WEBVTT - Typewriters: Mechanical Brilliance 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.160 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.600 and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, And this is 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:21.400 an old school Stuff you should Know episode. Yeah, old school. 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:30.000 It's just like a robust, jam packed um overlooked unsung 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:33.559 item episode and those are often really good. Yeah. I 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:36.600 bet we got a mechanical engineering suite in there somewhere. 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.839 I'll bet too. For sure. We'll have to cobble it 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.400 together someday and be like, look what we did, everybody, 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:48.480 But we want to talk about something else real quick first, right, yeah, man? So, Um, 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:51.199 we recently did a hang out for our friends co 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.200 ed UM, the Cooperative for Education who we've talked about 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:57.240 plenty of times. They helped kids stay in school in 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.720 Guatemala and break the cycle of poverty by making sure 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:03.040 they get an education. Right, that's right, but he knows 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:07.160 about cod. Our first our two part Guatemala episode was 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.240 when we went there with COED. So we did a 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:12.919 hang out with them for their Fall f S, a fundraiser, 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.360 and um, we found out that so far since we 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.480 went to Guatemala with them, Stuff you should know listeners 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.920 have donated how much I think we are And this 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:27.640 is our good friend Ann at co Ed who invited 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.600 us initially, has done the math and redone the math. 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:33.600 Things that we reached the numbers. Things that we don't 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.679 do is redo the math several times. And At says 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.720 we are within a hundred grand of stuff you should 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:45.399 know fans having donated one million bucks. That's amazing, that 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.480 is so amazing. So we were like, okay, we're at 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.600 like nine hundred thousand dollars. I feel like we should, 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.080 you know, hit one million. It's just such a nice 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.720 round number. And and Coed will do so many good 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:01.000 things with that extra hundred gram. So you and I 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:03.280 both realized that a hundred grand is a tremendous amount 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.720 of money. So we did some number crunching ourselves, and 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.000 we figured out that if we divided it up among 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:11.880 stuff you should know listeners, if everyone chipped in like 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.080 a nominal amount, we could reach that goal. Right. Yeah, 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.480 So you did the math. I'm gonna let you stand 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.320 behind it. Oh man, I was hoping you'd stand in 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.600 front of that. So if twenty thousand stuff you should 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:28.839 know listeners, and we're told there are that many out there. Um, 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:33.519 each chip in five dollars will reach that goal, no problem. Uh, 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:38.399 what ten thousand stuff listeners chip in ten thousand dollars 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:45.919 ten dollars and then, um, I believe if eight thousand, 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.360 six hundred and nine listeners contribute eleven dollars and fifty cents, 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.400 we will hit that goal as well. Right, so you 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:55.640 get the point. It doesn't take much when you have 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.880 a lot of great people banded together. Uh, this is 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.000 the holiday time and know that, you know that's a 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:05.040 money crunching time. But if you could throw five dollars 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:07.400 their way and we could all like work our way 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.440 towards that million before the end of the year, that 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.120 would really be a big, big, huge deal. It would 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.160 be really cool. And believe us, we'll both be chipping 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:17.560 in as well as like we're asking you to do something. 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.480 We would go and we're gonna make Jerry chip into 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:23.320 Yeah that's right, And I'm gonna chip in more than 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:27.720 five dollars. Oh yeah, I'm gonna chip in that. No, 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:30.480 we're gonna do that thing where h when you split 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:32.200 the tab at a restaurant, we try and see what 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.040 the other person tipped so one of us doesn't look cheap, 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:40.040 that's right. So they actually set up a specific u 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.960 r L for us, right, that's right. It is Cooperative 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:49.320 for fo R Education dot org slash s y s k. 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.080 Very very easy, yep. And you just go on the 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:56.320 donation processes quick and painless, and you will be helping 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:00.040 kids break the cycle of poverty in Guatemala and a 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.280 really good about things. That's right. I want to make 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.160 sure that our contributions count as stuff you should know 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.480 army Well, yeah, I would, I would hoping and would 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:09.920 make sure of that. I mean, we're part of the 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:14.080 army still, even though we're you know, the motorway commandants 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:19.960 or something. I guess that's a pretty European. I always 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.320 picture ourselves on the ship. We're admirals. I like, colonel, 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.359 you could be admiral. I'm gonna be colonel. Well, if 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.240 you're a colonel, I'm just going to be a private. Oh, 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.800 come on anyway, and count our donations if you can 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.080 do that, because we're part of the army, and I 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.200 think anyone including us, who goes to Cooperative for Education 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.320 dot org slash s ysk, their donation will automatically be 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:46.600 counted towards the total for sure. Okay, so go forth, everybody. Uh, 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.720 it's Thanksgiving time. The holiday season is starting to kick off. 