the finder-chart that he has pulled out of its slot, the typist 

 searches out the printed character (or pear. An experienced 

 operator will know the precise location of the /)Mr-character 

 on the chart. A less knowledgeable typist will look, first, 

 in the central section and then, failing to find the character 

 there, in one of the two peripheral sections. In either case, 

 the operator will focus on those portions of the central or 

 peripheral sections of the chart wherein are located all char- 

 acters having the radical for tree :^ (radical 75) as their 

 meaningful element. (Within the group having the same 

 /r«-radical, subclassification is based on the number of addi- 

 tional writing-strokes. Thus, the character for pear ^ , 

 with seven additional strokes, would precede the character 

 for kind, style or form ^ with eleven extra strokes.) The 

 operator then grasps the knob on the metal arm and moves 

 the entire unit in such way that the finder-needle at the end 

 of the arm points to the character for pear printed on the 

 finder-chart. By synchronization, the selector arm then lies 

 immediately above, and the ejector-pin, immediately below, 

 the corresponding piece of type for pear. 



By partially depressing the typing lever, the typist raises 

 the ejector-pin and pushes the piece of type for pear upward 

 into the waiting wrench-like head of the selector arm. 



This action locks the piece of type in the head of the 

 selector arm and, at the same time, turns it a quarter-turn in 

 counter-clockwise direction, so that the character will be 

 printed in proper orientation, that is, standing on its feet. 

 (The procedure outline here produces horizontal lines of 

 characters, reading from left to right, in Western fashion, 

 as 1-2-3. Setting a thumbscrew in the head of the selector 

 arm prevents the piece of type from rotating and so produces 

 lines of characters that still read from left to right, but that 

 lie on their sides as ■^ - fN - ro . By turning the finished page 

 of typing a quarter-turn in clockwise direction, the result is 

 a page of characters printed vertically in columns and read- 

 ing in traditional Chinese manner, from the top right corner 

 of the page to the lower left corner.) 



At the same time the piece of type is turning, the hard- 

 rubber wheel lying atop the head of the selector arm rises, 

 releasing the selector arm. Final downward pressure on the 

 typing-lever lifts the selector arm sharply upward, causing 

 the piece of type, locked in the head of the arm, to strike 

 against the ribbon and so print the character on the paper 

 behind. As pressure on the typing lever is relaxed, the proc- 

 ess is reversed and the piece of type is returned to its space 

 in the grid. The cycle now is complete, and the operator is 

 ready to repeat the whole incredible procedure for the next 

 character. 



The Commercial Press typewriter, which is capable of 

 thirty to thirty-five symbols a minute, may be likened to a 

 miniature printing press. The two other character type- 

 writers described more briefly below differ appreciably in 

 both structural and operational principles, especially the 

 method of character selection*. 



The IBM Model 



First exhibited in New York in 1946, at which time I 



observed it in operation, the Electro-Automatic Chinese 

 Typewriter was built by IBM with the assistance of Mr. 

 Kao Chung-chin, a Chinese engineer and communications 

 expert. The machine was never produced commercially. 



Structural Features 



Although not so clumsy in appearance as the Commer- 

 cial Press model, the IBM machine still is quite bulky, meas- 

 uring 24^ inches wide, 17 inches deep and 13 inches high. 



Externally, an aluminum housing leaves open to view 

 only the carriage and keyboard. The carriage, similar to 

 that of a Western typewriter, consists of a platen to carry the 

 paper and the several keys and levers for its operation. The 

 keyboard, the salient external feature of the Electro-Auto- 

 matic, consists of forty-three keys ranged in two parallel 

 rows and divided into four groups. Thirty-six of the keys 

 are numeral keys that serve directly in the typing, while the 

 remaining seven keys operate allied mechanisms, as follows : 

 543210 0123456789- 



9876543210 0123456789- 



Internally, the Electro-Automatic is distinctive and is 

 based on a mechanical principle differing entirely from that 

 characterizing the Commercial Press model, with its font of 

 2,546 separate pieces of type. The IBM model uses as its 

 "font" a drum, revolving continuously and capable of lat- 

 eral motion as well, whose outer surface carries 5,400 type 

 figures, arranged in vertical (running around the drum) and 

 horizontal rows. These type figures, which include English 

 letters and business symbols as well as Chinese characters, 

 are grouped according to frequency of use. The first group 

 of 1,000 characters is centrally located and includes 90% of 

 the characters used in ordinary correspondence and 95% 

 of those used in telecommunication. The second group is 

 comprised of some 3,000 characters normally used less than 

 10% of the time. The third group consists of characters 

 used less than 1 % of the time. This grouping serves to de- 

 crease the lateral movement of the drum, thereby increasing 

 typing speed. 



Operational Features 



The operation of the IBM model is quite simple, but for 



the average Westerner, astonishingly clumsy, for requisite 



to the operation of the Electro-Automatic is the cold-blooded 



memorization of 5,400 four-digit numbers. Although gen- 



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