I learned about the most delightful little device today at @SFCB.
You know these typical old-school restaurant bills in America?pic.twitter.com/vgrSfcwhvh
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
Turns out, it is actually a *button*. Each press increments a number by one. That’s more convenient, I suppose, just pressing it every time you print another copy… …but here’s the kicker: the button is meant to be pressed by the printing press itself.pic.twitter.com/HYKNmOMKkv
Every time the press goes down to make an impression on the digits and the №, it also presses that numero, incrementing the number just before printing. It’s so wholesome!pic.twitter.com/LXa7sx9A6N
I love the ingenuity and practicality of this little device. It is tangentially related to earliest automatic typing machines, or mail merge, or… We haven’t tried it out today, but if I ever do more letterpress – I would love to use it, just for fun.pic.twitter.com/7Mb8kX8rON
And, if anyone is interested, here’s the patent: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/cd/33/9a/64ad4b15256df6/US1798176.pdf …
/cc @robinsloan + @GlennF + @mkirschenbaum
(It’s funny how one could confuse it for an old, broken counter that’s really, *really* hard to press – but the point is that this is a rare button not meant for human fingers!)
This thread was doubleplus good and has incremented my knowledge, thanks
It’s like the refrigerator light turning on when you open the door. A perfectly unnoticeable piece of design
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.