[Dajjal]

It was common, especially in the days of manual typewriters for there not to be a 1 or a 0. The 1 was made by a small L and the 0 was made by a capital O.

Found such a creature at eBay. I won't go so far as to say that the one in our house was the same brand & style, but it was very similar.


http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Olympia-Portable-Typewriter-Glossy-Black_W0QQitemZ270436006599QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ef73dfac7&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

2ndDivisionVet, pissant, STARWISE, kellynla, mojito, Calpernia, Red Steel, RobinMasters, BP2, ncfool, markomalley, xzins, FTJM, ckilmer, Polarik, cycle of discernment, rxsid, EveningStar, null and void, Jet Jaguar, narses -- please ping your birth certificate lists
(N.B. pinging freepers who have posted a few birth certificate threads in the last few days)

[markomalley]

For those of us who learned to touch type on a manual typewriter, it's a lot more difficult to stretch out and apply good pressure with the left hand pinky (to hit the "1" key) than it is to hit the "l" key (one of the home keys).

The same (though not as bad) applies to the "0" key as opposed to the "O" key.

So seeing an "l" used in place of a "1" didn't surprise me a bit.

[Richard Kimball]

Yep. There were a ton of them out there. Also, the manual typewriters all used a fabric ribbon, which made the key strikes softer. Electrics usually had a plastic tape, more like carbon paper. They made the sharper letters. By the time of the electrics, almost all typewriters had zeros and ones, but with the manuals, they frequently left them out. I found one manufactured in 1972 that still didn’t have a one.

[justiceseeker93]

The typewriter whose image you posted appears to date perhaps from as far back as the late nineteenth century. Notice that the “Z” key and the “Y” key are interchanged from their later standard keyboard positions. I recall using the letter “l” for the numeral “1” on a portable Royal manufactured about 1950, but never had to use the letter “O” as a substitute for the numeral “0”. I can’t even recall the name “Olympia.” The only American typewriter companies (brands) I can remember from the strictly manual days (not including the later plug-in manual electric models) were Royal, Smith-Corona, and Underwood.

[BP2]

Good find about early typewriters using 1 for I, or other substitutions.

Also, letter & number arms and keypads can stick frequently (annoying for the typist), bend or break, forcing typist to improvise and substitute one character for another, like the number "0" for the letter "O", similar to what's posted here on "Mr. Martin's Typewriter Museum":

Royal Model 10, manufactured from 1914 to 1938. Mine is the later single beveled glass side window model and according to The Typewriter Database was manuafactured in 1924 (serial number X 842670). While made by Royal, there is another old decal that says "Regal Typewriter Company, Inc.," "Like-Nu," "Regal Rebuilt Typewriter," "524 Broadway, New York, USA," leading me to speculate that it may have been a reconditioned or rebuilt model. A decal on the front indicates it was sold or perhaps serviced by "Nickel's Business Machines, Inc., Sales-Service-Rentals, 5204 Lomas, N.E., Albuquerque, N.M. Phone AM 8-8131." According to mytypewriter.com the Royal 10 is "considered as one of the best manual machines ever made." (See also MrTypewriter.com.) Purchased for $20 on October 15, 2005 at a La Mesa (CA) garage sale on the street I grew up on! It is in very good cosmetic and working condition. It only needs a new ribbon. The decals have some wear and there is some wear to the paint on the bar on the front. There is some cracking of the paint in the back, but in general the glossy black paint is in very good condition. It is very clean for a machine over 80 years old. The arm inside for the "O" is slightly bent but works well. After some use, none of the keys stick. The typewriter originally belonged to the seller's mother who used it in an Albuquerque trailer park business. Very cool machine! Large View, Side View.