The Washington times., 1922-08-18

thing that you nave written 90
your machine, and see how other
OF the same kind OF mistakes that
you yourself committed have been
added by the manipulator Of the
printing machine.
He, too, has dropped and trans
posed letters, just as you have
done, and for the same apparent
reasons. The dropping Of letters
in the middle of words seems to be
due principally to haste, resulting
in too light a touch upon some OF
the letters so that the levers fall
short Of reaching the drum, and
the carrier does not move. be-
lieve that certain letters are more
often dropped than others by GER
tain persons.
A person who finds himself
habitually dropping letters In this
way when writing rapidly should
study and practice uniformity OF
touch. The fault is one to be cor
rected not only for the sake of bet
ter typewriting, but because, like
q flaw in a piece of metal, II is
likely to extend much farther than
is apparent at a hasty glance. II
gives you a hint as to where you
need reannealing. You may be
unconsciously dropping other
things besides letters.
The trnnsposition of letters ap-
pears to be due to two principal
cause: First, the bad practise (of
which profe ssional typists are, ]
suppose, never guilty. Of looking
at the letters. as you strike them,
instead OF keeping your eyes fixed
Oil the copy. or on the paper as
the growing line of print develops.
and watching that; and, second.
misdirection of the fingers, which
accidentally hit letters adjacent to
the one intended to be hit.
The results OF the first Of t. csc
ways OF transposing letters are
sometimes very curious indeed, and
they throw an interesting light
upon the operations by which the
motor centers of the brain are
actuated. In a short word, like
"and," one may find oneself be-
ginning with the last or middle let
ter instead of the first, thus writ
ing dan" or mad" instead OF
and" Laughable combinations
and transpositions are occasionally
made, as "cat" for "act," owl for
"low." fade" for deaf" dam"
for mad" or vice versa, "mash"
for SHAM" tub" for but" etc.
These, and many others. are actual
examples of such misplacements OF
letters in rapid typewriting.
The explanation seems to be that
the mental vision recognizes the
literal elements of the desired
word without regard to the order
in which they should be presented
II. e.. when we think OF a short
word we have all of it's component
letters in mind, and as the eve
wanders over the keyboard the
first time of these letters that
happens to present itself Is in
stantly "pricked down" on sight.
as Falstaff pricked his recruits,
with no respect to order or fitting
ness. The mind is alert to get all
the needed members of the COM
pany together, and lets not one es-
cape. however untimely may be it's
presentation. while the motor
nerve center, like an overprornpt
and jealous sergeant, instantly
pushes the recruit into line with.
out considering his file number.
Longer WOTuS are Dy no means
exempt from similar misplace
ments Of their component letters
just this moment have been writ
ing "eXepmt" for exempt-and the
resulting combinations, IL taken
out of their context would often
be as incomprehensible as the
words of an unknown language.
I once wrote the mysterious word
''resinty," and spent some time In
finding out that 1t represented the
patched-up partial remains of "se-
renity." Here both transposition
and skipping Of letters had been In
play.
But. to return to my text. the
typewriting machine is a good dc.
tector of some of the imperfections
of the human machine, show ng
where II needs a drop of oil or q
little refitting. And as q detective
of personally a typewritten page
almost ranks with fingerprints.