Writing on a Moving Train
Writing legibly on a fast-moving train is difficult to a person unaccustomed to it. The railroad conductor knows the trick of it and manages to get along quite satisfactorily. He prefers to write in a standing position and holds his right elbow firmly against his side. The reason for this is that in a sitting posture there is too much lateral movement in the trunk of the body, while in a standing position this is more easily controlled. When the arm swings freely, as in ordinary writing, several joints of the body are affected in the process, each of which is capable of its own motion. Holding the elbow against one’s ribs “breaks” these motion tendencies, except that of the wrist, which movement is necessary in writing, and thus the pencil, or pen, is more easily controlled.
The same principles modified apply in using a typewriter on a moving train. Many traveling men, news correspondents, and others, carry portable typewriters and do much of their writing while traveling on trains, not to mention the various railroad and government men who travel in office cars and necessarily must get out their correspondence en route. It is extremely difficult to execute neat typewriting on a moving train with free-arm movement, even though the central portion of the car where the vibration and swing is less severe, is selected. As I am employed in such capacity, I had to evolve some plan to expedite the work. I am able to do typewriting quite rapidly by resting the palm of the hands, near the wrists, against the front edge of the typewriter frame surrounding the keyboard, and using the swing of the fingers instead of that of the whole arm, as in ordinary typewriting.—Victor Labadie. Dallas, Tex.