Category Archives: Writing
Youth Solves a Typewriter Problem
Today in 1906, the New York Times reports that “Youth says he solved a typewriter problem” by inventing the automatic carriage return. “Springs cause the carriage to slide back to starting point when end of a line Is reached,” said … Continue reading
Posted in Automation, This day in information, Writing
Leave a comment
Writers on Writing
William Faulkner I discovered writing was a mighty fine thing. You could make people stand on their hind legs and cast a shadow, and as soon as I discovered it I wanted to bring them all back. Joseph Conrad To … Continue reading
Posted in Writers, Writing
Leave a comment
The Rise and Fall of Typewriters
Today in 1829, William Austin Burt, a surveyor from Mount Vernon, Michigan, received a patent for the typographer, the earliest forerunner of the typewriter. Fifty-two years ago this month (July 31), IBM introduced the IBM Selectric, replacing typebars and the moving carriage with a spherical … Continue reading
Posted in Typewriters, Writing
1 Comment
Inventing the Modern Pencil
From Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings, quoting John D. Barrow’s 100 Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know: Math Explains Your World “The modern pencil was invented in 1795 by Nicholas-Jacques Conte, a scientist serving in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. The magic … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Leave a comment
Ballpoint Pen Patented
Seventy years ago today (June 10, 1943), László Bíró filed for a patent on a new type of pen and, with his brother György, formed Biro Pens of Argentina. While working as a journalist in Hungary in the previous decade, he noticed that the … Continue reading
Posted in This day in information, Writing
Leave a comment
Writing Systems of the World Today
Wikipedia: A writing system is an organized regular method (typically standardized) of information storage and transfer for the communication of messages (expressing thoughts or ideas) in a language by visually (or possibly tactilely) encoding and decoding (known as writing and reading) with a set of signs or symbols, both known generally as characters (with the set collective referred to as a ‘script’). These characters, often including letters and numbers, are usually recorded onto … Continue reading
The Story of Information 