colrehogan wrote:

Have any of you noticed yourself (hands, wrists) getting tired when typing? Is it limited to a specific machine? Is it related to your posture/position while typing? Any thoughts?

The short answer is yes, it's your position or posture. Here is the long answer . If you are going to type for anything more than a short time then how you sit at  your typewriter is very important. I learned to touch type long before computers arrived and it was drummed into us at school. Your posture will also affect speed and accuracy. In the UK girls would leave school at 15 or 16 years, having done a commercial course and get a job as a copy typist or shorthand/typist. Life in a typing pool at work meant driving an office typewriter from 9 am to 5 pm for 5 days a week. This was before the invention of RSI or repetitive strain injury so position was everything. The position of the typewriter is also important, often the machine will overlap the desk by an inch or so and this was normal. A petite teen has to get to all the controls easily and quickly and typing errors with multiple carbon copies to correct doesn't bear thinking about apart from the fact that on many forms and accountable documents errors were not permissible.

New typewriters usually came with an instruction book with instructions for the correct position for typing as did most books on learning touch typing. There are some good guides on Youtube about this and also some really bad ones. The US Navy training film is good but it was made in 1944 and does drag on a bit. It's also worth looking at some old pictures of typing pools, school typing classes and you will get the idea. You can download manuals for free on the net as well.

The typist's chair is adjustable for height and usually the back rest too. At school we each had our own chair in the typing room adjusted for each of us and our names were written on it. At home for most of us we have to make do with what is available. I normally use a writing desk and a nice comfortable chair which is adjustable for height and backrest. That's not to say I don't break all the rules and type with a portable on my lap when I am in the great outdoors for a short period but I am not as flexible as I once was.
Why not have a look at this training film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvUxizk1x3c

Last edited by retro (20-5-2015 15:45:30)

It does depend on the machine. And I have a friend who got RSI from a typewriter, back in the day, but I've also noticed that I think I get it more from computers. I hypothesise that on the typewriter you use your actual muscles more; RSI is about tendons, isn't it.

My setup here is variable and far from ergonomic, ranging from a too-high desk to a school chair/school desk arrangement, with an adjustible chair in the middle...