The
Key to Success: Typing Speed
The new typewriters were expensive machines. They cost around $125
- a lot of money at that time - and it was not always easy to convince
businesses to buy them. One promotion scheme of the typewriter companies
was to send young women into offices to demonstrate the amazing qualities
of the machine.
From the beginning,
typing speed had been a major sales feature of the new machines.
To promote sales, typewriter manufacturers sponsored scores of typewriting
competitions at major trade shows and exhibitions in Canada, the
United States and Europe. By 1900, typewriting competitions had
become a new kind of sports event.
Hundreds of
people were attracted to these matches and competition was fierce.
No typewriter company took these contests as seriously as the Underwood
Company of New York. Underwood's racing team was unsurpassed, coached
by a man named Charles E. Smith. Smith was a talent scout who went
to secretarial schools to search out potential champions. He also
invented many speed typing techniques and paid his team of typists
excellent salaries.
Typing
called for great concentration, manual dexterity and meticulousness,
all of which Lottie Betts had in plenty, along with a good dose
of competitive spirit. Her special talent was recognized early on,
and she was encouraged to take part in typewriting competitions.
But, it was Smith who discovered Lottie and enticed her to New York
in 1909 to train with his team. He taught her many of his speed-typing
techniques, and it paid off.
One year after
joining the Underwood team, Lottie won a Canadian competition for
accuracy in typing, misstriking only 16 keys in 30 minutes. Speed,
accuracy and endurance were essential requirements for the competitions.
Lottie excelled in them all.
At top form,
Lottie achieved 103 words
per minute, a speed very few people can do, even on today's
electronically-sensitive keyboards with automatic carriage return.
Imagine the strain of typing non-stop for up to an hour with a hundred
other expert typists sitting nearby. Not only do you have to go
like lightning, but you cannot make too many mistakes. Commentators
at the time remarked that, after a long workout at top speed, the
floor around the typists' chairs was wet from the perspiration that
had dripped down their arms and off their elbows.
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