Talk:Chinese typewriter

What this article is about
The main problem with this article seems to be that it is NOT about ALL CHINESE TYPEWRITERS EVER. Rather, it is specifically about Dr. Lin's Ming Kwai typewriter, which was technologically and culturally important, and is related to the legacy of Dr. Lin, and this particular article cites multiple relevant indepedent sources to back that up. But there is a super-set of this article for "All Chinese Typewriters ever" within which, this article should be an important, but not the only article. Cranky1000 (talk) 15:38, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

There is a guy at Standford named Thomas Mullaney. The topic "Chinese Typewriter" seems to be his whole academic life. He did a google tech talk and seems to have a lot to say about this topic. See also http://tsmullaney.com/?cat=4; http://thechinesetypewriter.wordpress.com/Cranky1000 (talk) 10:25, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

Untitled
The image File:MINGKWAI.jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check


 * That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
 * That this article is linked to from the image description page.

98.195.193.226 (talk) 02:31, 17 March 2009 (UTC)Good Grief, it does so. The picture comes from a 4-page advertising brocure that was distributed to the publc by Dr. Lin to show people what the typewriter can do. The replacement picture from WikiCommons makes NO SENSE at all. There were not "other models" of Dr. Lin's typewriters and basically the picture has nothing to do with the article.

Chinese computer input systems
There are at least two systems used for inputting Chinese characters to a computer, and which seem to use the same principles as in the Lin-Yutang typewriter. All Chinese characters can be constructed geometrically by using a limited number of shapes. The modern computer keyboards type these shapes in a particular order connected with the desired character. A number of possible Chinese characters will then show up on the screen, and a master key is used to select the desired character if it is listed. With a properly trained secretary, it is always listed.

Does anybody know if Lin Yutang influenced the development of these modern computer input systems? David Tombe (talk) 18:18, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

unsourced material removed from article
the following unsourced material was removed from the article. Get some sources before putting it back. Cranky1000 (talk)

I agree, but the way the article reads now, the only Chinese typewriter in the world was invented in the United States and that it was a failure. Surely that's not true.Marzolian (talk) 19:48, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Another kind of Chinese typewriter
Another kind of Chinese typewriter was in use in China and Japan up until the advent of the computer word processor. It allowed for all of the 30,000 odd Chinese characters to be typed, however it only immediately catered for the most common 3,000 characters. The principle behind this kind of Chinese typewriter was that a tray contained 3,000 rectangular metal Chinese type pieces slotted precisely into a grid in the tray. There was a small hole at the bottom of each rectangle in the grid to allow the type pieces to be pushed upwards by a hammer underneath the tray. The operator would then position a scanner above the desired type piece, and press the one single button on the typewriter. The hammer would come from beneath the tray and push that type piece into the scanner mechanism which would automatically lock it into place and swing it across to hit the roll of paper in the same way as in the case of an English typewriter. The more obscure Chinese characters would be kept in boxes beside the typewriter to be brought out as needs be. A trained operator would be familiar with the exact position in the tray of the most commonly used 3,000 characters and good operators were able to type around 70 words per minute. A picture of a Japanese typewriter at Japanese typewriter gives a pretty good idea of what has just been described. Prior to the second world war, the Japanese used about 5,000 Chinese characters. This was reduced to 1,850 after the war.

I was Bold
I was WP:BEBOLD and expanded the article greatly in collaboration with User:Finnusertop. He wrote about Stone typewriter. Go sign his guestbook. See my sandbox for the earlier edit history. Here is my sandbox.

Most of the issues mentioned above should now have been taken care of by me and Finnusertop. However, this article could still have some more information about typewriters in Chinese office use, and during Maoist era, and about typewriters from 1930s, 1950s and more recent decades. Sadly Thomas Mullaney has not yet released his book on the history of Chinese typewriters. Ceosad (talk) 20:25, 26 September 2014 (UTC)

Now Thomas Mullaney's book has been published, you can check it if you still have interest. 安眠3 (talk) 13:29, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

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