How a Mechanical Typewriter Works

Featuring more metal parts than a Terminator robot, but using exactly zero electricity, this mechanical typewriter is a wonder from recent history!

CREDITS
Jacob O'Neal - Modeling, animation, texturing, vfx, music, narrative script
Wesley O'Neal - Research, technical script

PATREON
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PRIVATE WORK
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WEBSITE
See more explanations of how things work:

SOFTWARE USED
We use Blender 3D to create these models. It's free and open source, and the community is amazing:

0:00 Intro
01:34 Pressing a key
02:25 Typeface
03:21 Mainspring
03:56 Escapement
07:17 Spacebar
07:59 Margins
11:17 Line space lever
12:19 Backspace
14:17 Shift
16:27 Ink ribbon
19:28 Tabs
21:09 Feed rolls

[JaredOwen]

Well done! It's amazing how complex old machines like this can get

[raymondray]

As a former typewriter mechanic, i can tell you this animation is spot on, but if you want to see the progression of typewriters, maybe you can do an animation of the IBM Self-Correcting Typewriter, which was the final and most advanced mechanical typewriter.

[GoCorvette]

When I was a kid I work with my father in his office machine repair business, typewriters, and adding machines. I help him to work on many of these same machines, both older and newer. His personal collection was mostly typewriters from the early 1900s, so I know the typewriter in this video very well. The good thing back then was that everything was repairable, so you didn't need to buy a new one. Today almost everything is throwaway. In a lot of ways, we have gone backward, not forward in this world when it comes to reducing trash.

[clearcutter]

I appreciate how the writing of the narration in this episode is a bit more expressive than usual, very fitting 😄

[maverick.]

These videos should be in the national archives. It cant get more detailed than this.

[nmauch]

This was awesome. Brought back memories of using my dad’s typewriter as a youngster, especially that “ding”. Great to see how ingenious these things really are.

[JesseSeaver]

Not sure what’s more incredible, the type writer or these videos :). Would love to see a “how an Animagraphs video is made”
someday :)❤

[hamentaschen]

It's insane to me how long ago they invented things like this, without the aid of computers or even calculators. Like the automatic transmission, or even the manual transmission (gearbox)... I mean, computers and technology are wonderful. Just, hats of to these inventors and engineers who came up with this stuff!

[aymanibrahim]

I was literally looking for any visual explanation, out of the blue, about how type writers worked, and found this gem has just been uploaded hours ago,

It's insane how much work and genius went into the type writer, awesome vid

[jackpine]

Showing my age, but I got my first mechanical typewriter when I was around 11, back in the 1970's. Spent many hours typing stories on it. Loved the sound of the keys clacking and the whole ballet of the machine's internals. I just read that there are still many authors who prefer a mechanical typewriter or writing long hand over word processing software. The physical connection of your body to the words is a different experience and aids creativity.

[Auraelius]

This one was SO CLEAR. As a former mechanical typewriter user, I had auditory and tactile memories as the narrative progressed. Communication on an entirely non-verbal pathway. Watched start to finish. Excellent!

[FaigMasimov]

Whoever made this video, did exactly the same great job as engineers of this machine. Thank a lot for your hard work

[NovemberOrWhatever]

The humor you threw in was very nice! It was funny, while also not being distracting. Yet another perfect video, thank you Animagraffs

[geoffdl]

Typewriters really are a masterpiece of engineering. Unbelievably intricate design given the resources available for design at the time

[nullifye]

This is perfect. You nailed the 1940's newsreel educational humour style, in addition to being genuinely educational, as they were. GG.

[envitech]

Wow I didn't realize that the humble typewriter is so mechanically complicated! But it works like magic!

[arkasytyt]

Once again, this was a great video.
I would personally be very interested in an animation that explains an analog camera. It's still a mystery to me how you can accurately set the exposure time to fractions of a second.

[daveking]

I'm in awe of the intricacy of such machines and the way you explain them ❤

[baska-]

*Mechanics is beautiful. I appreciate my typewriter sitting on top of my bookcase even more now.*

[markdougherty]

I love how you're including more of the experience of using the item with your commentary, its a nice touch. Maybe do a grand piano next?