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Write Writer

Progression from the typewriter in the other direction.
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Mechanized and electronic print and communications technologies have been widely criticized in the print and electronic media for their effects on society. These technologies apparently change us in interesting and unexpected ways, however details are scarce as I couldn't get past the irony and feared implosion of the material.

As an effect of these titular suggestions on my conscience I have denied myself ownership of a computer and have taken to directly reading off of and writing onto paper. As a result my penmanship has improved, so too has my ability to draw nudes.

However, handwriting has some drawbacks that aren't necessarily on the level of social transformation. I would list them, but circumstances compel me to simply present the solution to those problems and instead wait for a list to emerge of problems with the solution.

The Write Writer is a lot like a typewriter except it doesn't have an ink ribbon or a keyboard, just a pen that is attached to a single key in a wide arc. When this pen is pressed to the paper to print a letter and then lifted for the next letter, the Write Writer shifts the paper in the characteristic manner readying the paper for the aforementioned proceeding letter.

The secret to the magic of the device is the almost invisible translucent arc lever. This lever presses the key when the pen that is attached to it is lifted. There is slight flexibility where the pen and lever combine to allow for a small range of motion. Spaces are made between words by simply lifting the pen and taking care not to make a mark with it.

rcarty, Dec 08 2009

Writerer Writerer
Extended version [pocmloc, Dec 09 2009]

[link]






       I am skeptical. Please link your drawings of nudes.
bungston, Dec 08 2009
  

       So a 5-axis CAM machine with a spinning pen as a tool and paper loaded onto the milling platform.
wjt, Dec 08 2009
  

       I was thinking simple: an old typewriter, a piece of metal bent into a hook and a ballpoint pen.
rcarty, Dec 08 2009
  

       So a whole lot of lines with a whole lot of scribbly dashes or are you proposing human assisted writing? Where is the writing assist?
wjt, Dec 08 2009
  

       To move the paper under the pen, I believe.
Aristotle, Dec 09 2009
  

       wjt, why would you conceptualize the idea in a malfunctioning way? Why not imagine it in a way that it works?
rcarty, Dec 09 2009
  

       I'm afraid this would have immense consequences for architecture.
zeno, Dec 09 2009
  

       Reality states what will happen. When dealing with an idea it is best to imagine what reality will do. Those Goldberg machines are fun to imagine all working perfectly but reality has a different idea most of the time.   

       Is this not the place to have your idea pummeled into a working rational reality, even if it starts off conceptual?
wjt, Dec 09 2009
  

       I just dont see how something so simple can not work. The pen dangles a couple millimeters over the paper. The user presses the pen to the paper and makes a mark. To make another mark the user lifts the pen somewhat naturally in excess of a couple of millimeters, say half a centimeter, which causes 'the key' it is attached to by the hook shaped lever, to depress. The key depression causes the entire cam assembly which holds the paper to shift to the left the distance of a single character, and the process is repeated again.   

       It is possible you are imagining something else.
rcarty, Dec 09 2009
  

       It's missing something, I think... a carriage return?
goldbb, Dec 09 2009
  

       The problem I see is the orientation/interaction of a person writing and the paper. Where the paper is, it's angle , where your other hand rests. Your usual writing position would have to alter to incorporate the paper motion and it's mechanism.   

       All I'm saying is, how natural would it feel?
wjt, Dec 10 2009
  

       I imagine that the user would operate the machine by taking hold of the levered pen with one hand and embracing the machine in a half affectionate half stabilizing manner with the remaining free arm. Writing angles can be adjusted, of course, because at every conjunct, that is, between pen and lever, lever and key there is screw coupler that can be loosened and tightened to set angles to the user's desired preference. I imagine with all adjustments considered and the free arm tenderly embracing this most simple of functional machines, interaction will seem as natural and analogous to the feeding of a baby recently birthed and breastfed, and at the point where the babe is first ready to ingest solids, but only by the careful and steady hand of the one that gently cradles it.
rcarty, Dec 10 2009
  
      
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