Teh Tiperighter Revlooshun

This is a poem from 1920 written by D.J. Enright. It comes from a book called The Typewriter Revolution & Other Poems. I actually came across this poem in another book called Grammophon Film Typewriter (which turned out to be all in German... blast!). It seems like it really has a lot of potential though so I am going to try and track down an English version. Anyway, here is the poem. I found it quite humorous, especially when taking into consideration that it comes from 1920.


I think that this poem is a very relevant commentary even today. Not necessarily related to typewriters anymore, but more-so in word processing technologies and software. I am also reading a book right now called The Electric Language by Michael Heim. One part that I recall that comes to mind talks about how, traditionally, intelligence was largely dependent on your level of literacy - you were considered less intelligent if you possessed a poor ability to spell and write. Word processing - which spurred on in part by the evolution of the typewriter - has eliminated the need for people to know how to spell correctly and properly.

With this being said, I find it interesting - and partly humorous - that because I am completely used to typing on screen through a word processor of some sort, I find the typewriter forces me to become much more conscious of every letter that I type. In this way, I become much more aware of any mistakes in grammar and spelling. They become much more offensive and troublesome as I cannot simply hit backspace, backspace, backspace... then re-type.

Arduino 101

This comes from the Make blog. I figure with everyone moving along nicely with their objects and Patrick starting to talk about Arduino boards I should post this up. Do check it out (click this).

Words from the Make blog:

Wow! Adafruit dropped a MASSIVE amount of Arduino tutorials AND kits (beginner kits and shields). If you're interested in getting started with electronics this is one of the best ways and these tutorials are the most comprehensive online -

One of the nice things about the Arduino boards & software is they let people get started hacking electronics fast. However, I was looking for a good step-by-step tutorial that helped people with almost no experience through the first few steps of microcontroller programming and basic electronics design. At the same time, I'd been flipping through Parallax's excellent "What is a Microcontroller" workbook and decided to start writing something similar.

So check out my Arduino Tutorial page and give me feedback! Right now I've got 3 lessons up, and will try to get a another 3 out in the next week and a half.

• Lesson 0. Pre-flight check...Is your Arduino and computer ready?
  
• Lesson 1. The "Hello World!" of electronics, a simple blinking light
  
• Lesson 2. Sketches, variables, procedures and hacking code
  
• Lesson 3. Breadboards, resistors and LEDs, schematics, and basic RGB color-mixing. At the end of lesson three, you build a mood lamp!
  

Exploitation

One thing that has definitely interested me for a while is pattern making - especially through repetition of letter forms and other characters found on the keyboard. The typewriter offers an interesting opportunity to manually (as opposed to on-screen) produce these patterns through the exploitation of individual characters. I think this is the beginning of how I can start to look at the typewriter as a tool for making rather than writing. Below are just a couple of experiments.


Below: A series of alternating brackets. Play with overlapping lines and manual linespacing.


More to come.

Obsession Statement - Pg 5 / ...

So, here is my "obsession statement" - if I do have such a thing. I think the making of my obsession statement is more accurate in describing what my actual obsession (or rather compulsion?) is than what I ended up writing - but maybe the writing gets at it as well. The image posted is the 5th page / attempt at a perfect rendition of my obsession statement. As you can see there are errors within it. I have not yet been able to type a flawless page.

I've realized that with all of my talk, and thinking, about what I am obsessed with there is one major common factor across all of them: my propensity to want (or need) to do things perfectly. It is both a blessing and a curse and usually involves over-thinking things. The typewriter is a very fitting instrument for practicing the art of perfection. I find myself really having to concentrate on every letter being typed. There is no easy solution for a mistyped character (the delete button). There is no red line which magically appears underneath a misspelled word. It almost seems as if words have more personal value when they are manually typewritten.

I'll keep trying.

The Iron Whim - A Fragmented History of Typewriting

I started reading this last night. Haven't gotten too far, but it is pretty interesting so far. I actually had to get this from the Winnipeg Public Library system, as the University does not own it (and I had to get a new library card because, apparently, your card expires if you don't use it for 10 years... weird hey?). This is from the back cover:

The Iron Whim is an intelligent, irreverent, and humorous history that traces the haphazard trajectory of a writing culture and technology. With subject matter ranging over two hundred years of literature, philosophy, popular culture, and mechanical innovation, this stimulating book probes the very nature of creativity, examines how typewriting has shaped workplaces and practices, and dissects our nostalgia for a method of communicating that has all but vanished.

As I read along I will add my own insights and reflections.

Brother AX-18 Vivisection

Progress. This weekend I spent taking apart my 1987 Brother AX-18 electronic typewriter. I think I got a little too hung up on drawing pieces that really did not reveal anything to me that I could not understand without taking them off. There are a lot of lids and casings to the body that took up my time. In hindsight, I should have spent more time on the guts of the thing. Once I did get through the casing, however, I realized that it is basically made up of 4 components: A power supply. The print-head and chassis. The circuit board. And the keyboard. Here is the progress.


The Brother AX-18 before vivsection.




Keyboard Lid removed. Boring.


Paper Lid removed. It gets more interesting, I promise.



Rear Maintenance Lid removed. Don't give up yet.



Front Maintenance Lid removed.



The Body Casing removed. Finally it starts to really come apart.


Right Platen Knob. Basically this piece (as well as the following left platen knob) turns the paper feed. I know. Pretty obvious, right?

Right Platen Knob. Here you can see the gear, however, which actually interacts with a corresponding gear attached to the print-head chassis.

The half-naked Brother AX-18. Sans top Body Casing.


Here lies the Ink Ribbon Cassette. Basically a little hammer hits the daisy wheel cassette, which in turn contacts the ink ribbon - leaving the impression of the letter on the page. Once again, obvious... I know.



The Daisy Wheel. This slots into the Print-Head and is the source of the letter form. As mentioned, the hammer on the Print-Head contacts the Daisy Wheel. Essentially this is a disc of arms with heads containing reversed letter forms. These are easily replaceable and allow for font changes. This is the advantage of Daisy Wheels over tradition typewriting methods, where you were not able to change fonts necessarily.



The Keyboard half-removed. It took a decent amount of force to actually un-clip this from the bottom tray. It was hanging on for dear life. Here you can clearly see the ribbon circuit which, essentially is the keyboard, connecting to the circuit board. It is a very simple connection. It slots into the circuit board and 2 clips lock it in place.



The Keyboard removed.



The Brother AX-18 sans keyboard.


Here you can see the print-head chassis removed. You can see the ground wire at the back sticking out from the power supply area of the unit. This was really the only thing holding it back, so once that was easily off I was able to splay the unit out further.


A detail of the Print-Head and Chassis. Basically, all the Print-Head is - is a hammer. A really intricate hammer.


Detail of the gear system which operates the paper feed roller.


Detail of the Print-Head.



More to come today. I've got the Circuit Board removed from its clips, and I am ready to begin to really pull the 4 components (power supply, print-head, circuit board, input device / keyboard) out of the bottom tray.

Trying to Sleep...

So, I definitely should be sleeping. I want to be back in studio by about 9 or 10am to get to work. But in my restlessness, I stumbled across some very interesting projects through Hackaday, by Aparna Rao. There are a few very relevant / cool projects within her site. I especially appreciated her "Book of Answers" - a book embedded with circuits and a speaker to help her indecisive Mother, make decisions. Another is her "Pop 22" project. Basically, it is a project which transforms an old typewriter into a device capable of sending emails for Rao's technologically challenged Mother. Be sure to also check out her "Internet Manual" under the Ideas area. Check it out.