erally alien to Europeans, such massive memorization is inti- 

 mate part of the Chinese and Japanese tradition. For 2,000 

 )ears Chinese scholars committed Confucion classics to mem- 

 ory, and even today Chinese telegraphers transmit memo- 

 rized numbers assigned to characters rather than the char- 

 ters themselves. The Chinese engineer, Mr. Kao, planned 

 on a four- to six-month period for the memorization of the 

 5,400 characters and the numbers assigned to them. 



Grouped according to the three usage categories de- 

 scribed above, each of the 5,400 symbols has a designated 

 four-digit code number. From here on the actual typing 

 procedure is very simple, for it involves only the depression 

 of four keys, one in each of the four groups. The six keys 

 in the upper left group determine the thousands digit, the 

 ten keys in the lower left group determine the hundreds 

 digit, the ten keys in the upper right group, the tens digit, 

 and the ten keys in the lower right group isolate the unit 

 digit and, in addition, operate the typing mechanism. The 

 first two of these number-keys define the lateral location of 

 the character on the drum, and the second two, the vertical 

 location within one line running around the circumference 

 of the drum. 



Once the desired symbol has been mechanically located 

 the typing mechanism prints it by the action of a hammer 

 that slaps the paper against the type face. As the drum is 

 in almost continuous motion, however, synchronization is 

 not always perfect, and as a result, the printing sometimes 

 is uneven, with either top or bottom of the symbol improp- 

 erly printed. 



The Electro-Automatic prints in either horizontal lines 

 (Western style) or vertical columns (traditional Chinese 

 style), and in the hands of an expert ojjerator the machine 

 theoretically is capable of typing 50 symbols a minute. 



The MiNGKWAi Typewriter 



The Mingkwai Typewriter was demonstrated early in 

 1947 by its inventor, Lin Yutang, the well-known Chinese 

 author and educator. As with the IBM machine the Ming- 

 kwai differs from the Commercial Press model in both struc- 

 ture and operation. It is in respect particularly to method 

 of character selection that the Mingkwai has a major ad- 



vantage over the other two tyjjcwriters. 



In outward appearance the Mingkwai is more nearly 

 comparable in shape and size to a Western typewriter. 

 Thus, a hood covers the mechanical heart, and keyboard 

 and carriage are patterned after the Western original. The 

 machine measures 14 inches wide, 18 inches deep and 9 

 inches high. 



Diagram of the "Magic 



Eye" viewer on 

 the Mingkwai typewriter 



Despite their similarity in placement and arrangement 

 to those on a Western typewriter the keys of the Mingkwai 

 are labeled in quite different manner. Thus, there are sixty- 

 four round keys, eight square ke>s and several levers. By 

 use of shift levers each of the round keys represents several 

 alternative symbols. Most prominent on the machine, how- 

 ever, is a viewing device that protrudes from the hood just 

 above the keyboard. As we shall see, this device, the "magic 

 eye," performs a vital function. 



As devised by Lin the interior of the machine has some 

 8,000 type figures mounted on octagonal bars rotating 

 around the axes of six cylinders. The Mingkwai is said to 

 be capable of typing 7,000 whole characters and, by com- 

 bination of component elements, a theoretical total of 90,000 

 "manufactured" symbols. 



Operational Features 

 As will be recalled, the Commercial Press typewriter 

 utilized two principles in selecting one of the 2,546 avail- 

 able pieces of tyf)e, one, frequency of use and, two, the tra- 

 ditional radical system of organization. The IBM model 

 also utilized frequency of use, but dispensed with the radical 

 system and, instead, relied upon memorization of four-digit 

 numbers assigned to each of the 5,400 symbols on the surface 

 of the revolving drum. The Mingkwai machine operates on 

 an entirely different scheme, that of breaking up the char- 

 acters into component parts. The principle thus is similar 

 to that which underlies the traditional method of dividing 

 characters into phonetic and radical or meaningful elements. 

 Instead of classifying the characters by their 214 radicals, 

 however, the inventor groups them by their top and bottom 

 parts. According to Lin, who refined his system of classifi- 

 cation over a 30-year period, 36 tops and 28 bottoms ex- 

 haust the possibilities of top and bottom components to be 

 found in the corpus of Mingkwai characters. To operate 

 the machine one therefore only has to be able to recognize 

 in any character the presence of one of the tops and one of 

 the bottoms, an easy matter even for those only slightly 

 versed in Chinese. Once these 64 components are part of 

 one's experience, the actual typing procedure is admirably 

 simple, for it consists only of depressing three keys for each 

 character typed. 



Page 14 OCTOBER 



