Typewriters

[*rfaulk34*]

(11-07-2021, 02:04 PM)grampahol Wrote: Some of you youngins may have never experienced using a typewriter, especially one of the old manual types as opposed to an electric, but there is definitely a difference.  The biggest difference between using a plain computer keyboard and a manual or even electric typewriter is with a typewriter when you're composing a letter say to grandma or even in business when you get stuck in your train of thought it's much more likely you'll get very distracted using a computer simply because with a click of the mouse you can be on a completely different page looking at porn, football videos, shopping or any number of distractions. With a typewriter as your only means of putting words on paper those same distractions simply don't exist. A typewriter kind of forces the brain to concentrate much more focused.
I grew up using my mother's old Olympia manual, a great old machine and ribbons were far more cheaper than printer cartridges.
Now, computers are far more efficient when it comes to editing, correcting mistakes, spelling and so on. You can quickly change fonts and much more, but in terms of concentration and staying on task the old fashioned typewriter can't be beat. There's another factor often overlooked, the tactile feel of the snappy feel a well tuned mechanical typewriter has..and the little bell reminding you to hit the return lever..
So anyway, typewriters are making a huge comeback in certain circles. There are now large typewriter events taking place in cities all around the world with everything from buying and selling, trading and such to speed contests and more.. My wife can type MUCH faster than I can and I'm pretty quick for a 3 fingered typist, 2 for the letters and a thumb for the space bar..  She can type upwards of 300 words per minute..   That's scary..

So uhm. Do you mean 300 characters a minute? One "word" in typing is 4 keystrokes. 300 words would be 1200 keystrokes a minute or 20 keystrokes a second. That's all 10 fingers hitting the keyboard every second. 

I'm not saying you're hallucinating, i'm just saying that would have to crush a world record or something. 

I can type 74 words per minute and i always thought that was pretty damn fast for a locksmith. 

P.S. When my mother in law was in labor with my wife, my father in law insisted that they stop at the store to buy a new typewriter on the way to the hospital. My wife still has the typewriter. 

EDIT: Ok, so my senior typing class was 37 years ago. 1 word is 5 keystrokes apparently.