Widener Library Uses Chinese Typewriter to Catalogue New Oriental Books--C. K. Chiu Shows How the Machine Works

Situated in a small room on the first floor of Widener Library is a Chinese typewriter. This intricate machine was demonstrated to a CRIMSON reporter yesterday by A. Kaiming Chiu, Instructor in Chinese Language and Literature, and librarian of the Chinese books of Harvard University.

The typewriter is entirely different from machines we are accustomed to see. It consists of a tray of about 500 Chinese characters, a printed sheet or indicator showing the position of the various characters in the tray, a pointer, and the customary platen mechanism. The pointer is attached by a system of levers to the type tray; and when the former is brought over a desired character on the indicator, the corresponding letter on the type tray is brought beneath a small receptacle open at the bottom, but covered at the top by a rubber ball. A lever is pressed, suction is created in the receptacle, the letter is raised from its place in the tray, brought into contact with the platen, and put back in its place.

An additional set of characters is furnished with the machine and substitutions can be made to fulfill various needs.

The typewriter was built in China by the Commercial Press, the largest printing establishment in the far East. It is the result of steady improvement since its invention in 1919, though it is not yet entirely efficient. A capable operator can write at the rate of 1000 characters an hour, which seems slow in comparison with the speed of an American machine. This is, however, twice the speed with which one can print Chinese by hand. Furthermore, it is a greater speed than one thinks, because most Chinese words consist of only one or two characters, whereas English words consist of many more. Mr. Chiu in illustrating this fact said that 'Harvard' is represented in Chinese by two characters. The word is formed by transliteration, and curiously enough the translation of the characters is "laughing Buddha."