Mysterious keys (7) : @

Younger viewers may wonder why a typewriter keyboard has @ on it*. Surely typewriters predate electronic email and even social media where the @ is in very common use? Well indeed that is true they do, despite this typewriters have included @ since the late 19th century almost universally. This is because the @ symbol has another important use which predates computer communications by many decades.

@ is an abbreviation for "at a rate of". As we saw earlier in this series (the fractions episode especially), typewriters in their heyday were working machines not something poseurs and hipsters fart around with using them for nonsense (such as creating blogs about them). One major real use for typewriters was to create and fill in forms and invoices and other business communications. Here the @ symbol was very useful indeed. One example might be an invoice where you would list the cost of a widget such as "5 widgets @ £10 each". Nowadays of course typewriters can also type someone's social media handle...

* This post is inspired by a question on Stackexchange asking why typewriters have the @!

The Telephone at Work

A wonderful short instructional film from 1972 on how to get the best use out of your telephone in a work situation and not, as happens in the opening minute, the phone making you so enraged that you end up shooting it (which lets face it, isn't very British!) 

The film covers basic phone etiquette (which is mostly about just being polite, something a lot of people still need to learn). The film includes a whole host of GPO 746 dial phones though also look out for a cheeky pair of trimphones too. It is a wonderful little slice of the early 1970s British office life. Look out for Leslie Schofield in the workshop.

PT800 ribbon

The last typewriter for now to receive a new ribbon is the Boots PT800. This is a standard Seiko built machine so the ribbon installation was fairly painless. The typewriter doesn't work that well, i thought it was maybe just a bit stiff before but now it seems there may be more issues. It does work though requires a bit of patience.

The humble date stamp

The "paperless office" has never really existed. Even with all sorts of new fangled electronic forms and PDFs (even worse, PDF forms - a horror i sometimes have to build in my day job) there is still a place for paper. There is also still a place for the humble date stamp. It is a simple and effective way to mark... well the date on something, such as documents which have arrived. I had to get one of course, just in case i ever open my own library. It does take a little practice though to get the stamp correct...

Typing on a Royal 200

Another typing video.

Commodore 776M

Naturally the Silver-Reed calculation machine is the most impressive calculator we have but not the one we actually use, that one is the Commodore Business Machines 776M. This is a typical calculator from the mid-1970s (indeed it was probably built in 1974) when mass production and a reduced number of components meant that the cost of pocket calculators was dropping and would stay low.

The 776M has a Commodore GRBP-67 integrated circuit and has the basic four arithmetric functions plus a percentage function and a basic memory function. The display is a seven segment red LED which gives a pleasing retro effect. The calculator is powered by a 9v battery (though can be powered by an external charger if available).

Underwood ribbon

The next typewriter to receive a new ribbon was my Underwood 315. Replacing the ribbon was slightly more involved than with the Seiko built machines though nowhere near as messy as with the Smith-Corona GT! The typewriter works well and with the new ribbon has a nice clear typeface.

Xeroxlore

As we've said before, office technology like the typewriter and fax machine have always ended up be used (or is that abused) for purposes far beyond those originally intended, such as making art and the production and dissemination of jokes. Naturally the humble photocopier can also be included in this, especially as it could mass produce the "offending" items.

Photocopiers were used to circulate jokes and bogus communications in the same manner as fax machines, this being sometimes called xeroxlore or photocopylore if you wish to avoid a lawsuit. Copies would often be mild acts of subversion against the organisation and how it operated. Others might just poke fun at the futility of the average office job or even life itself!

Fuji-Xerox Copier, photo from Wiki Commons & Flickr by leighklotz

Number 25

Time to add a typewriter to the collection! The latest machine, and twenty fifth overall, is this fine Silver-Reed SR100 Tabulator. The typewriter is in superb condition, clean and seems to work flawlessly. The ribbon even has some life left in it!