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144 years on, the typewriter continues to clank

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Anjoo Mohun
Anjoo MohunMar 01, 2017 | 08:36

144 years on, the typewriter continues to clank

On March 1, 1873, E Remington and Sons in Illinois, New York, began production of the first practical typewriter.

The typewriter is 144 years old today. Do the millennials even know what we are talking about?

Where would 20th century journalism be if it was not for this haloed machine? It is that tip-tapping which has defined writers and newsrooms forever. If you couldn’t type, well you couldn’t get a real job!

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Of course, there was the oft-repeated disdain for the real intellectual — Oh I write in long hand! No Sir, not for them the tickety boo of those new fangled machines. Their mighty pens distinguished them as real writers who remained true to his self-chosen faith. But it’s the typewriter, which brought the newsroom the elegance and the reverence it so deserved.

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The tip-tapping that has defined writers and newspaper rooms forever.

But let’s continue to write paeans in praise of the typewriter.

This is not about the pen versus the machine anyways. Typewriters brought speed (imagine that context in view of the gigabytes of data being downloaded by toddlers today) and efficiency which can easily be attributed to the faster processing of the written word.

It definitely helped journalists create, revise and rewrite copy and the space between the desk and the printer became so much less. But would we have an Apple or a Nokia if it weren’t for the genius of the Qwerty keyboard. 

Well, think of all those of us who first mastered "a-s-d-f; l-k-j-h" and the thumbs forever resting on the space bar.

It was a matter of pride and I think it still is, that one can type without looking at the keys or create entire documents from written notes without looking at the paper (nowadays the screen) or the keys.

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Small wonder that speed was the essence and it also defined prowess.

How many women would have remained career-less if they weren’t proficient in words per minute both for typing and shorthand? When Lee Iacocca was reviving Chrysler, he cut salaries across the board, but ensured that none of the secretaries suffered a cut. They were invaluable, he said and deserved every penny they earned!

Remember Mad Men?. Notice the typewriters? That, right there, was the first tool for success and financial independence for women, a real marketable skill; those pencil skirts and coiffured hair notwithstanding. A step through the tightly shut male bastion of the corporate floor.

Imagine that once upon a time Cold War Warriors valued their typewriter tapes a lot more than their rendezvous or "dead drops" as it could spell out each alphabet that had been typed and in those days code breakers (not to mention Bletchley Park) were the kind of stuff legends are made of.

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A typewriter shop billboard hangs in an alley of New Delhi, India. (Credit: AP Photo)

Fast Forward to the millennials, none of who have ever needed to set margins, roll in carbon papers and make three copies of everything. All they need to do is "download" an app. Then they go single-fingered in their oblivion that led to the rise of the SMS lingo — u, d, gr8! Such an assault on the language and all that it stands for!

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But David Crystal, an English language expert, wondered who were we to comment which way a language goes as it evolves. He thinks that SMS is the language which will stay and I could cringe in my puritanical makeover as much as I wanted.

However old the old ways maybe, no touchscreen can replace timeless skills. Even the cranky, charismatic Steve Jobs did not mess with it. And this is a man who changed everything that was put before him.

The typewriter may have been relegated to the list of relics but the skills required to type well, fast and accurately remains. Get those thumbs out of the way kids, use all your fingers and find the writing heaven.

And let me blow on my fingers and polish the tips to get down to work. I can bet anything that I will leave you goggle-eyed with my typing skills. And yes, life is more than a short paragraph that is full of emoticons. Express it!

Last updated: March 01, 2017 | 08:36
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