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.080 Good cheer and good vibes and glad tidings are starting 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.799 to fill all of our hearts and hopefully that will 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:00.360 culminate in us each donating five bucks. That's right, Okay, 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.599 shall we talk typewriters. Yeah, let's let's I think that 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:05.839 went really well. Choked. I think it went well, dude, 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:09.800 So big shout out to our buddy Dave Ruse, who 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.120 I bet will also contribute because he's also a listener 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:15.920 as well as a writer for us. Well, he listens 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.440 to the ones that he helps us write. It's true, 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.720 I suspect the same thing. So, um he helped us 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.600 out with this one on typewriters, and um, it's one 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:27.240 of those things, like I said it was, it's kind 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.600 of one of those overlooked and unsung items that really 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.440 had like a lot of effect on the world, so 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.960 much so that I feel like scholarship into the impact 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:43.600 that that typewriters had on society kind of ends with um, 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.480 you know, ushering feminism into the workplace, or at the 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:49.200 very least women into the workplace. We'll talk a lot 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.039 about that later, but I think I had even more effects, Chuck, 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.280 Like if you stop and think about it, like, you know, 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.159 would we have the computer today if we hadn't invented 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.120 the typewriter in the middle of the nineteenth century, or 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:02.920 if we did, what would it look like if we 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:07.000 hadn't had the typewriter first? Um, you know did because 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.479 it allowed for a lot more smoothness in the business office. 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:14.520 It allowed for like systematic management, I think, So is 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.520 it responsible for the creation of the paperwork we're all 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:19.919 drowning in at all times? I have questions about this 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.440 and no one's answered them yet, So I'm just gonna 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:24.240 throw those questions out and just let them kind of 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.279 jael over the whole episode. Would we have all the 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.440 great works of literature that we have since the invention 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.159 of the typewriter? People were certainly writing before the typewriter, 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.320 as long as there was a feather and some ink around, uh, 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:42.120 they would use the old quill. But the typewriter certainly, um, 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:45.360 sort of open things up, not the very least things 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:49.440 like self publishing and and getting your own creative ideas 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:52.720 out to the world in an easier fashion. So creatively, 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.479 the typewriter was a game changer. That's an excellent point, 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.320 Mark Mark Twain, Right, he was vive and this is 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:00.600 a great this may be the fact of the show. Oh. 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.279 His book in eight two, Life on the Mississippi, was 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.680 the very first typewritten manuscript ever submitted, as far as 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:12.280 anyone knows. Yeah. Uh, and apparently he hand wrote it 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:17.640 and then had his assistant or secretary transcribe it onto 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.360 into a typewriter. Yeah. I mean that's kind of how 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:24.360 things went for a while, exactly. Yeah. But um, the 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.680 one thing about typewriting too, I think some of those 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:28.680 early writers were like, well, wait a minute, does that 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.120 mean we're just supposed to dictate our books? And I 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.280 don't know how I feel about that. And then they 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:35.360 finally figured out, like, oh, we can actually do the 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:37.760 typing ourselves. And I think that's when it really kind 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.120 of opened up for literature, like you were saying, right, 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.920 But that also went the other way later with memoirs, 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.360 with people like Keith Richards would say, you mean, I 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:50.000 can just say things out loud and it'll be a book. Right, 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.480 does seventeen pages that are just the letter L seventeen hundred? 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.760 More like? Is is Uh, autobiography is very long and great, 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.040 so um. One of the other things about the typewriter 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.040 two is it wasn't around for that long for as 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:05.360 much of an effect as it did have on society. 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:08.960 It was invented in eighteen sixty eight, the first thing 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.040 that we recognized as a modern typewriter, and then by 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:15.160 the eighties it was certainly on its way out. And 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:20.520 it died really quickly because yeah, and the technology, because 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:25.080 the technology that we invented took off really quickly. But again, 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:27.800 it was all based on the typewriter. There were improvements 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:31.640 to the typewriter that eventually led to the PC. That's right. Uh. 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:36.480 And I have a deep, deep love of mechanical machines. 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:39.520 And I have an old typewriter and I've had it 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:43.000 since college. I think my mom got it for me 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.200 for Christmas one year, got me an old Royal antique 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.320 typewriter just to display. And I have moved that thing. 