Re: International Typewriter Day (23 June)

 Ar an ceathrú lá is fiche de mí Meitheamh, scríobh Aidan Kehoe:

 >  Ar an ceathrú lá is fiche de mí Meitheamh, scríobh Ross Clark:
 >
 >  > I don't need to explain what a typewriter is, do I?
 >  >
 >  > Crystal's historical notes:
 >  >
 >  > 1714 - Henry Mill (English engineer) patents "an artificial machine or method
 >  > for impressing or transcribing of lettrs, one after another, as in writing,
 >  > whereby all writing whatsoever may be engrossed in paper or parchment to neat
 >  > and exact as not to be distinguished from print".
 >  >
 >  > "No trace of this exists, if it was ever produced." Sounds like a pipe dream.
 >
 > Common thing in patents these days, to patent things you haven’t implemented.
 > (I attempted this once, software for phone and chat systems that warned the
 > user when time zone and calendar differences meant it was unlikely the other
 > party in the communication would be reachable, but other parties pre-dated me.)
 > Shouldn’t really be allowed, but hard to audit.

I was going to say that I was surprised patenting something that wasn’t built
was allowed at that point, but on reflection there’s no reason to be surprised.

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)