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cstross · 2012-04-22 · Original thread
My impression (based on long acquaintance with a whole bunch of them) is that most "older content creators" either write long-hand then copy-type on a word processor, or adopted word processing as their primary input mechanism with shrieks of glee in the 1980s. The ones who still insist on using a manual typewriter are eccentrics, or jerking your chain.

Manual typewriters were pigs. They take a lot of effort to operate and produce very uneven impressions on the page. Because it's a mechanical lever system, they have a very long key depression -- typically 2-3 centimetres. Ever trapped your pinkie under the (sharp) rim of an adjacent key? If you're not a very precise typist it happens every few minutes on a manual typewriter. Because of the effort involved in hammering the keys, and the fun of trying to clear the frequent key jams you experience if you type too fast -- the type arms need to have time between keystrokes in which to fall away from the platen; if you type too fast you end up jamming them together -- it's very difficult to attain the same typing speed on a manual typewriter as on an electric model of any kind (except for the early, insanely slow, daisy wheel machines) and you end up with sore, inky fingers.

NB: Your go-to reference for the history of typewriters is "Century of the Typewriter" by Wilfred A. Beeching: http://www.amazon.com/Century-Typewriter-Pb-Wilfred-Beeching...

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