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:51.960 I'll post a picture of it. It's still on my 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.439 shelf in my office upstairs. I've moved it everywhere for 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:59.959 the past, you know, thirty five years, and I still well, 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.080 you know, throw a piece of paper in that thing 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:04.120 every now. And then and type on it and realized 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:07.800 that the ribbon is dry. You're like, all work and 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:10.640 no play make Jack a dull boy. But we are 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:12.800 the generation, and and me even a little bit more 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:16.400 than you because I'm a few years older of uh. 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:18.320 And you know, we talked about Gen X being the 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:22.640 greatest generation because we saw such transitions in technology, but 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.960 the typewriter was certainly one of them. Like I typed 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.160 in my typing class in high school on a on 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:31.760 an IBM Selectric, which we'll talk about one of the 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:35.760 greatest machines ever invented. And then just a few years 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:38.840 later when I jumped into college, I had one of 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:43.600 those over the expensive word processors. Yeah, we had one too, 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:45.600 and I was thinking. I was trying to remember what 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.840 brand it was, and I could remember either. I thought 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.199 it was a Brother And then I stopped and thought 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.199 a little more about it. I'm sure it was a 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:57.920 Sears and Roebuck word processor. Not. I know mine was used, 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.280 I'll tell you that. Yeah, but those things were really amazing, 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:03.800 especially if you could take the time to stop and 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:05.680 figure out how to use it. That was one of 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.280 the great things about typewriters is people have been using 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:10.960 them for so long that when you first learned how 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:12.560 to do it, there were so many people out there 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:14.080 who could tell you how to do it. It was 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.520 easy to pick up. Word processors made it difficult, but 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.000 I pods that that they were a necessary transition from 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.800 typewriters to PCs. It got people thinking in a digital way, 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:26.439 you know. Yeah, yeah, just to see it on that 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:30.800 tiny little screen, it felt like it was like two 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:35.839 inches by three inches maybe, Yeah, that was a game changer. Yeah, 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:37.800 we'll talk more about that later, but let's just do 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.320 like a quick overview of how to use a typewriter 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:45.280 for the chilling's yeah, like the parts and pieces parts. Yeah, alright, 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:47.400 so a manual typewriter, and that's what we're gonna call 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:52.679 anything that isn't electric or electronic, uh anything pre those days. 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:55.640 What you do, kids, is you get a piece of 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:58.960 white paper and you feed it into this machine, this 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:03.440 mechanical machine by rotating a rubber cylinder that's called a platon, 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:06.679 and you know, you roll it till let's lined up 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.520 to where you basically want to start typing. And even 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.680 that when you first start typing is a little bit weird, 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:14.760 like you might start typing too high and you realize 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:16.600 you gotta roll it up a little bit more to 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:20.440 get that what do you call that the not the margin? Yeah, 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.920 the margin, the border, I call it a order. The header, Yeah, 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:25.880 the header, which is like whatever you want to set 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:28.120 an inch inch and a half. So you line up 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.640 that paper where you want to start typing, and then 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.680 you start typing by pressing down on a key. And 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.880 Dave even says press hard in parentheses because you got 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.240 to give it a little bit of a strike, much 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.880 more than you do, even though you have abused laptops 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.560 in your time. I always said you sound like Thelonious 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:48.480 Monk over there on the type on the computer, but 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.880 I can't imagine hearing on a typewriter. Yeah. The reason 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:54.959 you have to press hard though, because we're talking about 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.720 manual typewriters. There's no electricity involved. You can take it anywhere. 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.880 It sounds like that's what your royal is, right, Yeah, okay, 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:06.480 So um, when you're pressing on that key, it's actually 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.960 causing that lever to shoot up. And attached to the 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:11.720 end of the level is what's called the type bar, 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:16.480 and that is basically a little mini type bar like 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:20.320 you find in a printing press. And typically, um, I 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:23.800 think the top is lower case and the bottom is 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:27.320 upper case. And when that type bar hits the paper, 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:31.360 depending on whether you're on lower higher case, UM, it's 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.360 it smacks the paper and it goes through the ink ribbon, 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:36.800 which shoots up all of a sudden out of nowhere 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.200 like a whack a mole and gets in between the 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.680 type bar and the paper. So the type bar actually 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.240 strikes and leaves an impression through the ink ribbon onto 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.319 the paper. And that's how you type a nice, inky letter. 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:50.680 That's right. And I know we sound like we're being 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:53.800 like we're coddling, but I'm really not when I say this. 