A nice bit of history — depressionpress: Linotype Practice Keyboard | Winning Bid: $209.16  + ETAOIN SHRDLU  The letters on Linotype keyboards were arranged by letter frequency, so “etaoin shrdlu” were the first two vertical columns on the left side of the keyboard. Linotype operators who had made a typing error could not go back to delete it, and had to finish the line before they could eject the slug and re-key a new one. Since the line with the error would be discarded and hence its contents did not matter, the quickest way to finish the line was to run a finger down the keys — a “run down”, as it was termed — creating this nonsense phrase.
    Posted on February 7, 2012 by karouselmag.
    A nice bit of history —

    depressionpress:

    Linotype Practice Keyboard | Winning Bid: $209.16 

    +

    ETAOIN SHRDLU 

    The letters on Linotype keyboards were arranged by letter frequency, so “etaoin shrdlu” were the first two vertical columns on the left side of the keyboard. Linotype operators who had made a typing error could not go back to delete it, and had to finish the line before they could eject the slug and re-key a new one. Since the line with the error would be discarded and hence its contents did not matter, the quickest way to finish the line was to run a finger down the keys — a “run down”, as it was termed — creating this nonsense phrase.

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