1 of 1- beak
- Key Master
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- From: Qld Australia
- Registered: 24-3-2013
- Posts: 912
Dream keys
What keys would you like to add to your 'perfect' machine?
For instance, I should like square brackets.
Sincerely,
beak.
- M. Höhne
- Key Master
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- From: Maine
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 639
Re: Dream keys
Very easy to achieve with Smith Corona typewriters from the late '50s on, using their Change-A-Type system. Those machines had one or two keys that accepted different type slugs to customize your typewriter, with two characters per slug. Square brackets were definitely available.
Short platen machines had one such key and long platen ones had two. It really had nothing to do with platen length except as a model differentiator. Sears typewriters that were rebranded Smith Coronas also had this.
= Michael
- Shangas
- Speed Champion
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- From: Melbourne, Australia
- Registered: 17-3-2013
- Posts: 298
Re: Dream keys
Dollar & pound signs.
Square brackets.
"Not Yet Published" - My History Blog
"I just sit at a typewriter and curse a bit" - Sir Pelham Grenville "P.G." Wodehouse
"The biggest obstacle to professional writing is the necessity for changing a typewriter ribbon" - Robert Benchley
- kyle k
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- From: U.S.A. washington state
- Registered: 22-6-2013
- Posts: 1
Re: Dream keys
I would want to have a macron for when i am writing latin, i use these marks on vowels to show whether they are short or long, ā ē ī ō ū i would just back up one space and i would hit the macron to acent the vowels.
- skywatcher
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- From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 737
Re: Dream keys
Greetings All
Yes it's been a while since I was here, been kind of busy as of late. Anyhow, reading some of the comments about what keys you'd like to see on a typewriter, take a look at this unit on eBay (item # 181192614737). It has degree, Pi, plus-minus, divide, square brackets, exclamation point and at least one more I can't quite work out what it is. All the best,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Dream keys
skywatcher wrote:
take a look at this unit on eBay. It has degree, Pi, plus-minus, divide, square brackets, exclamation point and at least one more I can't quite work out what it is.
I came across this in a Royal service book that I have, which shows an optional "Mathematical" typeset that was available from Royal at the time (mid-'60s). It pretty much includes everything that is on that eBay typer, and some of the other wished for keys in this thread.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
