Chinese mechanical typewriter
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I didn't think one could exists, yet many apparently do. This article focus on a specimen called the MingKwai. The inventor Lin Yutang figured out a way to mechanically use 72 keys to type out thousands of Chinese characters. (The biggest Chinese dictionary I am aware of catalogs 50k+ characters; most people believe that about 3k+ characters are enough for day-to-day use. So a typewriter would at need to handle 3k+ characters to be practical.) The inventor bankrupted himself developing it after failing to sell it to Remington. It's recent been sold to Stanford's museum.
One of these days, I hope I will get to see and try my hands on a mechanical Chinese typewriter.
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YouTube video introducing/explaining the MingKwai typewriter.
Link to video
The YouTube video predates the discovery of the real prototype, so it describes what the YouTuber and his team learnt and recreated using the patent record of the MingKwai typewriter. -
YouTube video showing the real prototype, but unfortunately not in action.
Link to video -
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