Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Godrej Typewriter is an Arabic one..!

The Godrej Typewriter, or the "all-Indian typewriter," was equipped with English, mathematical symbols, Hindi, Marathi, Gujurati, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. It was the first multi-lingual typewriter in the world. 

Credit: Shivani Gupta


However, this is a modified Arabic Typewriter, which I personally had used in early 1970th.. I believe this part of the global shared technology that can't be limited to particular nationality or identity.. Till date, the almost-same typewriter still in use among Arabic speaker.. even so, the computer keyboards have the same arrangement of letters 

To make a typewriter is a feat in itself, but Indian firm Godrej went a step further and introduced keyboards in multiple languages -- something unheard of when its groundbreaking model was introduced in 1955. In addition to English and mathematical symbols, the keyboard was equipped with Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.
Godrej closely studied the designs of different imported brands like Remington, Olivetti and Underwood. Christened Godrej AB (after the firm's founder), the resulting typewriter was made up of 2,220 individual parts and came in two conservative colors -- brown and green
Between 1965 and 1970, almost 25,000 of the machines went to market, revolutionizing communication in all parts of the country. Typing became a national hobby for those who could buy one, while national competitions brought about publicity and recognition for the fastest typists.

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