Electric Typing Time (ca. 1951)

[Music] [Music] [Music] I'm Jane Marshall I'm a secretary I guess the only way in which I might differ from the average secretary is that my typing assignments are a little more varied than the usual and the fact that our office is equipped with electric typewriters in the six months I've been on the job I've had all kinds of assignments business correspondence office papers statistical reports multitudes of carbon copies even stencils but nothing like the one they've given me today breaking in a new girl to take over my job Grace Landon a friend of mine who had just finished a business course was taking my place first thing I had to do was put her at ease I acquainted her with some of the kinds of work she'd have to do the typewriter she'd be using electric all of Grace's learning and training had been on the manual typewriter I assured her she'd find the electric typewriter easier to operate and after a day's typing on the electric she wouldn't be tired worn [Applause] out I started her off with a couple of simple fundamentals like the right posture in the [Applause] chair feet flat on the floor one slightly ahead of the other when she brought her hands up to the typewriter her fingers fell naturally on the home Keys familiar ground what I wanted Grace to understand was that from now on electricity would do most of the work electricity popped the type bars to the paper snapped the carriage back gave the same type Impressions regardless of touch did all the tiring jobs Grace's train fingers responded quickly to the Compact and comfortably level keyboard of the electric typewriter the finger touch carriage return key is a big Improvement doing away with the need for taking the left hand off the keyboard to throw the carriage instead a touch of the little finger on the key and electric power speeds the carriage back with automatic accuracy and the Tab Key also operated by flick of the little [Applause] finger no need for Grace to hold down the key until the carriage comes to a complete [Applause] stop the Tab Key clears in an instant and is set just by placing the carriage at the desired position and depressing this key with a touch the tabs can be cleared all at once in a single motion the backspace key of course operates with the same rhythmic touch as the alphabet Keys then there's the shift key familiar keys to any typist except that on this typewriter they work by electricity I showed her the automatic ribbon rewind which makes ribbon changing easier and cleaner too and how margins are set by a single key on the keyboard how the ribbon control lever gives three writing positions on the ribbon then there's the impression indicator the muscle of the electric typew which makes it possible to adjust the type blow for one or many copies Grace realized immediately that the feature Keys enable her to type without having to take her eyes off the copy or hands off the keyboard the touch carriage return was the only key that disconcerted Grace a little habit made her reach out and grab for that lever until she realized it was a lot easier and faster just to touch the carriage return key as I watched Grace gaining confidence in Mastery I felt that she had learned the first point I had been trying to get over that she had a new power at her command the power of electricity which does the work she was proud of her first try we both knew she could do better though that meant a workout on drills I always start my working day with a few warm-up drills [Applause] I begin with what we call the experts Rhythm drill important for building coordination and Rhythm especially in the little fingers typing on the electric typewriter has often been compared with playing the piano the drills are like the scales The Pianist uses to warm up I found typing alphabetic sentences a good accuracy Builder every finger and every letter gets a workout and for finger dexterity and speed I wind up with an acceleration drill the old familiar now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their [Applause] party I knew that Grace was impressed with the way I made those keys fly and she understood the point I was trying to get over I had matched the power of electricity to the power of efficient technique skill plus the electric typewriter this is the combination that makes expert typists then I turned the typewriter over to Grace as she took hold my thoughts went back to the time not so very long ago when I was just a beginner in typing School at my school the students had quite a break we learned to type on electric typewriters as many tests have proved learning on the electric takes much less time than learning on the manual machine most students completing a full Year's training in about one semester not that the basic methods of teaching change or the textbooks our teacher followed most of the regular procedures only on the electric type brigher we learned faster mainly because we didn't have to bother with carriage return or stroking drills Larry the boy sitting next to me and I decided to be friendly Rivals see which of us would get to be the most proficient typist first lesson number one of course was learning the keyboard and those all important electric service control keys the carriage return Tab Key backspace which we were going to find out as we progressed