TYPIT® - Special Typewriter Symbols
January 10, 1964 Electronics Magazine

January 10, 1964 Electronics [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Electronics, published 1930 - 1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

If you are typing on your computer or phone (which is actually more of a computer than a phone) and you need to create a character other than the standard keyboard set, most programs provide a means to access extended characters either with a menu selection or an ability to enter ASCII extended character set codes into the source code. At most, it takes a couple additional keystrokes (assuming you know how to do it). Back in the days of typewriters, the task was nowhere near as easy. Some manufacturers of typewriters had replaceable balls for allowing a variety of typefaces and fonts, often including one with special science and engineering characters. Those required the typist to reserve space on the page for the characters, swap out the ball, then go back and fill in the blanks. It was tedious and error-prone. There is often a noticeable shift in the character baseline compared to all the rest in the line. The Mechanical Enterprises company produced an add-on gadget called the TYPIT that needed to be attached to the typewriter and allowed interchangeable character die to be quickly inserted and removed as the need required. More than a thousand characters were available.

See page 7 of this document for a little more info on TYPIT.

TYPIT® Ad

Gentlemen:

TYPIT® is the perfect way to type any technical, foreign or numerical symbol -- easy as π. Over 1,000 symbols like to choose from. A standard typewriter is all you need. It is clean, inexpensive and fast

Type Any Symbol perfectly in 4 seconds

Write today for free catalog

TYPIT® manufactured by Mechanical Enterprises, Inc.

3127 EJ Colvin Street, Alexandria, Va.

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