Basic Typing, Part I: Methods (1944)

the typewriter has greatly influenced the business Commercial and economic progress of the nation today typewriters enable women and girls to perform military and Industrial Services as important as those performed by men through the courtesy of the Smithsonian institution we show the development of the typewriter starting with the Bert typographer of 1829 next the sches machine of 1868 the Remington of 1873 this is the cigraph made in 1883 next the Hammond typewriter made in 1884 about 1900 the Smith Premiere appeared followed by the Blick anderer in the same year this is the first portable a Corona and this is the Bennett pocket typewriter in addition to these standard machines now in use modern business has created needs for special typewriters such as wide Carriage machines justifying typewriters with which to make straight right margins book type adjusted spacing machines which turn out copy like this special forms calculating machine typewriters and card punch typewriters which turn out cards like this today millions of typists at their machines speed the business and War activity of our nation their task is Complicated by a typewriter shortage and a shortage of experienced Personnel unfortunately many typists cannot work rapidly and accurately to turn out more and better work on the office Front beginners and average stenographers and typists must acquire Superior usable typing skill this film will demonstrate and explain the techniques essential for Superior typing one way to learn a better or the best way of doing anything is to watch and analyze the skill of an expert if your skills are patterned after those of an expert you can be a superior typist Miss Lenor Fenton who won 11 International Awards and set eight International records in typing and machine transcription will show us the typewriting skill which enabled her to set these records in order to become an expert typers it is essential to master the correct typing technique how you type is more important than what you type if you master the correct method of typing your typing will continue to improve but if you learn to type perect copy slowly with one finger you will continue to be a one finger typist if you want to become an expert typist learn to work like one you should know how to operate all Mak of typewriters let's look at the various machines this is the Remington nois list the Burrows the royal the Underwood the Woodstock DLC Smith the Remington standard the electromatic all of these machines are alike in many respects where there are differences I will Point them out on the individual machine the First Essential of proper typing technique is good posture for good posture your chair should have a firm back support it should support your back comfortably it should be low enough so that your feet rest flat on the floor one foot ahead of the other to give you proper balance if your chair is too high poor arm position slumping round shoulders and flat chest result if your chair is too low you must reach up which is tiring your desk should be rigid and of a height that permits working Comfort sit squarely 9 or 10 in from your typewriter a little to the right of the center of your machine let your upper arms hang freely and comfortably neither too far forward nor back nor out relax don't be stiff and tense your elbows should be just below the level of the space bar more typ of fatigue is caused by unnecessary tension and waste motion than by anything else of course this is tiring your forearm wrist and back of hand should slant upward parallel to the slant of the keyboard keep your hands and fingers in a natural easy working position drop your hands into your lap and relax look at your hands when you walk rest or sleep your hands do not look like this or this but like this without changing the position of your hands and fingers place your hands on the keyboard fingertips down wrist flat that's your typing position with your fingers on the second or guide row of keys your wrists should be comfortably down and in line with your forearm Palms close to the keyboard and frame this position enables your fingers to reach easily over the keys and eliminates tension you should have almost no movement in your wrist and forearm recopy easily without I strain head erect chin up if you do much typing some form of copy holder is useful this surface keeps the copy at right angles to my line of vision both the top and the bottom of the copy are equally distant for my eyes the real secret about motion is to use as little as possible do the necessary motions well eliminate the unnecessary ones with your forearms and the back of your hand parallel to the slant of the keyboard typing motions are confined to your fingers some typus use these finger motions or these their fingers travel miles through the air and unnecessarily use much energy every typing day these useless motions give the impression of great speed but in reality they waste time cause errors and slow down the typist this of course is the keyboard This row of keys is called the home Row the Four Keys on the left of the home roll a s d and f are the guide keys for the left hand while the Four Keys at the right of this row semicolon L K and J are the guide keys for the right hand these keys are struck by the fingers of your left hand these by the fingers of your right hand each finger strikes certain Keys as Illustrated in the fingering chart of your instruction book all your finger motions are learned in their relation to the guide keys on the home roll acquire the field for f r F4 k i K9 d e D3 j n and so forth your stroke should be definite light quick and even hit the centers of the keys the keys should be struck with the rounded tips of your fingers if you strike the keys with your fingernails you are apt to have aching fingers or chipped nails if you want to become a good typist it will be advisable to follow a conservative nail style stroke the keys with your fingers curved when you strike upper or lower row Keys return the fingers quickly to the home row don't let your fingers cling to a key like this don't slur your motions from key to key keep at the start hit each key just as fast as you will when you are a good typist but have long even pauses between Strokes during these pauses you think and plan the next stroke a person who Strokes keys this way will never be a good fast typist until she changes her stroking form you see there are no pauses no spare time between strokes but a person who starts stroking this way has considerable spare time between Strokes later the spare time is cut down more Strokes are made per minute and this is the rate still later it becomes this finally there is no Spare Time Left between strokes and the person is typing as fast as he or she can exercises will develop your key stroking to develop your precision and rhythm strike the home row Keys alternately from the outside in and then out again later you will be able to speed this up like [Applause] this to develop your finger agility and control use two fingers of each hand to strike the keys on the three rows in an alternate figure eight pattern later you will be able to speed up this exercise this exercise can also