Speed typing with only 2 keys (1925 AEG Mignon 4 index typewriter; no talking)

[@haelscheirs_haven]

For more info about this machine and how it works, see kzbin.info/www/bejne/opWYg4yfqq-HmsU and kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXK6k5xmlpetnbM. Also, here is typing video with another weird layout: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKPRmaaom5Z2b8k

[@xchoochoopainx]

I actually really like the idea of this layout. It's like drawing words

[@BokBarber]

"Why have many type hammer when one giant type hammer do trick?" But seriously, that's a great machine. I love it.

[@spacelinx]

Oh wow! This cool! I just randomly did an internet search for typewriters and their history. One article I read talked about index typewriters, something I’d never heard of. Since pics of them didn’t look like anything I’d seen before, a video search for how they worked led me here. Thanks for sharing this.

[@siralonbh9297]

That keyboard layout made my brain hurt

[@haelscheirs_haven]

I will soon be posting another typewriter video featuring another weird but usable layout. In the meantime, feast your eyes: typewriterdatabase.com/1937-mercedes-prima.15724.typewriter

[@catoflado4977]

I imagine that "mechanic pen" that controls the characters must run really smoothly so you can type that fast! And you must have practiced a Lot typing on this!

[@haelscheirs_haven]

Yes. It does move quite smoothly. kzbin.info/www/bejne/opWYg4yfqq-HmsU covers how the stylus transmits its motion to the rotating cylinder that prints the characters.

[@radhikasudheer]

This new Osu setup looks pog.

[@dennishamilton8009]

That is actually an awesome bit of kit haha, whoever designed that is a genius

[@sevurueva5138]

Incredible machine with an amazing font

[@Solusarian]

That script typeset looks spectacular on paper.

[@tonyvernon6503]

I just bought a Handy, a rebranded Mignon #4. It is in (mostly) good shape, I think that I will be able to get it working relatively easily once I stop working on my O'dell #2. Thank you for this, it is very useful - and congratulations on getting so fast!

[@haelscheirs_haven]

You can see the links in the pinned comment for my videos which go into detail on how the machine works.

[@kokomo7807]

I can say that the Mignon 4 I found in an antique shop truly inspired me to collect typewriters. Though I temperarily stop collecting due to economic recession in my country I do still have passion for it and will surely come back soon.

[@dairyking98]

What a fantastic machine, although unconventional by today's standards

[@iannickCZ]

Very nice font type.

[@donaldlampert331]

Just need to practice with my Mignon, and get this fast ……. Good job!

[@chriswriter84]

My god it's a wonderfull trypewriter!!!!

[@lavorarestanca]

That's a very interesting machine, thank you for the video. Is this layout useful for anything compared to the usual keyboard?

[@haelscheirs_haven]

I believe this layout mainly optimizes minimizing the average distance you need to move the stylus to get to the next character; if a word contains mostly adjacent characters on the keyboard/index, you can print up to five of them per second, but if for example, you have to move the stylus from 'b' to 'y', you may be limited to a rhythm of four characters per second. It wouldn't be so useful in an actual keyboard you could operate with all of your fingers.

[@nnthayer]

A remarkable video. I’m aware of the Mignon and other index typewriters, but videos of them in operation are few and far between - and I was always skeptical about the possibility of achieving even halfway decent speed on any of them. Happy to be proven wrong. How long did it take you to master this machine?

[@haelscheirs_haven]

I interestingly enough find it more satisfying to type on this Mignon than my Blickensderfer as in kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKPRmaaom5Z2b8k, though the Mignon is more tiring. The Blick can be driven faster than the Mignon, but here I am typing on both machines at similar average rates. Both machines took a few pages of typing to get to that level. The first page I wrote on the Mignon took a grueling 2 hours to fill, whereby I've brought that down to 30 minutes.

[@transhah5444]

Didn't the typical type writers exist then?

[@haelscheirs_haven]

Certainly. This model of index typewriter just happened to be one of the few if not the only to survive this late into typewriter history.

[@ErikBruchez]

Yes they did. The first successful typewriters on the market, the Sholes and Glidden (and even the Malling-Hansen Writing Ball if you want to count it as successful), had keyboards. The Sholes and Glidden in particular had a QWERTY keyboard - which is why that layout has continued to this day. It is only later, in the 1880s and 1890s in particular, that an explosion of so-called index typewriters happened. The reason for that was that regular typewriters were very expensive, while index typewriters were much cheaper to make. As toys, or just to write a few sentences, index typewriters found a niche for a while. But they didn't come first on the market. In fact most of the "weird" typewriters came way after the Sholes and Glidden, which was very much like a modern typewriter in most respects (despite being an "upstike" machine).

[@my_negative_world]

Perhaps the time has come for a Frolio/Scripta/Gundka typewriter. They were a really interesting cheap alternative to full keyboard typewriters of the 1920-30s.

[@BobbiMac]

That’s an amazing machine and your typing looks so fast. Is it as fast as conventional typewriting? Do you know what your wpm is?

[@haelscheirs_haven]

This footage features writing at upwards of 5 characters per second (around 60 WPM) as an absolute maximum practical writing speed before you face indexing accuracy or mechanical jamming limitations, which at least in another video appears to be the speed that AEG (which became Olympia) themselves advertised back in the day. This is about as fast or slightly slower than machines like the Blickensderfer, Hammond, or Bennett "single element typewriters" which I also go into detail on in my channel. "Conventional typewriting" on typebar typewriters can with excellent technique reach between 10 to 12 characters per second, or 120 to 144 WPM. Albert Tangora back in the day was able to sustain an over 140 WPM average with very high accuracy including all the delays from manual carriage returns and page changes; see his fingers in kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYPHl2agrLV2gKs, or my slower and much less accurate ones in kzbin.info/www/bejne/pZrclHWClNV0qqc. Electric typewriters which provide powered assistance for the typebars can reach upwards of 180 WPM or more, as can be seen in kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGTIloeiaM2rfbM.

[@SteveMacSticky]

Wow

[@rmcar549]

It's so strange bc it doesn't even look like the pointer is touching the pad. It looks like he's swiping on a modern android! Wonder if that's where the concept came from.

[@Kerrfuffle]

The way these are designed is much more insane to me that the keyboards of today like who even thought those mechanisms through. What a headache.

[@jusufagung]

It's more like the predecessor of the Selectric

[@haelscheirs_haven]

Indeed, though that title goes more so to the Blickensderfer (of which you can find a detailed video on my channel), the electric version of said typewriter being exceedingly rare.

[@KlingonCaptain]

So that's what a 1% keyboard looks like...