Typewriter Spacebar History
Why the spacebar on the keyboard is a bar? Was there typewriter with space key instead of a bar?
I asked a keyboard history expert Marcin Wichary, who is a programer who wrote the Google pacman doodle, and is writing a book on typewriter/keyboard.
And, here's his spectacular answers.
quote:
the typist suggested that two space keys be installed, one at each side of the keyboard, and given lips projecting inward, to make them easier to hit.
Densmore liked this idea so well that he wrote repeatedly to Milwaukee demaning that it be put into effect. Accordingly, Sholes directed Schwalbach to fashion the key buttons with lateral extensions, but when Glidden saw them he saked: “Why not join the two and have a single flat piece extending all the way across?” Thus originated the space bar …
[the typewriter and the men who made Them By Richard Nelson Current.]
Typewriters with Non-Spacebar Space Keys
Upcoming Book on Keyboard
Marcin Wichary is writing a book related to typewriter and keyboard.
He regularly tweets gorgeous photos of exotic typewriters and old computer keyboards i've never seen before.
2023-01-31 Follow Marcin Wichary at https://twitter.com/mwichary
