Comic Book Plus Forum
About The Comic Books We Have => Comments Made On Our Content => Topic started by: a a on August 27, 2020, 09:30:02 PM
-
I don't get how that typewriter is supposed to work.
The type bits seems to be aimed at each other.
edit: here it is on ebay,
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=oliver%20typewriter
still don't get it.
Link to the book: Argosy All-Story Weekly v133 01 (https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=76855)
-
It works like this: the type bars for the entire keyboard are divided into two groups, one in each of the "ears." When you hit a key, one of the type bars, which are upside-down-U-shaped and hinged at the bottom, swings down and strikes the platen through the ribbon. Release the key and the type bar swings back up into rest position.
Depending on whether you press no shift key, the Cap Shift key, or the Fig Shift key, you'll print a lower case letter, a capital letter, or a special character (cent sign, caret, pound sterling sign, that sort of thing). The tabs, margins, and such work pretty much like a standard typewriter.
On the earliest typewriters you couldn't see what you were typing as you typed it because the type bars struck the platen from underneath. This was done so that gravity guaranteed the bars would fall back into rest position when the key was released. All kinds of mechanisms were invented to get front-striking type bars to "go home." The result was the "visible" typewriter. The earliest visibles launched circa 1893. The Oliver company began in 1895. It appears the Oliver design remained pretty much the same through the early 1920s, though minor improvements were made. The company went under in 1928.
And, yes, it was easy to strike more than one key and make the type bars bang into each other or get jammed together. But you could do that with more modern typewriters as well.
-
it was easy to strike more than one key and make the type bars bang into each other or get jammed together. But you could do that with more modern typewriters as well.
Yes, and that's why we have the QWERTY layout keyboard as the standard, even with Computer Keyboards.
It was actually designed to slow the typist down! Several attempts have since been made to replace it, but its too popular and well-known so we seem to be stuck with it!