Typewriter Talk / IBM with 10-key

**Posted by SoucekFan** 12-6-2016 00:35:06

I just saw this online, and was wondering, on this IBM Selectric (Model 72?), how does a user selected the 10-key and the extra characters that are grouped three on a key on some of the keys? I don't see a number lock or any type of control key.

**Posted by colrehogan** 12-6-2016 02:07:22

Maybe it has something to do with that Index key on the upper right?

**Posted by Repartee** 12-6-2016 06:54:44

Does this IBM has an alternate life as an adding machine?

I'd like to think so, and considering the virtuoso mechanism already included in every Selectric this would be the over the top encore where Paganini comes back on stage and plays his most fiendishly difficult variations with the violin upside down!

**Posted by M. Höhne** 12-6-2016 10:00:56

SoucekFan wrote:
I just saw this online, and was wondering, on this IBM Selectric (Model 72?), how does a user selected the 10-key and the extra characters that are grouped three on a key on some of the keys? I don't see a number lock or any type of control key.

The special keyboard is for use when special typeballs are mounted. Some typeballs will have the alternative characters in the positions to print when the appropriate key is struck; the operator has to remember which typeball is mounted in order to predict which character on the keytop will print. Hence, you could have a "bookkeeping" typeball if you do a lot of that kind of work. I don't know the names of the special typeballs.

Of course, a mechanical machine like this cannot have a control key like you are used to on your computer; it just doesn't work like that.

The "Index" key produces a line feed. Dunno why they labeled it "Index"---index is such a vague or ambiguous term while "line feed' is very specific and clear. True, a line feed does kinda index the paper but it's just so vague and technical....

**Posted by SoucekFan** 12-6-2016 10:50:09

Thanks for the info, M Hohne. That is interesting. That makes so much more sense than what I was imagining. I had been thinking, incorrectly, that it would work like a number lock on a computer. I had not considered that it was specific to the type balls. That makes sense.

**Posted by Gabby Johnson** 12-6-2016 10:58:05

It seems pretty straight-forward to me. If you need to enter a lot of digits, just caps lock and go crazy.
(The fastest keyboarding I ever saw was a bookkeeper at the end of an auction tallying up the total sales on an adding machine -- blazing fast!

**Posted by Repartee** 12-6-2016 12:18:10

Out on the World Wide Web (crawled by special fact checking bots nightly so that all information may be trusted) I found the claim:

"There were elements made that were designed to have an arrangement like that of a keypunch; I think they were mainly used, though, not for OCR data input, but to train keypunch operators without having to buy a keypunch for everyone in the classroom." geekhack post

The layout of the IBM 026 keypunch keyboard from a trusted source confirms this

columbia.edu computinghistory

The keyboard had separate numeric and alphabetic shift keys. So how would this work in training practice? So far as I know the only reason to put mixed cased text into a program is if you are quoting a text string, so I speculate keypunch operators were trained to write programs in lovely COBOL style all upper case - simulated by lower case - and simulated using the NUM key with the left shift key. Using the special keypunch-simulating-type-balls this would produce numbers from the numeric keypad.

**Posted by M. Höhne** 12-6-2016 12:24:06

Gabby Johnson wrote:
It seems pretty straight-forward to me. If you need to enter a lot of digits, just caps lock and go crazy. (The fastest keyboarding I ever saw was a bookkeeper at the end of an auction tallying up the total sales on an adding machine -- blazing fast![)]

Which version seems pretty straightforward to you---the numerals in the top row for which you need the caps lock or the ten-key pad in the middle of this keyboard which emulates an adding machine and uses a specific typeball? Your post isn't clear. Plus, not having that special typeball in hand, we don't know whether or not the caps lock is needed for the numerals or the letters in that ten-key area. (Yes, I know that 12 keys are other-colored but the format is referred to as a ten-key pad.)

Also note that these typewriters do not do any arithmetic at all. They do not replace adding machines. They are just useful for typing a lot of numbers efficiently. Note that many of the "extra" characters are math-oriented, useful for writing mathematics texts.

**Posted by M. Höhne** 12-6-2016 12:32:49

Repartee wrote:
.... snip ....
The layout of the IBM 026 keypunch keyboard from a trusted source confirms this

.... snip ....

Thanks for the research, Repartee, but this diagram is nothing at all like the keyboard in the OP's post. I stand by my assertion that SouckeFan's picture is of a typewriter more widely used in general business and/or academia, and although it might have been used sometimes to train numerical-entry operators, that was not its main purpose.

Anyone here remember actually having used one of these? How did you use it?

**Posted by M. Höhne** 12-6-2016 12:35:13

SoucekFan wrote:
Thanks for the info, M Hohne. That is interesting. That makes so much more sense than what I was imagining. I had been thinking, incorrectly, that it would work like a number lock on a computer. I had not considered that it was specific to the type balls. That makes sense.

Thanks, SoucekFan. I love making sense. Maybe everyone here will look over their collections of typeballs to see whether we have some of these.