Circle of Confusion
Omaha, Nebraska
2016
This is the jammed-up business end of the typewriter in the POTD from three days ago. I think the way the mechanics work is that the circular carriage of arms rotates when you press a letter on the keyboard to line that particular arm up with the paper. That’s a lot of movement between keystrokes. It seems like it would take a lot of effort to rotate the carriage by pressing a key and I can’t imagine being able to type very fast on this machine. Still, I’d probably be faster on it than I am trying to type an email on my smart phone with my thumbs.
Back in the day- when I worked for the Wichita Eagle and Beacon, they used hot type Linotype machines to type out the words of stories in columns of lead (done mostly by deaf mutes, but that’s another story). They were the size of a calliope, off gassing and very loud. An operator could probably beat me for speed with me texting with my single index finger. I never had the interest to see if they were strictly mechanical or some electric hybrid, I just wanted to get the job done and be gone. A definition of calliope (another keyboard to communicate music) shows ancient usage as the name of the Chief of the Muses in Greek culture. Looking up it’s root, while the calli- syllable seems like there should be a common root word with calligraphy my limited search didn’t find it. So much for circling back to an earlier form of communication technique….
Steve, I remember when you worked there. Good thing lead poisoning wasn’t a problem back then! 🙂