Typewriter Keyboard On Typesetting Machine (Mar, 1950)
Typewriter Keyboard On Typesetting Machine
Typists can now set type on Linotype and Intertype composing machines through the development of a keyboard that has the standard keys of a typewriter. Forty-four keys, electrically operated, fit over the 90 keys of a standard composing machine. The keyboard can be moved from one composing machine to another as there is no installation. The new keyboard is simply placed over the top of the existing keyboard and the unit is ready for use when it is plugged into an electrical outlet. The complete outfit weighs only 25-1/2 pounds.
I can’t believe the Typesetter’s Union let this happen!
What is more amazing is that there are still people in this country who run these machines. As a hobby. The usually run on gasoline and have a pot of molten lead in the back.
Comment by katey — September 15, 2008 @ 8:26 pm
The union representing typesetters could not prevent such a device from being invented. But they may well have ended up preventing its widespread use.
Comment by John Savard — November 3, 2009 @ 12:33 pm
I just watched some of these machines on YouTube. Amazing.
Comment by spiff — May 5, 2010 @ 7:31 pm
The Newspaper Museum at the Minnesota State Fair has one still operating:
http://www.minnesotanewspaperf.....useum.html
I can spend hours there just watching . . . .
Comment by Don — May 6, 2010 @ 7:01 am
Was that the machine in the Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith?
How did they get one onto the set?
(The one hour episodes aren’t shown as much as the others.)
To we in the 21st century, a device that converts one set of keystrokes
into a different set of keystrokes without the use of microelectronics
seems a remarkable achievement.
Comment by jayessell — May 6, 2010 @ 11:24 am
jayessell: “The episode”? Burgess Meredith appeared in four of them not to mention narrating the 1983 movie
– Printer’s Devil (1963) …. Mr. Smith (which is the one that I’m sure you mean)
– The Obsolete Man (1961) …. Romney Wordsworth
– Mr. Dingle, the Strong (1961) …. Luther Dingle
– Time Enough at Last (1959) …. Henry Bemis
Comment by Firebrand38 — May 6, 2010 @ 12:03 pm