The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-01-19
M'GURRIN'S Rapid WORK.
How He AstOnished the Massa-
chusetts People.

Mr.. Frank E. McGurrin, reporter of
the Third District Court, was in Lowell,
Massachusetts, a few days since, and of
his performance there a paper has this
to say: "In the exhibition yesterday.
Mr.. Rowell. of the Remington Type
Writing Machine Company. introduced
the operator. Before doing so he gave
an historic account OF the type writing
machine, and said that his company
alone had almost $4,000 in operation
throughout the country. Mr.. McGur-
rim was introduced and, seating himself
at the machine, he began to make the
keys hum. Mr.. RoWell picked up
piece of paper and began reading to him
at an ordinary rate of speed. He took
down every word, and it was found that
Mr.. Roweil had read at the rate of
eighty words per minute. Mr.. McGur-
rih then put up a piece of copy before
him and without once glsncipg at the
keys of the type writer struck of fifty
five words in thirty seconds. A hand
kerchief was then placed over his eyes
and he wrote correctly, without one
mistake, seVenty.seVen words from die
tation.
Then came the trial for speed. He
chose for his trial the sentence, "NoW is
the time for all good men to come to the
aid of party" He was thoroughly
familiar with his subject, and starting
off at the word of the newspaper re-
porter present, he let his fingers fiv.
Nothing was heard but the constant
click of the machine, and as the min
ute was up it was found that he had
written 1877 words.
One of the audience asked Mr.. Nc
Gurrin if he could go rs high as the
record of LA words to the minute, that
was made in Boston the other day. He
evidently did not know that it was Mr.
McGurrin that made it. The latter
said he could, and telling the reporters
he was not satisfied with the trial of 1877
words, asked them to time him just
once more. The four scribes pres
ent pulled out their chronometers and
Mr.. McGurrin waded in. His nimbIe
fingers struck the keys with beNilde ring
and tick, tick goes the second hand of
the watch. Time. shouts the four
reporters in a breath, and the operator
immediately stopped. There" says
Mr.. McGurrin, to the incredulous spec
tator, "that beats the record; there are
las words to the inmate" The paper
was handed to the reporters and it was
found that such was the case. He had
beaten the worlds record, which here
tofore has been IA words. Heretofore
many operators have reached that fig
ure, but never could get ahead of that
on account of the time lost in working
back the lever. It was a great per-
Torrance and its authenticity cannot
be questioned, as it was verified by four
watches.
Mr.. McGurrin then gave an inssrue.
tive talk to the class. He attributed
his speed On the machine not to any
natural endowments or to any taste for
the work; simply to hard practice. He
never used the machine with any idea
of becoming an expert, only using it in
connection with his business as steno-
grapher. He keeps his arms stationary
and moves only his fingers. He
uses all his fingers and scarcely
ever looks at the keys. It is said that
Miss May, who holds the worlds cham
pionship, uses only her index fingers
After striking off some copy for the re-
porters present Mr.. McGurrin con-
cluded his exhibition. The copy OF the
test, which resulted in AS words to
minute, is to be framed and hung up in
the Lowell Commercial College.