Изобретения и изобретатели. Учебно-справочное пособие для изучающих английский язык - страница 3

The first typewriter had no shift-key mechanism–it wrote capital letters only. The problem of printing both capitals and small letters without increasing the number of keys was solved by placing two types, a capital and lowercase of the same letter, on each bar, in combination with a cylinder-shifting mechanism. The first shift-key typewriter–the Remington Model 2–appeared on the market in 1878.

Although still popular with a few writers and in less developed countries, the typewriter has largely been replaced by the word processor application on a personal computer.

arrangement расположение

carbon paper копировальная бумага

carriage каретка

carriage return mechanism механизм возврата каретки

character знак

duplicate дубликат

escapement спуск каретки на позицию, равную одному знаку

font шрифт

handwriting почерк

impact удар

key lever клавишный рычаг

keyboard клавиатура

layer слой

line spacing межстрочный интервал

ribbon лента

shape форма

shift-key клавиша в пишущей машинке для смены регистра

size размер

typebars литерный рычаг

word processor текстовой процессор

insert вставлять

manufacture производить

mark отмечать, ставить метку

press нажимать

rename переименовать

strike ударять

print печатать

Complete the table using information from the text

a. Write a paragraph about the design of the typewriter and about changes in the design. Use the table above as a support.

b. Answer (in written) the question: “What kind of a typewriter do you prefer?”

a. If you think you could invent the new type of typewriter what would it be?

b. Why are the keys on the keyboard of a typewriter arranged the way they are?

c. Do you think the invention of a typewriter affects our lives today.

The invention of the modern computer keyboard began with the invention of the typewriter.

A few key technological developments created the transition of the typewriter into the computer keyboard. The teletype machine, introduced in the 1930s, combined the technology of the typewriter (used as an input and a printing device) with the telegraph. Elsewhere, punched card systems were combined with typewriters to create what was called keypunches. Keypunches were the basis of early adding machines and IBM was selling over one million dollars worth of adding machines in 1931.

Early computer keyboards were first adapted from the punch card and teletype technologies. In 1946, the Eniac computer used a punched card reader as its input and output device. In 1948, the Binac computer used an electromechanically controlled typewriter to both input data directly onto magnetic tape (for feeding the computer data) and to print results. The emerging electric typewriter further improved the technological marriage between the typewriter and the computer.

Earlier computer keyboards had been based either on teletype machines or keypunches. There were many electromechanical steps in transmitting data between the keyboard and the computer that slowed things down. With VDT (Video Display Terminal) technology and electric keyboards, the keyboard’s keys could now send electronic impulses directly to the computer and save time. By the late ’70s and early ’80s, all computers used electronic keyboards and VDTs. Nevertheless, the layout of the computer keyboard still owes its origin to the inventor of the first typewriter, Christopher Latham Sholes who also invented the QWERTY layout.