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:56.320 If you've never used one, you never really looked at 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.360 one much. Um. It's like a little stamp on the 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:01.760 end of a of a metal lever, and it just 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.040 it just stamps the letters on one at a time, right, 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:07.880 So I mean that's pretty much it. The only thing 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.520 is and this is like a really ingenious part of 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.480 the typewriter from way back. When you type a letter, 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.360 that the carriage, which is the whole assembly that holds 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:23.400 the platin um, it moves to the left one space 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:25.720 so that you are now about to type your next 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:28.120 letter to the right of the last letter that you 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:32.040 just typed, so that you're not typing your entire manuscript 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:35.839 in one single space. It seems really easy to overlook, 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.280 but it's a really important part. And then eventually you 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.080 get to an end. At the end of the carriage, 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.760 it reaches all the way to the left. It's almost 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.160 seems so wildly out of proportion that the typewriter will 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:50.559 surely tip over at any second. And then the little 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:53.240 bell goes thing and you hit a lever and the 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.920 thing slides back to the right fastest, bobs your uncle, 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.000 and then you start typing the next line because it 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:01.760 raised up once ace or two spaces, depending on whether 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.480 you're typing single space or double space. That's right. And 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.520 you think, is there a small troll in there that 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:11.120 is hitting a bell. No, that's it's all mechanical. It's 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:13.960 wonderful that carriage return and you have your margin set 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:16.880 so it knows when to ding uh, and it's it's 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.200 it's just a wonder of mechanical engineering. I love a typewriter. 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.040 There's a lot of like if you only just sort 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.760 of see the outside and you're looking at the type 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:27.800 bar that in it of itself is kind of cool, 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.160 but when you open that thing up and really look 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:34.080 at the mechanics behind it, it's just awesome. I love typewriters. Yeah, 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.320 it is very cool. And also one of the other 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.239 things that's neat about it. When you look over the typewriter, 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:41.920 you see that all of the type bars, all of 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:45.320 the um, the alphabet and the numbers are looking back 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.320 up at you and like a semicircle, and so they 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.640 just shoot up from their spot hey hey, hey, depending 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.720 on what um what letter you're typing, but they always 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.240 hit that same part, which is exactly where the carriage 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.680 wants them to hit on the plan. So that's a typewriter. 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:04.640 And I say, chuck um that we take a break 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:06.360 and then come back and talk about some of the 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:32.960 history behind it. Let's do it. So before we go on, 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:34.480 I do want to say that as a rite of 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.920 passage for any child, I went and when my daughter 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.080 was a little bit younger, she probably still does it. 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:42.280 For all I know, I would go into my office 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:46.400 and see my typewriter type bars all tangled together, because 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:48.680 the write of passage for any kid when they see 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.680 emmanual typewriters just to smash all those keys at the 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:53.760 same time, and they get into a little tangled mess, 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:55.760 which we'll get to that has a lot to do 0:15:55.800 --> 0:16:00.320 with the eventual keyboard design. But yeah, just to throw 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.240 that out there. Yeah, but that was a real problem, 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:05.400 and they turned into like a little rats nest, right, 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:09.040 little rats nests, So fingers of the thinkers of a 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:11.720 little rat. Yes, And that was a problem that was 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:17.320 faced by one Christopher Latham Shoals, who is widely considered 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.920 to be the inventor of the typewriter, although as we'll see, 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:23.840 he didn't work completely alone, but he and a pal 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.800 of his um created the patent for the typewriter in 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:29.840 eighteen sixty eight. There were the first people to get 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.160 a patent for the first typewriter, but at least fifty 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:37.040 people gave it a try before Shoals, uh perfected it, 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.240 or I shouldn't say perfected, it came the closest to 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.400 perfecting it the first time. How about that? Yeah, because 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:45.600 you know day points out they you know, the printing 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.160 press was invented in what the fourteen something fifteenth century, 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:53.080 and it took a couple of hundred years, but then 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.200 for about a hundred years people tried to figure out 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.920 a typewriter of some sort. The first sort of working 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:04.199 typewriter may have been this guy named Giuseppe Pellegrin no 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.960 Touri Uh. He was obviously an Italian guy. He was 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.440 an inventor, and in eighteen o eight he made a 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:16.920 device for Uh. Either was Frinder's girlfriend, the Countess Carolina Fantoni. 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:23.720 That's wow, that's quite and a beautiful name. It's very 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:25.600 beautiful name. And this is a cool story because she 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:29.720 had lost her sight. So the invention was so, you know, 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:32.560 typing is something that you can do withoutside. In fact, 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:34.920 that's the whole goal, is to learn to type without 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:39.640 looking right. Um. So there's an alternate story that her 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:44.560 brother Augustino actually invented it for her and Tourie improved it. 