British Pathe

The Strand, London.

M/S of a young woman, Anita Rees, dressed in Victorian clothing sitting at a desk using a strange circular black metal typing gadget. C/U of Anita's face as she struggles to use the machine - the narrator describes it as an "illustration of manual labour 1896 style". C/U...

The Strand, London.

M/S of a young woman, Anita Rees, dressed in Victorian clothing sitting at a desk using a strange circular black metal typing gadget. C/U of Anita's face as she struggles to use the machine - the narrator describes it as an "illustration of manual labour 1896 style". C/U of her hands on the old machine. C/U of Anita's frustrated expression. C/U of the keys on the circular keyboard. The narrator explains this original machine is being demonstrated at an exhibition in London to show the developments in typewriter technology.

M/S of a young woman in contemporary clothing, Ann Oubridge, opening the case to "the first portable electric typewriter" made by Smith-Corona. She takes the typewriter from its case and sets it down on the desk. C/U of the typewriter on the desk as Ann uncoils the lead attached to the machine. Ann bends down to the skirting board to plug the typewriter lead into the wall. She then sits at the desk, closes the case, takes a piece of paper from the desk drawer and places it in the typewriter. Various C/Us of Ann's face smiling and her hands typing - demonstrating the "many novel ideas include automatic repeat action of the hyphen and underline key, as well as the space bar".

M/S of another young woman, Jacqueline Frances typing. She picks up a two ounce weight and places it onto one of the keys to demonstrate how little pressure is needed to type letters. C/U of Jacqueline placing the weight on several different keys to illustrate this point.

M/S of three young women typing at desks positioned one behind each other,they are wearing colours to match the finish of their typewriters. Another woman enters and passes a piece of paper to the middle typist, Jacqueline. The narrator jokes that with this new type of typewriter dictation "can be speeded up considerably". We then here the narrator reading out a supposed letter starting "Dear Sir...." As the narrator speaks the audio speeds up for comic effect.