Path: ...!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail
From: Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: International Typewriter Day (23 June)
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2024 11:23:43 +0100
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <87zfraabbk.fsf@parhasard.net>
References: <v5aj0q$nis7$1@dont-email.me> <87a5jabsab.fsf@parhasard.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: individual.net 9EGNzXW/GHXRYuHtrRLQJQYi77ISQTvFx1dimlcNb0/o+8+nC2
Cancel-Lock: sha1:d6PLNEfVxfntzEs60o4yeuPkJZc= sha1:hNWSkYe6zrcJFrDtJTyPNHd0VWo= sha256:wblFoCV+as4gaXEjK1e7P966eKfQ8UdLjD094fsg0XA=
User-Agent: Gnus/5.101 (Gnus v5.10.10) XEmacs/21.5-b35 (Linux-aarch64)
Bytes: 2155


 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)