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.320 But the upshot of it is whoever created this machine? Uh, 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.440 It doesn't exist any longer, it doesn't survive, But some 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.600 of her typed um letters did from eighteen oh, all 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:59.040 the way back in eighteen o eight, undisputed first type 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:02.560 letters were for Italy back then, that's right. Uh. And 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:04.720 then there are another couple of guys who tried their 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.879 hand at it. Uh. Just shout them out, because we 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:10.960 always like to shout out detroitter's. A guy named William 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:15.040 Austin Burt in the early eighteen hundreds invented a typographer, 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.239 uh clunky, didn't work very well. And then another pre 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:23.000 typewriter was built. It was called the Hansen Riding Ball. 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.639 And this one is kind of interesting, and that he 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:32.439 used electromagnetic energies and electromagnetic battery to actually power this thing. 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:34.640 So it didn't work very well, but it was way 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.199 ahead of its time. Actually, I saw that it did 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:41.040 work really well. Um that well for manufacturing though, I think, okay, 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.480 right true. And the the arrangement of the keys, it 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.119 was like a pincushion, so you held both hands together 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:51.119 like you were alien for Pete's sake typing. But the 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:53.840 thing would work really well. It would respond as fast 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:57.320 as you typed um in part because of those electro magnets. 0:18:57.400 --> 0:18:59.480 And he also spread the vowels to the left and 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.040 the contint to the right, which made typing even faster. 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.080 And I saw it also automatically advanced the paper too, 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:09.240 so it didn't really resemble our earliest typewriters are our typewriters, 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:11.840 but it was its own kind of neat thing that 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:15.119 just didn't take off. Everybody's like, what's this pink Christian thing? 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:16.919 This is not right. It's a kind of fun thing 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.080 you see in a museum and you marvel at how 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:22.440 advanced it was for the time. Sure, definitely if you 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:24.560 want to get too real typewriters, though, we got to 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:29.399 go back to Christopher lay them shoals. You mentioned, uh, 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:34.280 Milwaukee in right, Yeah, and he got he was a journalist. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:39.399 He was a politician. Sometimes almost said a superman, a newspaperman. 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.440 The superman was a newspaperman. Hey man. That was a 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:46.080 heck of a connection. Uh. And he was a superman, 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.280 I'll say it. Uh. And he had a side gig 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:51.560 as an inventor. And he got together. He was smart 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:54.600 enough to collaborate with people, and got together in eighteen 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:57.440 sixty six with a couple of colleagues named Carlos Glinden 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:04.080 and Samuel Willard Seul. Would you say so? All right? 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:08.240 Soul with any And they went to work and designed 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:14.639 um a typewriter at Klein Stuber's machine shop in Milwaukee, 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.320 and then finally in eight sixty eight were able to 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.320 apply for their and this is kind of fun. Always 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.280 loved the early sort of UM when things are split 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.800 up into two words, capital T, type dash, capital W 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:31.040 writer a literal type writer. And it had a little 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:33.159 it's fun to look up. Look this thing up. It 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:37.480 had a little piano keys as the keyboard, which makes 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.800 sense because it has a similar mechanical function, right, And 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:44.520 apparently the ebony keys had one function. The ivory keys 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:46.920 had another function. But if you look at it, there's 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.200 only like four or five keys of each. And I 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:53.399 cannot make heads or tails of how the thing worked, 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:56.080 and apparently no one else can, because I've never found 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.520 an explanation of actually how it worked. But it's just like, 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:03.640 look at that thing. It looks like a piano moving on. Well. 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:05.840 One thing I knew is that they lived together in 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:09.600 perfect harmony. That's right. The other thing I found out 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:12.320 about that too, is in their prototype, all I could 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:15.880 type was W. But apparently type W really really well 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.240 enough that they applied for the patent and they got it. 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:21.080 They also did something else that was innovative that would 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:23.199 come in UM. It was kind of one of those 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.000 things that laid the groundwork for all typewriters to come. 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:28.960 They had two spools that held an ink ribbon on top, 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:30.879 and we talked about how the inc ribbon jumps up 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:32.920 and gets in between the type bar and the paper 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:36.760 to leave the the inked letter. Well, these guys invented 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:39.040 it basically right out of the gate. Yeah, because you 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.000 gotta have a spool, you gotta move that ribbon along, 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:43.800 or you're just typing on the same section of ribbon 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:47.879 over and over and that's no good, sure, uh. In 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:51.960 eighteen seventy two, they sold UH their shares in this 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.919 invention to a guy, an oil guy named James Dinsmore, 0:21:56.480 --> 0:21:58.560 who will factor in UH in a pretty big way 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:01.320 in a minute. And but Shoals wasn't done. He was like, 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:03.720 you know what, we sold this thing, but I'm gonna 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.320 keep working. And later that same year, like that's how 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:09.040 like dedicated he was to figuring this thing out. He 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:14.800