Maybe someone like @bgzimmer would know. Ben? Did “r.” used to mean something?
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Replying to @ironicsans @mwichary and
I assume (as
@davidad suggested elsethread) that it would be for forming the titles "Mr." and "Dr." I'd imagine it would appear superscripted, which you couldn't get from just typing "r." regularly.1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes -
Ah, I missed
@davidad’s reply. That feels like the right answer. It seems so obvious in hindsight.1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @ironicsans @bgzimmer and
Feels very bizarre to have that as a key for that purpose, because it doesn’t save enough effort. But that never stopped typewriter companies looking for an edge.
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Replying to @GlennF @ironicsans and
To confuse matters even more, here is a source that shows both £ and "r." as available characters, which probably disproves my £ theory. https://books.google.com/books?id=m4QNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA279&dq=remington+%22lower+case%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2va-sg8HhAhVjFTQIHcZHBo44ChDoAQgyMAI#v=onepage&q=remington%20%22lower%20case%22&f=false …pic.twitter.com/OpcUVC472N
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Oooh.
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Definitely need to see if you can find some typewritten correspondence from the period—maybe etched reproductions in a book of typewritten letters?—to see if the superscript r is there?
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Also found a claim that the tricolon (shown here as "|") is "for parentheses, braces, etc." https://books.google.com/books?id=GfI5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA9178&dq=%22q+w+e+r+t+y+u+i+o+p%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdx_K3jMHhAhWVMX0KHT2CCjMQ6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=%22q%20w%20e%20r%20t%20y%20u%20i%20o%20p%22&f=false …pic.twitter.com/hiWU1GuTw9
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Marcin’s white whale!
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Speaking of which! I just somehow found an early manual for a Sholes & Glidden typewriter, which includes this! Which is funny, because why would you have an extra key for something you can achieve with another key *you’re yourself mentioning*? So might be post-rationalization.pic.twitter.com/K8IC4NDe5l
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Wide Spacer Retweeted Wide Spacer
I will of course take full credit for being the first to suggest parenthesis as a possibility.https://twitter.com/WideSpacer/status/873759895874621440 …
Wide Spacer added,
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