WANDERS IN WORLD ENGINEERING
ONE BEST WAY THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESS
‘Science exists not so much to tickle the intelligences of the few as to brighten the lot of the many’ Wills’ Wanders collection of short films and publications serve to celebrate the considerable knowledge and archive of A.E Wills. A talented and unassuming man Wills forged his interest in engineering from a childhood brimming with a curiosity for the principles and workings of the mechanical machine. This culminated in a vast and eclectic archive of published papers, inventions and ephemera. In 2011 it was proposed that Arthur Edward Wills’s extensive collection be utilised to instil in young and old an admiration for the skills, accomplishments and scientific ideas of our age and to urge them to ask what brought about these triumphs of our modern tecnnology.?
ONE BEST WAY The Science of Success
A further companion to the Wills’s Wanders series of short films. One Best Way sheds light on the depth of analysis carried out into the efficiency of the modern workplace.
Jayne Wilson is indebted to the indispensible source that is The Prelinger Archive. To Ben Connolly, Chris Mullen, & A E Wills thanks are extended for assistance so willingly rendered. Stastics quoted from August Dvorak’s ‘Typewriter Behaviour’ New York Books (1936)
One Best Way. The Science of Success was first screened in May 2013 www.willswanders.co.uk © Jayne Wilson 2013
DO THE NECCESSARY MOTIONS WELL August Dvorak (1894-1975) Dvorak analysed the causes of secretarial typing errors. Taking slow motion pictures of finger actions he noted the frequency with which various letters and letter combinations were used. Publishing his findings in ‘Typewriter Behaviour’ in 1936 he patented his Simplified Keyboard in the same year.
Dvorak keyboard word errors most common typed
This reformed keyboard was devised around
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the provision of a scientific plan of arrangement of keys. This, it suggested, would decrease the possibility of typing errors and facilitate an increase in speed. The most popular letters and all of the vowels were all placed on the home row reducing the need to reach for the keys. On this keyboard, Dvorak stated, a 100 word per minute typists fingers would travel only about a mile a day. With fewer interruptions to the most frequently used letter sequences and more evenly distributed labour for the individual
OUR INVENTION RELATES TO THE SPACIAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE KEYS ON A TYPEWRITER KEYBOARD
fingers there would be fewer errors and so lessened the fatigue of the typist.
UNITED STATES PATENT 2,040,248 MAY 21ST 1936
=EASIER FASTER AND NEATER C. Latham Sholes (1819-1866) Engineer Christopher Latham Sholes, inventor and printer, released the first commercially successful typewriter in 1878. The machine included improvements made since the earlier Sholes & Glidden model of type writing machine.
Qwerty Keyboard Word errors most common typed
The new improved typewriter, marketed as the Remington Number 2, had a new
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Standard Keyboard.. This new layout was named after the order of the first letters on the top row. Qwerty. To prevent jamming of type levers, the most frequently used levers were placed as far away as possible from each other, reflecting in the position of type. Fewer words could be typed on the home row with a typists fingers travelling 12-20 miles a day holding little regard for human physiology . Although the problem of jamming no longer exists this less ergonomic keyboard Qwerty
ITS FEATURES ARE A BETTER WAY OF WORKING THE TYPE BARS
remains the standard English language keyboard
UNITED STATES PATENT 79,265 JUNE 23RD 1868