1 - Mockingbird
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- From: Japan
- Registered: 19-1-2017
- Posts: 26
Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
A week into using a typewriter I'm really enjoying this process of writing.
I'm getting used to pressing shift+8 for an apostrophe,
but can't help but think how easier it would be just to press a normal key for one.
Anything out there with a more modern keyboard layout?
- TypewriterKing
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- From: DeepInTheHeartO', Texas
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Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
Yes--I have seen the layout in question on IBM electric typewriters built as early as 1949. Royal electrics, could be earlier, but I have a 1959 model so equipped. Olympia typewriters and other foreign machines are more likely to be outfitted this way also--as well as more modern American machines. In fact, I daresay I have seen more typewriters equipped with the " on top and ' on bottom at the right hand side of the keyboard. Also, on the top half, the - and _ are built onto one key.
Underwood--Speeds the World's Bidness
- M. Höhne
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Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
Mockingbird wrote:
A week into using a typewriter I'm really enjoying this process of writing.
I'm getting used to pressing shift+8 for an apostrophe,
but can't help but think how easier it would be just to press a normal key for one.
Anything out there with a more modern keyboard layout?
Sure. Lots of 'em. Just carefully check the sellers' pics and get one you like. They'll probably be from the 1970s. Smith-Corona Galaxies are a good bet and you might get one with a numeral "1" too. They're common and cheap and good quality so long as you stay away from the '80s.
- Mockingbird
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- Posts: 26
Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
Ahh I see!
My problem was I was looking only at Olympia and Olivetti's perhaps!
- •
Thread Starter- Repartee
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Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
I think you will find that if you stick with one typewriter for a while you adjust to any minor difference in layout. The problem arises when you switch between machines - that₵s when you begin typing cents signs for apostrophes and reaching off to the right somewhere for the return key on manual typewriters.
The keyboard I'm using right now has a "return" key, complete with a u-turn arrow, which might be taken as an anachronistic nod to the electric typewriters. I guess that's why the two month time horizon language pedants have gradually changed it to Enter, not to confuse the children in their Keyboarding classes. I remember keyboards with the even more anachronistic CR for "carriage return" - oh, the horror of it all! Skeuomorphs enrich our language and anybody seriously confused by them is going to trip while trying to tie their shoes and chew gum at the same time and may be left behind in a safe place while the rest of us move ahead.
"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
- TypewriterKing
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- From: DeepInTheHeartO', Texas
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Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
I've used electric typewriters with return keys and bars on both sides of the keyboard (Underwood electrics and first-generation Royal electrics). I've used typewriters, manual and electric, with back spacers on either side of the keyboard. I've even used my 1913 Oliver--a 3-banker. It is odd using it because the alignment of the keys is not the same. But, by the time I have used it long enough to get used to that alignment, and go back to the more conventional keyboard, I get thrown off again. But, it doesn't take too long to get "back in the saddle," as we say down Texas way.
Underwood--Speeds the World's Bidness
- KatLondon
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Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
I'm sure I have typewriters with apostrophes in different places - but then, maybe I'm not. No time to get them out and check, but I have to say the shift thing doesn't bother me... It's like the underline which is always over the 6 - nice just knowing where to find it.
- JoeV
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Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
I once had an Olivetti Lettera 22 with British style keyboard that had apostrophe lowercase.
- KatLondon
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Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
I have a Glasgow-made L22 with a UK keyboard - the apostrophe is over the 8. I think the thing that decides something like this is the number of fraction keys. I'm always delighted if I find one that has things like accents etc rather than those.
- Fleetwing
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Re: Any typewriters with apostrophe not on a shift key?
I once had an Olivetti Lettera 22 with British style keyboard that had apostrophe lowercase.
What is a "British-style" keyboard? (Other than showing pounds rather than dollars) I am very interested in knowing that some typewriters were made with the apostrophe in lower case, like a computer keyboard. I have never seen one, or seen pictures of one. I checked out SMC Galaxies on the TWDB, as suggested, but didn't see anything there.
