Instead, it’s a simple pointing device where you first choose your letter with a lever, and then use a separate mechanism (button or lever) to imprint it.pic.twitter.com/KhGXvc7YbG
You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more
Instead, it’s a simple pointing device where you first choose your letter with a lever, and then use a separate mechanism (button or lever) to imprint it.pic.twitter.com/KhGXvc7YbG
If it feels cumbersome – oh yes, it is. You cannot touch type on an index typewriter. Often, index typewriters were derisively called “a page a day typewriters.”pic.twitter.com/B9ZfibT4N2
But the simple construction had benefits. #1: An index typewriter could be had for a quarter of a price of a regular desk typewriter – or even for as little as $10. That made it instantly accessible (particularly for millennials).pic.twitter.com/jS0rE9XdDI
Bonus #2: It’s smaller and therefore much more portable! The first photos of people using typewriters in public transit were of index typewriters… (and they were not even photos, since we didn’t know how to print this new invention of photography well yet!)pic.twitter.com/FbahREHdhJ
(There were even a few index typewriters you could keep in your pocket, the earliest predecessor to a smartphone! Note: “Not a toy.”)pic.twitter.com/Ejg0BKBEdv
Bonus #3! The construction makes it easier to change fonts. Instead of solid typebars with type on them, you can imagine a swappable element. This it the first time in history the act of *choosing a font* was available to a common person.pic.twitter.com/8IyeiAXmin
Some index typewriters were linear, some circular, other semicircular.pic.twitter.com/dXCq8rOBEf
Confusingly, later on, as regular typewriters became cheap and small, some index typewriters – now sold as toys – came pretending they’re “real” keyboards.pic.twitter.com/wIb9dKaco5
But, let’s go back to Mignon. Mignon was a very popular “prosumer” index typewriter. (Within that now-completely-forgotten category there were many subcategories!)pic.twitter.com/Ch7E4XCjBE
Mignon used a much faster, “2D” indexing. It also came with multiple colours…pic.twitter.com/ESCF0Xi3h4
…and with “typesleeves” allowing for many font options. (Each one with a matching keyboard plate.)pic.twitter.com/PEraoyYz0d
Just like home computers in the 1980s found their second wave in East Europe, and third one in Africa (well into the 1990s), the Mignon was sold for many decades in countries where it was harder to afford a “real” typewriter.
The funny thing? You probably used an index keyboard at some point. Maybe inputting a password on Apple TV (which alternated between linear and 2D indexing).pic.twitter.com/Qr0xqIUmHm
Maybe entering a high score on an arcade game using a joystick.pic.twitter.com/lf1XbY9m3T
Index keyboards are a great example of an alternative idea that’s easy to ridicule, but the moment you step outside the mainstream, its deficiencies can become its powers.
Japanese and Chinese typewriters? Needing to access thousands of characters before software meant traditional keyboard was impossible… but an index typewriter could work.pic.twitter.com/kAMfApJpOq
Stephen Hawking used a version of an index keyboard to talk. The very same simplicity and inefficiency that would bother many typists was actually a great benefit here, a cheek twitch being his sole input method.pic.twitter.com/oqrpheBlwq
You might also remember a lo-tech version of this idea from Breaking Bad. (“A page a day” is better than nothing.)pic.twitter.com/hqqfkH52Dq
Have a limited room on your 1980s wrist? Put a tiny index typewriter in your phone.pic.twitter.com/HyO8p6uOn9
Need to communicate with ghosts? How about an Ouija index typewriter. Waitpic.twitter.com/hawROsvq4x
Well, next time, be on the lookout for an index keyboard in your life! Maybe, if you’re lucky, it’ll even be as cute as this cutest ever package-labeling machine.pic.twitter.com/NDCgwXlxEb
That’s it! I-click-space-H-click-O-click-P-click-E-click-space-T-click-H-click-I-click-S-click-space-H-click-E-click-L-click-O *fuck*
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.