wow! I am hooked.
Remington success. The ability to develop a product which not only is adopted by the public but also survives the competition
They were always one step ahead of their competitors, cos they rifled their mail.
The keyboard will be with us for a long time yet.
Typing is the one class from high school that I use everyday. I learned on a manual typewriter. My family had an electric typewriter and I had to learn to press more gently to avoid double and tripled letters. I much prefer typing on a computer. I am more relaxed and make fewer mistakes because of how much easier they are to fix. I've also learned to be a much better touch typist with daily computer keyboard use.
Around 1983 I took a high school typing class in one room full of MANUAL typewriters - the teachers wanted you to have 'finger muscles', especially the 'pinky'. However, in the NEXT room were a few Commodore PET computers with an electronic keyboard, like those today - and after the class saw them, told him what he could do with his pinky - but we still learned on typewriters that didn't plug in.
Great information. Typing was the best course I took in high school. Still use it at age 69!
Same here. I can’t imagine going through college and law school with poor handwriting, and not being able to type as I did with all my examinations I only regret is that I did not apply myself sufficiently in secondary school to improve my skills. I did not recognize the. Utility of the skill until much later. 15:13
Excellent video! I am no longer capable of typing using a QWERTY keyboard, as I learned Dvorak about 30 years ago. My job was being a secretary and I had terrible carpal tunnel syndrome from typing all day. Dvorak cleared that up and I've been using that ever since. I have no problem using QWERTY on my phone, though.
During the First World War, my grandmother worked as a clerk for a company in Aberdeen. The owner of the company hated typewritten letters and swore he'd never accept typed correspondence, and insisted that all HIS company correspondence be hand-written. It wasn't very long before he was losing business, as, increasingly, typed business letters became the norm, seen as modern, efficient, more legible. My grandma's handwriting was, until it became illegible with age, the standard she had learned in school, the same taught in schools of that age all over the United Kingdom, and yet I, an American who learned the American standard of the 1950s, always had difficulty reading it.
I worked for Olivetti fixing typewriters that was in the early 1970's the business was undergoing rapid change from manual machine to electronic to obsolete . I left the industry for a City job in 1990 and I was very glad I did. Thanks for the brief history of the typewriters now how about carbon paper and stencils
Fun fact about typing in spanish: since Spanish uses accents for a lot of words and when you typed in upper-case letter the accent mark would mix with the letter, lots of people grew up with the idea that upper-case letters didn't have to be accentuated correctly
And until typing in computers became common place, lots of teacher still said that upper case lettering didn't have to be accentuated
I was forced to take a typing course in Junior high back in.. oh 1983-ish. Always thought... well I don't PLAN to be a receptionist or office worker that needs typing... Then I got my hands on an Apple ][+ and started learning programming. All these years later, I have been earning a good living using those "unneeded skills" from 1983.
Besides the fact this came out on my birthday (thank you), I have never seen HG so animated and excited. But I can see why. This was an invention that has become entrenched around the world, and yet we never thought about it. Thanks for this one!
In Tallin or Riga, I saw a unique typing machine that consisted of a left side ceramic dish with the English letters printed in a square pattern in alphabetical order. Suspended above was a "pen" with which the operator spelled out words, letter by letter. The dish providing constant spacing between the pen and the dish surface, limiting parallax errors. Via a lever and arm system the corresponding cast letter was selected (as normal). On the right side was the "print" button. After each selection of a letter in the dish, the right side button was depressed to print the letter on the paper.
There were others in the shop, antiques with barrel shaped mechanisms etc.
Voice recognition will never replace the keyboard. Just for the fact everyone has a phone now. People still text just as much or more then the talk on the phone. Specially in public.
Yeah and we will never need more than 10mb of hard drive storage.
Never say never...........
@@shawnr771 I remember a computer class from 8th grade (1980 or so) the teacher had a hard drive and was so proud. It was the size of a filing cabinet and could store 40 mb!
It _is_ kind of amazing that so many young people TEXT much more than they call (and talk).
@@christopherlynch3314 yep and it probably cost him 5 grand.
Cue the Dvorak “enthusiasts”.
I use Dvorak … and I'm never going back, I tell you! _Never!_
I grew up next door to August Dvorak and could hear his wife typing 100 WPM on summer days.
@@brianroys1868 My ex could type 150 wpm. On the old Macs she could clear the screen until she had to turn the page and it gave the computer time to catch up.
My kid uses Dvořak partly as a security measure - nobody can type anything on his computer!
If I hadn't had to be able to use whichever typewriter I was in front of at any given time, I would use Dvorak. I've tried them a couple of times and been impressed with the speed that I was able to hit, but I just can't take the time to get used to a QWERTY pattern when I need to use a different machine.
@@SoloPilot6 Somehow my kid is "bilingual" in QWERTY and Dvorak, but then he teaches Math at Duke so maybe it's all those extra brain cells he's got.
The T9 keyboard layout is my very favorite. The T9 format perfect for using on a cell phone. You can quickly type with one hand almost like they do on Star Trek.
AS ALWAYS THE HISTORY GUY, AN EXCELLENT VIDEO!! Your subject choices never fail to astonish me.
In(I believe) in the 70's, IBM came out with an electric typewriter that had a "writing ball". 👏👏👏🌞🌞🌞✌✌✌✌
What a delightful episode of the History Guy!
I love weird little facts like this. "It's the way it is just because it is".
I collected typewriters for a while. Had an Underwood similar to the one @ 12:16. And a Remington spreadsheet model with a platen half the size of a baseball bat. Today all I have is an example of the LAST manual typewriter made in the U.S. A Smith-Corona I got new in 1974.
When two clerks type the same letter, is that stereotyping?
That’s my type of joke
Bahahahaha
Only if there is music involved.
Very funny!
Then they keep typing and create Chasing Amy and Mallrats.
THE REASON TYPING TOOK OFF SO SLOWLY WAS BECAUSE YELLING AT PEOPLE WAS CONSIDERED IMPOLITE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
:D
THG has a way of making the minutiae of history not just interesting but revealing just what a huge impact it can have