Just Finished Reading: The Iron Whim – A Fragmented History of Typewriting by Darren Wershler-Henry (FP: 2005) [290pp] 

Back in my mid-teens (so 50 years ago!) I fancied myself as an author. I wrote short stories and sent off more than a few to a handful of SF Magazines I regularly bought. Nothing was published (not surprisingly) but one response I got back was “For God’s sake get yourself a typewriter. Which I did. Unfortunately for me (and maybe posterity) I bought myself an electric beast that was rather large, rather heavy and smelt of heated oil whenever I used it, which after a while gave me a headache. It wasn’t long before I gave up on it and gave it to my sister. 

Typewriters have always been more than mere keyboards – although try to convince anyone of THAT these days. Typewriters have a mystique, something almost otherworldly about them. It's not that surprising that the simple image of a typewriter is SO iconic and that, at least in large part, is where this rather odd but often fascinating book ‘comes from’. Being a history of a device, no matter how iconic, there’s inevitably time (a few chapters at least) for the actual development of the typewriter and the interesting fact that no one actually ‘invented’ it. The machine itself is the result of several people/companies trying to solve various problems and eventually being mashed together into the device we know today. Also, quite naturally, is discussion of why exactly we use the QWERTY keyboard which has proven to be rather less efficient that it could be (oh, and apparently it wasn’t designed that way to stop key clashes at high speed. Speed typing came *after* the solidification of QWERTY). Regarding speed – it's interesting that in the 1920’s they regularly held typing speed trails with significant prizes. The problem was the time it took to agree on a winner which tended to bore the (presumably paying) audience. 

One of my favourite parts of the book was Chapter 22 which began “Sooner or later, anyone writing about typewriting has to deal with the monkeys.” Incredibly the old adage of monkeys typing Shakespeare (or the author of choice at the time) has actually been tested – including by real monkeys typing (or more often defecating) on real typewriters. A more scientific (and no doubt hygienic) series of experiments were undertaken by computer programmes proving that the age of the Universe itself is not long enough for any number of monkeys to produce any work of literature – classic or not. 

FULL of interesting little quirks and odd historical events this was a fun read and would, I think, seriously warm the cockles of anyone with any love at all for typewriters in any of their many changing forms. Definitely one of my strangest reads of the year and recommended for anyone looking for an off-the-wall read or those interested in the cultural impact of this iconic device.