Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-10-20
PERSONALITY IN MACHINES.
Mechanics, Musicians, and Typists
Know Something About 1t.

| oiiC VI tiiN iiioiC coleIIlfl Writers WIZ
are engaged in edifying and instruct.
ing the public on various subtle sub.
jects recently INDUCED in the intellee.
tual luxury of a magazine article on
the personality of typewriting." Now
on the face of 1t this looks like d rci
! topic of discussion, for those with faiI
opportunities for observation have no.
| ted that there is an extraordinary and
| even awe-inspiring variety in the per-
| sonality of typewriters. Some of them
| have personalities that are fairly
| magnetic. almost hypnotic, while 9th
I ers might be said to have no personal
=. ity whatever, they seem SO colorless
, and devoid of fundamental charac-
/ ter.
| But this, of course is trivial sub
| ject and now really worthy of serious
| discussion in an intellectual magazine
| This writer was considering the me-
| chanical contrivance known as n type
| writer, and not the operator thereof,
| who is more, properly known as a
"typist" Language is a lax and per-
picking affair when we have to use
| the same word to designate both a
! machine and the young person whose
| vocation is associated with that ma
! chine. In innumerable cases the con-
| fusion of application has caused Sc
| rious trouble.
| But there is something appealing To
| The ina sination when We are LED To
! think of typewriting, in the proper
| sense of the word, as having a per
sonality." This writer says that Two
| men changing typewriters or motor
| cars are thought more suptly, IKE
two men changing boots. Sewing ma
| chimes, pianos and fiddles grow lhtl-
mate with the people who use theii'
/ and they come to express those par
ticular people, and the ways in WHICH
| they are different from others.
| This has in one sense, it may be
| conceived. something to do with the
total depravity of inanimate things,
| hut if is something more than .hae'
! There is in it, apparently soifeeiiiiis
of the nature of an inanimate per-
| sonality that in many of its mahiies-
| tations seems almost animate. 30 we
| are told that "typewriting maehlnes
never like to have their people take
| the liberty of lending them. steel
| bars and wooden levers all have little
| nannerisms, little expressions sinai
! souls of their own, the habits OF th'
neople they have lived with 1t IS the
| personality of the owner or resuiai
onerator and crept into the maehiii'
| and possessed it. The result Is ina
| the machine, like we'll trained uos
| will not respond so well to the can u
| another. it may even balk altogether
| and show itself in a cantankerous
l mood.
| Tbis "nersonar' quality is revealed
in MANY mechanical contrivances, ane
| in almost all implements, It's oesie 9
| Depending upon the intimacy u III.
| objects human association. !" oai
| see it not only in typewriters anu nv
tor cars. in pianos and hddies' pu. !.
the moro humble and common Things
Of everyday life. A pen that ma
baen used by one person Will apso
! Inte,1 ref1se to give decent service U
another. in ninety-hine cases out u
hundred II will scratch, dig its nos
;nto tine paper. kick the ink III all III
rections. and show all the symptoms
of balkiness and perverslty.
| Take some housewife of long eXpe
| rianco and the chances are that si'
has various favorite implements in mel
| Kitchen eauipment. They are alWaS'
Idonanda HE and do their work wen. odA
| there is a favorite potato knife, WORT
| down by long years of use, It's serNics
has improved with experience. lie
that knife break or be lost, ana ne"
| one brought into use, ana qulte inv
| everything will go wrong. ne ne
knife is a greenhorn and unlaih'iiai
with the job. Perhaps IT'S a"h"ai
personality even affects the po
| tatoes. so that they do not COOK Wen
| and there is consequent biemish II
| the meal. with resultant Irritation
that leads to domestic unpleashess
We can see that even the persoilaii.s
| of a potato knife may be OF far-reacii
ing effect.
We are Informed by this authority OF
| typewriters that the personality o
| the machines is immensely aifecteo DE-
its personal traits and even the com
| plextians of the operators. For IN
stance. "a brown-eyed typeWri,el
makes her machine move diiiereh.'l
| every day from blue-eyed one
But with this announcement We ar
| lett N Il ICE. w = tit SlfCii nv
| eminent as to the respective lniiuehee
exerted upon the personality ana tenn
perament of a typewriter machine u
blue eyes and brown eyes. Perhap
| the machine is less sensitive 10 IN
Influence of eyes when the operator
| of the masculine gender. We nave
vague impression that the averas
| newspaper reporters Typewriter
less emotional and temperamehta
than the machine that is used ps SOM
blonde peach in a brokers' ONCE.
This is all a matter of haZaroiies
suessworlk, but 1t affords an interest
ing subject for curious speculation.
| those machines are really susceptiti
| TO some extent TO the influence OF con
slant association with soulful eyes al"
the various wiles of feminine charHis
we have a notion that many typeWri,
ers are not producing the best WORK
which they might be capable. liner
might have been far more near. III
terest,' for instance in these luieiio'e
, today of the typewriter on when ,he
we're made had been manipulated
: some tall and queeniy brune.ee WI"
| ,,.onotic brown ewes, -ffOVlutii'