Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 31, 2004

An Underwood 5 typewriter

A typewriter is a mechanical, electromechanical or electronic device with a set of "keys" that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on paper. In the late 19^th and the start of the 20^th century the device operator was sometimes also called a "typewriter", though it then became more common to call the person a "typist". A typewriter has a keyboard, with keys for the characters in its font. The method by which the typewriter actually marks the paper now varies as greatly as types of printers do, but until the end of the 20^th century it was by the impact of a metal (or, later, metallized plastic) element against an "inked" ribbon which caused ink to be deposited on the paper. (more...)

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