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>Computer keyboards make a mousy tappy tap tappy tap like ones you hear in a Starbucks — work may be getting done but it sounds cozy and small, like knitting ne

>Computer keyboards make a mousy tappy tap tappy tap like ones you hear in a Starbucks — work may be getting done but it sounds cozy and small, like knitting needles creating a pair of socks. I wonder if he's tried a mechanical keyboard? He might like it quite a bit better, even if just for the fact that you can choose your personality of keyboard with your computer, just like he does with typewriters.

antisthenes 10y ago
While I'm a big fan and owner of 3+ mechanical keyboards, the force required to type out highly legible letters on a typewriter is not comparable with any keyboard. It's not even in the same ballpark. Especially if your "ink tape" or whatever it's called isn't new, you really have to bang on the keys to get them to show up, not to mention the action lever to go to a new line.
- kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
  Time to join the modern age and get a Selectric.
Animats 10y ago
As someone who restores older Teletype machines, I get to type on a real mechanical keyboard. It's a strange experience at first. When you press a key, it locks down for 200ms while the mechanism cycles. During this period, no other key can be pressed; the other keys are physically blocked. You can't press two keys at once; that, too, is mechanically interlocked. Efficient typing on these machines requires typing at a fixed speed of 5 keystrokes per second. It's like playing a piano; rhythm matters. In the pre-1930 Teletype machines, the keys are ordinary Underwood typewriter keys. If you type too fast, you blunt your fingers against the immovable keys. In 1930, Teletype switched over to spring-loaded keycaps, with about 1mm of spring motion in case you hit a key before the machine is ready. This made fast typing much more comfortable. Western Union expected their Teletype operators to be able to type "blind", with no display or printer to see what they were typing. Outbound operators often used a machine with a keyboard and a tape punch only - no printer. Here's one at work.[1] The machine she's using doesn't have the 5 keystroke per second limitation - notice the loop of tape between the keyboard machine and the tape reader. That's buffering. Operators were expected to type without errors, of course. [1] https://youtu.be/4ziHpB-Dw7o?t=367 https://youtu.be/4ziHpB-Dw7o?t=367
- keithpeter 10y ago
  Would that requirement for accuracy and speed include telegrams encoded using a commercial code such as the acme? Arbitrary key combinations strike me as harder to type fluently by feel compared to my native language. Following the piano playing analogy mentioned somewhere up the tree playing a melody in a definite key signature is easier than a 12-tone composition!
  - Animats 10y ago
    I once found a commercial code in the Stanford library stacks. Common business phrases were encoded as four-syllable worlds. In the book was a loose piece of typewritten paper stating that after a cutoff date, the telegraph company would charge extra for non-dictionary words. This made the code worthless. BEROM BODAD VEMAN WEGOT
    - keithpeter 10y ago
      Was the extra charge not for enciphered telegrams? Props for the scifi reference
- vacri 10y ago
  > Western Union expected their Teletype operators to be able to type "blind", with no display or printer to see what they were typing. My aunt taught typing at a girls' high school in the '80s. She was amazingly fast - she bought a typewriter with a memory, and I recall her being finished with a typewritten letter when the page was only one-third of the way through 'printing'. Had to wait for it to finish each time before loading in the next letter. Later in the '80s she got a job as a temp and was working on a computer. Boss comes in and sees here just staring motionless at it: "What are you doing, why aren't you working?". Her response was "I'm just waiting for the computer to catch up". The boss went over to look, and sure enough, the computer was still bringing up what she typed onto the screen...
  - girvo 10y ago
    > "I'm just waiting for the computer to catch up" Heck, even into the mid 90's, my mother would type so fast into Microsoft Word on Windows 95 that she'd have to pause and wait for the computer to catch up to where she'd typed!
derekp7 10y ago
I was seriously considering a mod for one of my Model M keyboards -- attach a solenoid with a counter weight on it to the inside bottom of the keyboard case, and have it actuate on each keystroke. Just to simulate the old Selectric typewriters.
jseliger 10y ago
I'm glad you mention that, because I just sent a letter to the editor about Unicomp's mechanical keyboards (https://jakeseliger.com/2008/05/07/product-review-unicomp-customizer-keyboard/ https://jakeseliger.com/2008/05/07/product-review-unicomp-cu...), which are modern versions of the IBM Model M. If Hanks hankers for that sound, he'd probably like one.

