Selectric Typewriter conversions

From: John Lawson <jpl15_at_panix.com>
Date: Tue Feb 4 10:42:00 2003

On Tue, 4 Feb 2003, John Allain wrote:

>
> Agree completely. I took one apart years ago and deep
> inside were two compound lever assemblies, which could
> sound complicated, but what they did was find a kind of

  This arrangement is called a whiffletree, and has been in use since
Antiquity - often to evenly distribute the tractive effort of teams of
draft animals. Also, pipe organs used them as a binary-to-analog
convertor, turning the small motions of several wind pouches into a
smooth-ish mechanical motion, eg. for swell shades, etc.

  The Selectric was elegant as hell, but VooDoo nonetheless.

Cheers

John
Received on Tue Feb 04 2003 - 10:42:00 GMT