be done with the middle two fingers and with the two end fingers learn to gauge your touch or stroking so as to produce copy of an even Blackness this is the mark of a good typist look at your type sheet your should not look uneven like this neither should your periods and other punctuation marks cut through the paper like this on the electromatic the tip bars are operated electrically first you start the motor by pushing this switch then strike the space bar several times to see if your motor is running if there is no Carriage movement you'd better check the electrical connection the motor turns this power roll which operates the type by turning these cams all type impressions are mechanically made uniform regardless of how hard you strike the keys a light touch on the keys is all you need be sure to shut off the motor when you stop typing for any length of time most people do their space bar stroking with the right thumb left-handed people may use their left thumb however do all your spacing with one thumb hold your thumb naturally not here but here and stroke the space bar with the lower side of your thumb when the shift key is depressed your typewriter prints capital letters and the special character above the number and punctuation Keys when using the shift key with the left hand keep your f finger on the home key when your right hand is used keep your J finger on the home key so that your guide positions are not lost at first shift evenly in three counts shift key down key stroke shift key up later with experience you can speed up the action this way remember to start this way 1 2 3 1 2 3 if the shift key is not pressed all the way down on manual machines cloting capitals will result avoid these incomplete strokes and pour timing of your three count shift motion and floating capitals will be eliminated to write a number of capital letters in succession press down the shift lock key this shifts the type in some machines and raises the carriage in others and locks it so that only capital letters and uppercase characters will be written to release the lock press down either shift operated by the motor requires only a light touch on the shift key on the Burrows the operation is identical to back space use your little finger on this like this additional back spaces frequent use of the backspace key for striking over lightly struck letters hit poor stroking form and waste time and don't backspace to strike over incorrectly struck letters those are errors which you should not have made and if made should be erased neatly on the electromatic the space key is operated electrically requires only a light touch the tabulator key is operated with the little finger of your right hand without taking your eyes from the copy the key is held down until the carriage reaches the set position on machines equipped with bar tabulators indent by stroking the tabulator bar with the first finger of your right hand on the electromatic the tabulator key is on the left it is only necessary to touch the tabulator key you need not hold it down until the carriage stops the carriage return lever is usually at the left this lever turns the carriage and at the same time operates the line space mechanism so that the paper is set for a new line on manually operated machines learn to return the carriage with a quick circular movement of your left hand avoiding unnecessary effort and lost motion learn to judge how hard to hit the carriage return lever so that the carriage Returns the whole way without banging against the margin stop that was not hard enough that was too [Music] hard that was better your hand should drop from the lever when it is about in line with the left frame of the machine and should be back on the keys when the carriage reaches the right stop [Music] now watch this in slow motion for additional line spaces after the carriage has returned select the carriage return turn L as often as required on the electromatic machine The Carriage is returned by touching this key with the little finger of your right hand the Burrows works in the same manner as the carriage Returns the paper is automatically Advanced for the next line if additional line spaces are required on the Burrows or the electromatic touch the carriage return key lightly as many times as necessary now let's see about paper insertion this is the paper table this is a paper guide this is a paper bail and this is the platin the paper guide can be moved to any point on the paper table its position in relation to the carriage or line scale is determined from this scale on the paper table LC Smith Remington Underwood and Woodstock machines have similar scales the paper table on the electromatic and Burrows machines do not have line scales therefore the position of the paper guide is determined by inspection the paper rests against the paper table and the paper guide as it is fed into the machine the paper bail holds the paper close to the platin this prevents paper drumming keep the paper from flapping and makes your type impression sharp and even these rubber rolls should divide your sheet in even thirds otherwise this may happen if you turn your paper back the paper feed rolls are out of sight under the platin these rolls and the platin feed paper into the machine and hold the paper in position to insert paper rapidly arrange it so it can be handled easily pick up the sheets with your left hand fingers above and your thumb Below near the middle of the left edge of the sheet place the sheets on the paper table with the left Edge against the paper guide and the top Edge firmly touching the feed roll with your right hand give the plattin knob a rapid twirl and turn the sheets to the writing line as you let go of the platin knob bring your right hand forward and with your right thumb move the paper bail in place so that the paper is held firmly under the paper bail you can do this in five counts one 2 3 4 5 now watch the counts and motions blend into one continuous action let's try it on a machine with a different kind of paper bail when you use a carbon pack be sure to use smooth carbon and insert the pack squarely in the machine if you don't this may happen this means wasted paper and lost time improper feeding also means crooked paper when this happens use the paper release lever which releases the pressure on the feed rolls and permits the paper to be adjusted line up your paper with the paper guide then turn the paper down and check it with the alignment scale the paper release lever is always back of and inside the platin knob and projects upward like this the electromatic however has the release lever at the left be sure to use the paper release lever when you take out letters or copy this is not advisable it bothers other people wears the line space ratchet and gears causes carbon paper smears and rubs the paper sizing into the platin making it glossy and causing paper slippage later the carriage can be moved to the right or left by holding the platin knob with your fingers and pressing the carriage release lever with your thumb machines have two Carriage release lever one at the right and one at the left when you understand the basic technique the next most important thing is intelligent and purposeful practice