As we have seen earlier, there are a number of different ways which typewriter manufacturers denoted a key as being for margin-release, to let the margins be overrided. Here are two more variants.
The Triumph-Adler Tippa uses a simple double-ended arrow to show that the margins can be exceeded. A nice solution though perhaps some ambiguity for new users.
The Adsit Graduate though has decided to keep it as simple and straight forward as possible and just mark a key with M-R!
Now this is not a mysterious key to everyone. The sign is often included on a Mac keyboard, though PC keyboards i have and use do not seem to have it. Not all typewriters have this sign either, but what is it? The section sign is used to reference individually numbered section or paragraphs of a document, often used with legal documents. Thus a reference to section 6 in a document may be written as §6. Double it up if you want to refer to multiple sections, for example §§2-5 means sections 2 through 5.
Below is the section sign on my Triumph-Adler Tippa.
As we saw earlier in this series, the margin-release key allows you to override the margin stops on a line, handy if you just need one or two extra characters to finish a word. However, there is no standard way to represent this function, Olympia used four dots on the Olympia SF Deluxe which isn't very descriptive but i suppose once you know what it means...
In this series as well as examining keys which typewriters have and computers do not we also look at the opposite. We have already established that many typewriters, usually small portable ones, did not have a key for the number 1. Therefore, as it is common for the exclamation mark to share the number 1 on computer keyboards, it should be no surprise that many typewriters also did not have a way to type !
So, how could angry letter writers of their day make their points without liberal use of the exclamation mark? Well there was a clever way to cheat. Unlike on computer screens, on a typewriter multiple characters can be printed in the same location. So to create a ! you simply type a full stop . then backspace then type a dash '.
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 @!
These are only really mysterious keys if you live in somewhere like the UK perhaps but my Triumph-Adler Tippa has some keys for use in German language typing. The extra language keys mostly use the keys often used for fractions on other typewriters. The typewriter also does not have a QWERTY layout as Z and Y have been swapped (so it is a QWERTZ typewriter instead!) It would be nice to add some more non-English typewriters to the collection.
While a typewriter keyboard may lack many keys common on the average computer, there will usually be one thing the typewriter has that the computer keyboard lacks : fractions. Some typewriters had multiple keys dedicated to fractions (with two fractions sharing the typebar). So, why is this?
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| Brother Deluxe 800, many fractions |
It is probably due to the use of imperial measures and amounts. Typewriters were, of course, working machines often used for filling out invoices and order forms not poncing about in hipster living rooms. While any fraction can be expressed using the slash key between two numbers (for example 1/2) it may be considered more space efficient and neater to be able to type ½ instead with one key press. It especially is more time efficient if you have to type a lot of them!
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| Litton Imperial 201, not quite as many fractions |
The euro, the currency of most of the European Union, went live in 1999. In 2002 physical money appeared and began replacing the likes of the French franc and German mark. You would therefore imagine that the euro postdates the typewriter age by quite some margin. And you would imagine wrong.
My KOFA 300 typewriter has the euro symbol on it! Typewriters continue to be made in China to the present day and the KOFA came from such a factory some time in the early twenty first century. It was listed on eBay as "vintage" natch.
The margins on a typewriter stop you from typing off the edge of the paper. The margins are usually set using a pair of sliders (called margin stops) at the back of the carriage. You would set these taking into account where the paper is loaded and how much space you want either side of the text on the page. Generally, you want a reasonable bit of a margin either side of the text (at least a centimeter) to make your document look a bit more professional and also for ease of handling. Below is one of the margin stops on a WH Smith Grey Fox, notice also a scale for precise measurement!
But what if you needed to override the margin stops? There are occasions when you may need to type in the margins, for example in an academic work with numbered paragraphs for referencing purposes. In this case you use the margin-release key which helps the carriage pop over the limits set by the margin stops. What is written on the margin-release key seems to vary between typewriter manufactures (some just have "M-R" on it). Below is the key on a Silver-Reed SEVENTY, the design is pretty descriptive!
Someone more used to a microcomputer keyboard than a typewriter, will find the inclusion of various symbols on a typewriter somewhat mysterious or confusing, as we are exploring in this series. They may find what is NOT included even more mysterious. Many typewriters, especially portables such as my Silver-Reed SEVENTY (as shown below) do not have the number 1!
Space was a premium on a typewriter keyboard. Unlike a microcomputer, each key cannot have extra characters and symbols mapped to it after the fact, you are largely stuck with what you have when the typewriter was bought (though the typewriter could be modified if your need/budget was big enough).
With limited space, especially for hammers, the number 1 is an easy one to miss out even though you would think it would be pretty fundamental. This is because a lowercase l works pretty well as a 1. You can also use a capital I perhaps though a lowercase l more looks the part. Not all portable typewriters lack a number 1 but many do.
If you are used to modern microcomputer keyboards, with over a hundred keys, then a typewriter with about half of that will seem quite odd. Many keys you may take for granted on a microcomputer keyboard do not exist on a usual typewriter, plus there are plenty of keys you'll never see on a computer too as this series will explore.
An example is the bullet point key which my Silver-Reed typewriters both have. A standard bullet point key on a microcomputer keyboard would probably be a good thing considering the mess Word makes out of them.
