Tuesday, September 8, 2009

No Return!

On manual typewriters there was no RETURN key. The typist had to manually return the carriage (more about that in a future post!). How did she know when it was time? A little bell would ring to tell her she was getting close to the end! The typist would have to finish up the current word, then return the page to start typing on the next line.

With the advent of electric typewriters, the RETURN key was added and used whenever the typist wanted to start this new line.

Of course, on today's keyboard this key is called ENTER - word processors don't need a hard return - the words are placed automatically on the next line. Today, ENTER is used only to start a new paragraph.

So, there are no RETURN keys - on the vintage typewriters!

1 comment:

  1. Gosh I feel old! I learned to type on a manual typewriter. LOL

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