Let Me Fill up Your Friends List Some More
Here's something interesting: A Japanese typewriter:
I've read of them before, but I've never seen what they look like. Apparently you have to move the pointer until it points to the character you want, and then when you press the hammer down, an arm comes up, lifts a piece of type out of the tray at the back, and strikes the paper, setting the type back down when it's done. I can't quite make out the name on the front, but if that's a Nippon brand typewriter (and I suspect it is), then it has some 3,000 characters, which was considered only sufficient for shorthand, compared to the 30,000 that the company said were needed for normal writing, but the number of kanji in use has decreased significantly since that machine was made. For reference, Japanese schools only require 2,500 kanji, with (I think) about 60 or so extra being used mostly for names. These 2500 kanji are all you need to read a newspaper. There are also the kana and romāji, which all together adds up to about 3,000. Also, in the pictures I've seen of people using it, they all seem to have extra pieces of type lying around in piles next to them, so maybe you can switch them if you need a different character. And now that I think of it, that's probably what's in that pot next to it.
And there's also a different kind that has a roll instead of a flat chart. You turn it to the row you want and slide the pointer horizontally to the proper character, and otherwise it works the same way.
Actually, I'm tempted to try to find one of these, because it's just really cool. But I'm sure they're rare and expensive.
I've read of them before, but I've never seen what they look like. Apparently you have to move the pointer until it points to the character you want, and then when you press the hammer down, an arm comes up, lifts a piece of type out of the tray at the back, and strikes the paper, setting the type back down when it's done. I can't quite make out the name on the front, but if that's a Nippon brand typewriter (and I suspect it is), then it has some 3,000 characters, which was considered only sufficient for shorthand, compared to the 30,000 that the company said were needed for normal writing, but the number of kanji in use has decreased significantly since that machine was made. For reference, Japanese schools only require 2,500 kanji, with (I think) about 60 or so extra being used mostly for names. These 2500 kanji are all you need to read a newspaper. There are also the kana and romāji, which all together adds up to about 3,000. Also, in the pictures I've seen of people using it, they all seem to have extra pieces of type lying around in piles next to them, so maybe you can switch them if you need a different character. And now that I think of it, that's probably what's in that pot next to it.
And there's also a different kind that has a roll instead of a flat chart. You turn it to the row you want and slide the pointer horizontally to the proper character, and otherwise it works the same way.
Actually, I'm tempted to try to find one of these, because it's just really cool. But I'm sure they're rare and expensive.