make all the difference in the world in speed of learning and typing learning the numerals was easy and fast because of the compactness of the electric typewriter no long uncertain stretch from home keys to numeral roll because electricity was doing the work for us we didn't have to waste time learning the correct touch or stroke instead we concentrated on ease of typing our fingers seemed to Glide over or play the keys but Larry my friendly rival was certain that in order to type you had to hit the keys pound them and that's where he was wrong the first thing I did when typing was mentally point my finger at the key for which it was reaching always is trying to touch the key squarely in the center with a quick touch in which the finger relaxes almost the instant the stroke is on its way no finger muscle was needed to activate the keys it was easy to relax the fingers after the keys had been played it seemed like in no time at all we had learned the fundamentals some of us a little better than others now we concentrated on building up speed in the next few weeks we went through practice routines and drills of every kind and description began to consider ourselves pretty good typists almost perfect in fact we were due for a [Music] surprise just about the time we were patting ourselves on the back Miss Stella pajunas world's typing Champion came in to show us how she won her title on the IBM electric typewriter typing at the rate of 140 net five stroke words per minute for a continuous hour we greeted her politely but after all we had become fairly proficient on the electric typewriter ourselves I'll admit I was a little doubtful about how much I could learn from Miss pajunas especially as she began and the demonstration by showing us how to hold the hands and arms naturally in the proper position of the electric typewriter and informing us of something we learned the first day in class that finger action does most of the typing not the hands or forearms when she demonstrated the light stroke and quick release of the keys in a way I had never seen it done I really began to pay attention she demonstrated a special tabulator key drill for us one that would increase our skill on statistical typing with a speed I never thought possible our eyes could hardly follow the lightning action of her little finger operating the pad key when she told us that the Mastery of the electric control mechanisms like the tab key and the carriage return key was essential in building speed I said to myself here's a girl who knows what she's talking about she said she often practiced speed sentences like now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party over and over again to get the Knack of making Fast finger strokes and never slowed herself down by hugging the guide Keys her fingers always hovered over the keyboard for free and easy finger [Applause] action in slow motion photography it would look like this by this time she had us and naturally I had to be one of the first to move in closer for a better look she gave us a fascinating demonstration of typing Rhythm showing us how easy words and phrases are typed faster than [Applause] others to develop this typing Rhythm Miss funis constantly practices typing easy words and difficult words from correspondents [Applause] this particular drill enables faster than ever and difficult words words that are awkward to stroke are typed with more confidence and speed [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] now came the really big moment Miss pajunas was going to give us a speed demonstration on the IBM electric typewriter but first came some warm-up typing at various speeds she started slowly at 40 words a minute picked up speed fast now 80 words a minute in less time than it takes to tell she was typing at at 100 words a minute 125 words a minute faster and [Applause] faster we were seeing for ourselves how intelligent practice and drills repeated over and over again give the fingers dexterity and Rhythm helping to make accurate expert typus the champion was now ready for her speed test quickly she attained top speed Championship speed as we saw how skillful typus could become on IBM electric typewriters we knew why Cella pajunas was the unchallenged world champion [Applause] the Swift flicking action of that little finger fascinated us [Applause] [Applause] as we watch Stella pajunas in open-mouthed amazement we realized that here before our eyes were matched the utmost in human capability and the tops in typewriter efficiency see Miss pajunas did 185 words a minute we gave her the kind of Ovation a world champion [Applause] deserves seeing for myself what a champion could do on the IBM electric typewriter was an incentive to perfect my typing technique which helped me get my job at this office and after 6 months of promotion now Grace was where I had started not long ago as I cleared the desk Grace's desk I told her that I was pleased with the way she had taken over but if she needed help I'd be close by my new job was Private secretary to the vice president my boss gave me a warm friendly welcome and I had a feeling I'd be very much at home here and happy if there were only but there was no need for that if I saw what I'd been looking for and I sat down at my new electric typewriter as with an old friend l [Music]