A quote broadly attributed to Tom Robbins says, “On the typewriter you discover out who you’re.” Or within the case of 1 distinctive machine that’s been lacking for many years, the identical could possibly be stated for locating one, too.
In January, Jennifer Felix and her husband Nelson have been sorting by objects in Jennifer’s grandfather’s basement in New York. They stumbled upon a typewriter like they’d by no means seen, with Chinese language keys. Nelson posted a number of images in a Fb group known as What’s My Typewriter Value? “From my web search it seems to be to be a Chinese language-made MingKwai,” he wrote. “I simply can’t discover any ever offered right here within the States. Is it even value something? It weighs a ton!”
Resounding enthusiasm rippled by the feedback, because it turned out the machine was certainly a MingKwai — named for being “clear and quick” — the one one in every of its type on this planet.
Lacking for greater than half a century, the invention prompted a mess of messages from folks world wide wanting to buy the machine or place it into museums. It’s now within the assortment of Stanford Libraries.
Invented in 1947 by author, translator, and linguist Lin Yutang, the typewriter was the primary compact idea to function a keyboard that would produce the Chinese language language’s 80,000-plus characters. He achieved this by making a form of sort-and-search methodology.
“Lin broke down Chinese language ideographs into extra basic elements of strokes and shapes and organized the characters in a linear order, like an English dictionary does with alphabetic phrases,” researcher Yangyang Chen describes in Made in China Journal.
The keyboard consists of 72 choices, which could be mixed to create one’s desired characters. Chen continues:
By urgent one of many 36 high character part keys and one of many 28 backside part keys concurrently, the machine would discover as much as eight corresponding characters. The person might see the candidates by a particular viewing window on the machine, which Lin known as his “magic eye,” and choose the proper one by pushing the respective numerical key.
The Carl E. Krum Firm constructed the one recognized prototype of the MingKwai, says Stanford Report. Lin was unable to drum up sufficient business curiosity to provide the costly machine, so he offered the prototype and rights to Mergenthaler Linotype Firm, the place Jennifer Felix’s grandfather was employed as a machinist. The typewriter by no means entered manufacturing, and it will definitely disappeared—till now.
Stanford plans to make use of the distinctive machine for analysis, reveals, and educational packages. Regan Murphy-Kao, director of the East Asia Library, says, “I couldn’t be happier to have the chance to steward, protect, and make this extraordinary prototype accessible for scholarship.”
