Video transcript
"Look what I found amongst the junk when clearing out that office" Dad said.
It was an old typewriter - a bit dusty but after a quick clean it looked as good as new!
It was called a Remington and it was manual - no electricity, no hard drives or
software.
We bought a new ribbon and it was great to play with. Today I'm a secretary in an
office, tomorrow I might be a teacher, the fun was endless.
One problem was that the typewriter was really heavy, you had to be a bit of a
weight lifter, lifting it up on to the table. The keys were also really hard work to push
down and if you typed too fast the keys got all stuck together and you had to unjam
them and pull them apart.
Later at school, I began to do typewriting as a subject - we were taught to touch type
- learning our home keys and practicing - fff space jjj space, fjf space, jfj space. With
the help from my teacher who threatened gave us the 'puppydog treatment' if we
looked at the keys - a sharp wrap on the knuckles with her ruler, I became quite
good.
Things have progressed so quickly, its all computers now - the keys are in the same
place but everything else is different. We don't use carbon paper for extra copies,
we just click 2 on the print function. No need for tippex - the delete key does that for
you!
Then again these computers aren't much good in a power cut - my old manual
typewriter would have worked just fine with no electricity!!
Hasn't the technology moved quickly - seems like no time since we thought that the IBM golfball typewriter was state of the art!Posted on 01/11/2009 at 01:21:36
I remember doing typing at school too! I can't believe those manual typewriters we had to use - how things have changed.Posted on 12/02/2010 at 06:06:17