# Chinese typewriter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2000, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-typewriter/41195 "2000-11-14T20:16:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![holdenmagroin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5daacb/32.png) [@holdenmagroin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holdenmagroin)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2000, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-typewriter/41195/1 "2000-11-14T20:16:25Z")
For the love of God, finally a web site that can (hopefully) answer a question that has burdoned me for years…What does a Chinese typewriter look like? As far as I know, the Chinese write with symbols that represent words, so does that mean the typewriter has like 100,000 keys? ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2000, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-typewriter/41195/2 "2000-11-14T20:19:01Z")
**Cecil Adams** on [How can the Chinese use computers, since their language contains so many characters?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_177.html) ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2000, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-typewriter/41195/3 "2000-11-14T21:12:54Z")
Well, Cecil’s column referred to _computers_ and not to typewriters. Typewriters have been replaced by computers pretty much everywhere but there was a time, BC (Before Computers) when people actually used them. In the book [Speaking of Chinese](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393300617/qid=974235552/sr=1-8/102-9159912-9248120), page 126, you can see a photo of a chinese typewriter. It explains that the typewriter was never widespread in China (for reasons which are obvious) but they did exist. > [@](#): > > a Chinese typewriter, shown in fig 6, is an ungainly contraption resting on a large, flat tray of type slugs containing about two thousand characters. Weighing about 70 lbs and measuring 2’ in length, 1.5’wide and '1 high it is hardly portable. … A print mechanism rides between the tray and the enormous platen, around which the paper is rolled. The typist must align the print mechanism over the tray of slugs, then strike a print handle. A small arm in the print mechanism reaches down for the desired character, lifts it up to strike the paper through an inked ribbon, then returns the slug to the proper place in the tray. The machine can type both vertically and horizontally… > > The average typewriter contains about 2000 characyters yet about 9000 are needed for most typed material so extra trays of characters are kept close at hand… > > Characters are arranged by radical. When a typist needs a character that is not in the basic tray he can drop the required character in an empty space on the edge of the tray or he can change trays… > > The fastest typist can average about 20 chars/min. Typing is closer to typesetting… Well, that’s as much as I’m willing to do. I’f you’d like to know more, get the book. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2000, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-typewriter/41195/4 "2000-11-14T23:03:35Z")
This reminds me very little of the fact that for many years and quite possibly even to this day, the world’s most complex mechanical device was a hot lead Chinese linotype machine. Extra points for anyone who gets the title line. ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2000, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-typewriter/41195/5 "2000-11-15T06:47:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zenster \* > \*\*Extra points for anyone who gets the title line. \*\* First of all, you misspelled “ETAOINSHRDLU.” The answer is, you can’t spell etaoinshrdlu. A Chinese keyboard isn’t like an English linotype keyboard. There is no single keypress that produces a character, chinese keyboards use a complex system of combination keypresses, it usually takes 3 or 4 keys to produce one kanji. You can’t just do what linotype operators did, zip your finger down the keyboard row that read etaoinshrdlu to produce a slug. BTW, I dispute that the world’s most complex mechanical device was the chinese lino. I betcha the Strasbourg Clock (which will keep accurate time and date until the year 10,000AD) is much more complex. But this is a topic for another thread. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2000, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-typewriter/41195/6 "2000-11-15T12:02:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zenster \* > \*\*Extra points for anyone who gets the title line. \*\* Cecil covered this in _More of the Straight Dope_ [What’s the origin of the mysterious phrase “etaoin shrdlu”?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_262a.html) – you can probably send him his prize via the _Chicago Reader_. Slug’s idea of what a Chinese typewriter looks like is online at [http://www.straightdope.com/art/1995/951208.gif](http://www.straightdope.com/art/1995/951208.gif) , although this may or may not be historically accurate.