Word: keyboard
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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More than ten years ago Dr. August Dvorak (no relative of Composer Dvorak), a professor of education at University of Washington, invented a new typewriter keyboard which he proved was faster and less fatiguing than the old standard keyboard designed in 1868 (see cut). But so far only 1,000 machines with the Dvorak keyboard (available from most typewriter manufacturers) have been sold. Dr. Dvorak had about despaired of teaching old typists new tricks when last week University of Chicago reported remarkable success in teaching the Dvorak system to children...
...subdued his mane-shaking mannerisms but had somewhat slowed his brilliant technique. He still flailed the keyboard like a maddened thresher, still followed through a rippling run as though he were plucking a rabbit from a topper. But his stubby fingers, which he always soaked in warm water before a performance, though still steely-supple, had just perceptibly lost something of their cascading fluidity. Critics no longer unconditionally rated him as No. 1 among the world's great pianists. But he still had what it took to hold an audience: a great past, a great presence...
...announcer's patent-leather voice was gliding over the air-waves. He spoke in a voice that was hushed with respect. "Music by Chopin . . arranged by Liszt . . . played by Paderewski!" And then the Master began to let his fingers ripple up and down the keyboard with a technique and tone that captivated the countless thousands of Harvard men tuned in at the moment. But many a listener heard at one time or another during the program a slowly increasing buzz. Was the immortal Paderewski executing a deft tremolo with the lower tones? Was the discord a modernistic tone-poem...
...speech sounds are made by the human larynx, mouth, breath, tongue, teeth and lips. With electrical filters, attenuators, frequency changers, etc. they found that they could produce 23 basic sounds; that intelligible speech could be synthesized from various combinations of these sounds, controlled by a skilled operator manipulating a keyboard and foot pedal...
Since the fluent production of speech on a keyboard is not so simple as pounding a typewriter, Bell Telephone picked 24 of the cleverest telephone operators from 300 candidates, gave them about twelve months' intensive training as Voder operators. Like concert pianists, they have to keep in trim by practicing several hours a day. The most difficult speech component they must coax out of Voder, and the one that sounds least natural, is the letter l. When someone at last week's demonstration asked for the words "Bell Telephone," they came out something like "Behrw Tehwephone...