The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-05-06

Before the students, members of the
faculty, and numbers of visitors and
stenographers of Fargo and Moorhead,
Master Parker G.. Woodson of New
York, n Of the fast typewriter oper-
ators of the Remington Typewriter Co.,
gave interesting exhibitions at the bus
mess colleges and Concordia college
Saturday and incidentally he made a
record speed IN the machine by writ
ing a test sentence at the rate of PAT
words a minute, without a single error.
In sustaining this speed he made an
average of thirteen strokes a second,
which is about the greatest speed 1t is
possible for the human fingers to at
tain. With a mechanical continuance
at the Remington factory it has been
demonstrated that seventeen strokes a
second can be made on a Remington
machine, but as yet no set of human
fingers has ever attained this speed.
Mr.. Woodson used a No. 10 Visible
Model Remington, and he not only gave
an exhibition of speed, but also of ac-
curacy in copying by the touch system.
Among other things he wrote eighty
four and se~venty-four words a minute
respectively from the French and Nor
wegian languages, with which he is not
at all familiar; this work being much
the same as copying figures. Copying
from q closely spaced book he wrote
125 words a minute, and while carry
ing on a brisk conversation wiz. diff
ferent people in the audiences he
copied from new matter, writing at the
rate of 124 words a minute, and this
in view Of the fact that some of the
questions ~propounded brought smiles
to the youths lips and bushes to his
cheeks.
The purpose of Mr.. Woodson's
demonstration was to show those pres
ent the possible ability Of the operator
to bring into play the subconscious
mind in the manipulation of the ma
chine and to illustrate this he not only
carried on a conversation, as related
while writing at the ate of 124 words
a minute, but he illustrated it further
by adding twenty-five figures as they
were called to him, and at the same
time writing at the rate Of 1T words
a minute; a pretty good speed when
one is concentrating all his energies on
something foreign to the copy.
AS a further test Of the efficiency OF
the touch system, Mr.. Woodson, blind
folded, wrote a business letter distated
to him by one of those present, at the
rate of 120 words a minute, which OF
course, represents a good shorthand
speed for the ordinary stenographer.
Mr.. Woodson also wrote a business
letter of several paragraphs in one
minute and forty-one seconds, using
the old style hand method of back
pedaling the carriage, adjusting it fol-
paragraphs and other indentations. He
then rewrote the same letter, using the
modern column selector device and
back spacer, in one minute and five
seconds, thus making a saving Of
thirty-six seconds IN one letter.
Copying from matter that was not
new to him, Mr.. Woodson wrote at the
rate of 165 words a minute, and as q
closing feature of the demonstration
he wrote a test sentence at the rate
| of Eat words a minute. The spacing,
spelling, margins, alignment were per-
feet.
Mr.. Woodson is in charge of Mr.
Raymond P. Kelly, manager of the
school interests of the Remington
Typewriter Co. for the United State:
and Canada, who gave a brief lectur,
on touch typewriting and explained the
purpose of the demonstration. The
operator is still a boy just in his early
teens and he began the study of type
writing a little over two years ago, ii
the city of Chicago.
At the conclusion of his demonstra-
ton he gave an interesting talk touch
ing upon the Importance of the proper
| sitting position of the operator; the
Importance of operating the machine
| directly from the keyboard and econ
omizing time in all the movements Of
the hands. He illustrated how a great
| saving of time al be effected by using
the right hand only in the shifting Of
the carriage, how time can be saved
by using the column selector, the bach
spacer, etc. He also said that to de-
velop the ideal touch for speed, it il
necessary. for the operator to give the
key a quick decisive touch, and lsndei
no circumstances hold the finger or
the key, after striking, He showed thu
diff in copy under the two style;
Of writing.
The demonstration was inspiring II
the students. and was interesting anc
an educational treat to the others who
saw ii. It was repeated today at tht
high school and the agricultural col.
4 NEF