This isn't really "writing systems," and I apologize to those who
are not interested in the technical aspects of their production.


Nicholas Bodley skribis:

>
> By any chance, do you have the keyboard layout for the
> Paige Compositor, that incredible machine which Mark
> Twain financed? I read fairly recently that it had (apparently)
> a single row of keys, maybe 110 of them or so, and an
> implication that one could type whole words with little hand and
> finger movement. I'd dearly love to know what the letter layout is!

Legros and Grant, "Typographical Printing Surfaces", London,
1916, has several pictures of the Paige Compositor. A photo
of the keyboard shows that it has five rows and twenty-two
columns of keys (twenty-one on the bottom row). The arrangement
appears to be:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V
fl j c b q u l y , . # J C B Q U L Y 1 5 9
W
ffi m t h i r d s ' - # M T H I R D S 2 6 0
X
fi p w e o n k ff : ; # P W E O N K & 3 7 Y ..
` z v a f g x ffl ? ! # Z V A F G X $ 4 8 Z

where I have used "#" to indicate that a specific size of space was
released by that key. The capitals on the top row were for setting
small capitals in type.

Compare that to the Linotype keyboard:

e s c v x ffl ? - 1 7 E S C V X
t h m b z # # # 2 8 T H M B Z
a r f g fi , ( ) 3 9 A R F G oe
o d w k fl . | . 4 0 O D W K ae
i l y q ff : ` ' 5 $ I L Y Q &
n u p j ffi ; ! * 6 .. N U P J --

The Monotype system used the standard QWERTY layout.

--Ph. D.