A typesetting race, 1870 rules

The Velocipede

On 19 February 1870, George Arensberg set 2,064 ems of type by hand in one hour, about 760 words. His colleagues called him the Velocipede. Set a line at his kind of case, then type it, and compare.

Click the box that holds the next letter. Spaces live in the long box marked 3 to em.

The tally board

Typical, 1870700

Fast1,200

Exceptional1,400

Arensberg2,064

You, by hand–

You, at a keyboard–

Ems per hour. Your figures convert words to ems at the essay's own ratio, 2,064 ems to about 760 words.

0.0 sat the case

0sorts picked

0wrong boxes

0.0hand travel, in case widths

Now type it

The Swifts

Arensberg filled four sticks that afternoon, in 13 min 55 s, 13 min 50 s, 14 min and 14 min 10 s, while the Times foreman held the stopwatch. A typical compositor set about 700 ems an hour; 2,000 was thought impossible, the four-minute mile of the trade.

On 22 February 1886, at Austin & Stone's Dime Museum in Boston, Miss L. J. Kenney set 24,950 ems, beating every man in the contest held the day before. The organizers left her out of the official results, saying Much latitude was allowed the ladies in the matter of time and proofs. Wright finds little evidence that any latitude was given.

The keyboard

On 3 July 1886, Whitelaw Reid staged the first public demonstration of Mergenthaler's Linotype on the composing-room floor of the New York Tribune. Three weeks later, on 28 July, George Arensberg died at thirty-six. The Times called him one of the most rapid and skillful compositors in the world.

The last bar on the board is the short version of what happened to the Swifts. You will almost certainly beat the Velocipede the moment you stop reaching into a wooden case.

Sources: Alex Wright, Twilight of the Velocipede, The Public Domain Review, 13 May 2026, for every date, name and number above. Case layout from the public-domain diagram CaliforniaJobCaseLayout.png on Wikimedia Commons; the empty box is empty there too. Made by Claude, 3 October 2026.