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The EkaPad is a tiny typewriter!

Some history  and discussion of the typewriter and its keyboard

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Typewriter Information

  • History of Typewriters: Science Museum, London 
  • History of Typewriters: Mavis Beacon 
  • History of Typewriters: And as collectables
  • History of Typewriters: Pictures with time line
  • Links to typewriter web sites
  • Reviews of books about typewriters
  • Dvorak design with discussion of path dependence

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History of Typewriters: Science Museum, London

The Science Museum in London, England has an excellent exhibit of typewriters. Download to view this collection taken from their web site. typewriter_history_sciencemuseumlondon.pdf    472 kb

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History of Typewriters: Mavis Beacon

This extended article contains lots of good information, particularly about Scholes' work and early American typewriter efforts. Mavis Beacon is a made up person used to touch typing training software. This material is no longer available but the history is worth keeping. typewriter_history_mavisbeacon.pdf    1.8 Mb

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History of Typewriters: And as collectables

Reminiscences of a collector.   typewriter_history_collectable.pdf    104 kb

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History of Typewriters: Pictures with time line

Lots more pictures of early typewriters organized as branches of a tree.   typewriter_picturehistory_website.pdf    2.7 mb

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Links to typewriter web sites

These sites have many interesting photos and some history articles of typewriters

A wonderful web site with some of the best typewriter specimens and extensive history:
The Virtual Typewriter Museum   http://www.typewritermuseum.org/index.html

A typewriter collectables site   http://www.typewritercollector.com/


The Tompkins County NY Historical Typewriter Collection     http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/ErgoPROJECTS/DEA4702005/HCTwebsite/index.html


http://www.1st-in-typewriters.com/
Graphical typewriter-geneology tree with photos  http://web.archive.org/web/20060921073538/www.precision-dynamics.com.au/typewriters/history.html


Strange and beautiful world of antique writing machines    http://staff.xu.edu/~polt/typewriters/index.html

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Reviews of books about typewriters

The Iron Whim  A Fragmented History of the Typewriter. By Darren Wershler-Henry

Eight reviews. Excellent photos and fondness for the Underwood typewriter in the last review/comment. 

typewriter_bookreviews_theironwhim.htm   2.4 Mb

Sexy Legs A sample from the book. Mainly about how to advertise a typewriter.   typewriter_legswtypewriter_booksample.htm   352 kb

Quirky QWERTY, the story of the keyboard @ your fingertips; Torbjörn Lundmark, University of New South Wales Press, Ltd. 2002, ISBN 0 86840 436 5

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Dvorak design with discussion of path dependence

Interesting historical perspective, with good information about the development of the Dvorak keyboard.

liebowitz_thefableofthekeys_1990.pdf   356 kb

typewriter_history_dvorakitems_68pgs.pdf   928 kb

These are three articles discussing whether or not the Dvorak keyboard design would ever be more than a sideline idea for typewriters. The economic historical approach discusses "path dependence" and how it might have affected sales of Dvorak keyboards. 

liebowitz_reasonmag_typingerrors.pdf   192 kb

liebowitz_debunking_bookreview.pdf   56 kb

liebowitz_econ_pathdependence.pdf   220 kb

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Revised 22 June 2010

 

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