antisthenes 10y ago

While I'm a big fan and owner of 3+ mechanical keyboards, the force required to type out highly legible letters on a typewriter is not comparable with any keyboard. It's not even in the same ballpark. Especially if your "ink tape" or whatever it's called isn't new, you really have to bang on the keys to get them to show up, not to mention the action lever to go to a new line.

kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
Time to join the modern age and get a Selectric.

Animats 10y ago

As someone who restores older Teletype machines, I get to type on a real mechanical keyboard. It's a strange experience at first. When you press a key, it locks down for 200ms while the mechanism cycles. During this period, no other key can be pressed; the other keys are physically blocked. You can't press two keys at once; that, too, is mechanically interlocked. Efficient typing on these machines requires typing at a fixed speed of 5 keystrokes per second. It's like playing a piano; rhythm matters. In the pre-1930 Teletype machines, the keys are ordinary Underwood typewriter keys. If you type too fast, you blunt your fingers against the immovable keys. In 1930, Teletype switched over to spring-loaded keycaps, with about 1mm of spring motion in case you hit a key before the machine is ready. This made fast typing much more comfortable. Western Union expected their Teletype operators to be able to type "blind", with no display or printer to see what they were typing. Outbound operators often used a machine with a keyboard and a tape punch only - no printer. Here's one at work.[1] The machine she's using doesn't have the 5 keystroke per second limitation - notice the loop of tape between the keyboard machine and the tape reader. That's buffering. Operators were expected to type without errors, of course. [1] https://youtu.be/4ziHpB-Dw7o?t=367 https://youtu.be/4ziHpB-Dw7o?t=367

keithpeter 10y ago
Would that requirement for accuracy and speed include telegrams encoded using a commercial code such as the acme? Arbitrary key combinations strike me as harder to type fluently by feel compared to my native language. Following the piano playing analogy mentioned somewhere up the tree playing a melody in a definite key signature is easier than a 12-tone composition!
- Animats 10y ago
  I once found a commercial code in the Stanford library stacks. Common business phrases were encoded as four-syllable worlds. In the book was a loose piece of typewritten paper stating that after a cutoff date, the telegraph company would charge extra for non-dictionary words. This made the code worthless. BEROM BODAD VEMAN WEGOT
  - keithpeter 10y ago
    Was the extra charge not for enciphered telegrams? Props for the scifi reference
vacri 10y ago
> Western Union expected their Teletype operators to be able to type "blind", with no display or printer to see what they were typing. My aunt taught typing at a girls' high school in the '80s. She was amazingly fast - she bought a typewriter with a memory, and I recall her being finished with a typewritten letter when the page was only one-third of the way through 'printing'. Had to wait for it to finish each time before loading in the next letter. Later in the '80s she got a job as a temp and was working on a computer. Boss comes in and sees here just staring motionless at it: "What are you doing, why aren't you working?". Her response was "I'm just waiting for the computer to catch up". The boss went over to look, and sure enough, the computer was still bringing up what she typed onto the screen...
- girvo 10y ago
  > "I'm just waiting for the computer to catch up" Heck, even into the mid 90's, my mother would type so fast into Microsoft Word on Windows 95 that she'd have to pause and wait for the computer to catch up to where she'd typed!

derekp7 10y ago

I was seriously considering a mod for one of my Model M keyboards -- attach a solenoid with a counter weight on it to the inside bottom of the keyboard case, and have it actuate on each keystroke. Just to simulate the old Selectric typewriters.

jseliger 10y ago

I'm glad you mention that, because I just sent a letter to the editor about Unicomp's mechanical keyboards (https://jakeseliger.com/2008/05/07/product-review-unicomp-customizer-keyboard/ https://jakeseliger.com/2008/05/07/product-review-unicomp-cu...), which are modern versions of the IBM Model M. If Hanks hankers for that sound, he'd probably like one.