In the last class we discussed the reasoning behind the current keyboard layout as we know it today, and how it was developed to prevent jamming up the arms on mechanical keyboards. But this post will share a video that could make you think it might not have been so necessary in the first place.

In the last year of the 1970s and through the first few years of the 1980s, there was a television show called ‘Real People‘ that attempted to showcase ordinary people with extraordinary stories or talents. Even my uncle Herb made an appearance on the show!

But the person we want to address today is none other than Ron ‘Typewriter’ Mingo, who at the time held the record for the fastest typist in the world at 160 words per minute, and this was on  purely mechanical typewriter! Below is the segment from Real People showing him typing in front of a class, supposedly to inspire them to do well in school. He even manages to work in the manual carriage return (that is an actual, literal carriage return). I’m just amazed he didn’t jam up the typing arms of that machine.

Also, Tom Hanks is well known to have a massive mechanical typewriter collection, and even wrote them an ode in the New York Times. That’s dedication!