Chapter 36 covers chording keyboards. The first one ever? 1857’s Permutation Typograph, a pocket-sized typewriter with a unique mode of operation – six “finger-pieces” (today: “keys”) meant to be pressed simultaneously, and a simplified alphabet to match them.
Pocketability was one of the selling points. You could, in words of one newspaper, “write without using one’s eye – in the dark, in the [train] cars, standing in a dense of and jostling crowd, and without attracting notice.”
The same article claimed “a single day is ample time for one of ordinary tact to master the art […] Some of the letters vary in their form from those in common use; but the variations are so slight that, with a very little practice, the writing is read with the greatest ease.” Let’s see if you agree!
Type using your keyboard as you normally do, and get to know the Permutation Typographer’s unique alphabet.
Type by pressing a segment key one at a time – U, I, O and J, K, L – then press Enter to move on to the next letter!
Type by pressing all the matching segment keys together, like you would on the actual device. Note: This requires a keyboard that supports multiple key presses (“N-key rollover”). You can test this by pressing UIOJKL at the same time, and seeing whether ▔▁▏▕v^ appears.
Type by pressing all the matching segment keys together, like you would on the actual device, without any hints or preview! Note: This requires a keyboard that supports multiple key presses (“N-key rollover”). You can test this by pressing UIOJKL at the same time, and seeing whether ▔▁▏▕v^ appears.