The Good Old Typewriter

     The typewriter was invented in the 1860s, after initial and primitive machines and varied prototypes were presented, and it went through many innovations since then, resulting in several types and designs. It was created as manual or mechanical, and in the early and late 1900s respectively, the electric and electronic models were introduced as well.

     I started working in an office when I was 16 as a typist, and the typewriter continued to be my working companion through some of the following years as an executive secretary, until I had a computer to use. Twenty three years ago, when I started working as a freelancer translator at home, I used a typewriter as well. In those days, personal computers were rare and an expensive luxury.

     We had courses for typists, and typists were wanted and praised for their typing speed. It was awesome to have a typewriter and to use it, though we can’t compare all the resources we have now with the word processors. It’s even funny to think about the “tricks” available to erase the mistyped letters or words. We had the eraser pencils and varied erasers that were not so helpful at all. We had that white correction fluid to cover the mistyped letters and a little white dry corrective strip to type again above the letters that have been typed by mistake. Results were not so good. Not to mention on the carbon copies… Finally, an electronic typewriter design with correction technology included was created, affordable mostly to companies.

     So, in terms of work production, of course, now we are much more advanced. We don’t even worry about mistyping anymore, because we can easily correct it, though the typing speed is still important. And the “QWERTY” keyboard is the same, naturally. It was established as the general standard keyboard for typewriters and word processors, though its layout has variants in some languages. So, the transition from the typewriter to the word processor was easy enough to typists and welcomed.

     Translating with a typewriter was a challenge, because once the text was typed, changes were difficult, and the same applied for writers. Now, with the word processor, I can translate a book and review it and easily change necessary things on the translation as many times I want, and I can write my articles just as easily.

     Maybe one day, word processors will be obsolete too, and everybody will simply have to talk to a machine, so it will produce typing through their voice, or something like that. I hope not (Unless in cases such as those in which this technology is already being used to help disabled people.) Because we can’t stop using our hands, or we risk atrophying them through evolution. I love to write with a pen, and I do it whenever I have the chance, and I enjoy typing on the word processor with all my fingers. Not only with the thumbs, as we do now on mobile phones and other small electronic devices.

     Technology is most welcomed, but it must be always used to help man, not to substitute him (unless in too dangerous situations), and not to incapacitate him in certain aspects.

        Anyway, back to the typewriter, it certainly has that nostalgic note to me. I actually still have one small typewriter from the good old times that I keep as a kind of relic.