I learned about the existence of Hansen's Writing Ball a couple of years ago. It's an early model typewriter. Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the people who used it. It's got a fascinating look. Obviously when typewriters went into heavy production that's not the design that the manufacturers went with. Arguably just too demanding in terms of the user's time and skill.
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As we're not connected to the internet at home until Sunday afternoon (when the repair guy shows up) we're currently at the library. sheesh.. technology.
The typewriter here looks af if it would require an operator well skilled in ambidexterity. I tried to see if I could find a video of one in operation, but I'm guessing you tried too with no success.
The ball itself reminds me of the IBM Selectric typewriters that were soon made redundant by word processors.
Talk soon.
My previous laptop went through an intermittent period of not being able to connect to wi-fi, or even recognize that there was such a thing. Regardless of what I did to fix the issue it would eventually return to telling me there was no signal available, to the extent it told me anything. I eventually got an external USB wi-fi drive that could keep things steady, but in retrospect it was an omen that the whole machine was on the way out. So I definitely get "sheesh...technology."
You're right, there doesn't seem to be any footage of these things being used. They fell out of fashion long ago, of course. And they're so rare that no one gets to touch those that are left. A few videos I found weren't even film, just crude CGI reconstruction.
The IBM Selectrics were good looking machines. And I guess they had a good 25 year run before word processors got up to speed.
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