Linear index typewriters

On linear index typewriters, the characters on the index are positioned next to eachother, in a straight line. The most simple way to do this was in the order of the Alphabet.

On most machines, however, the letters that were used most, were grouped together, so that common words like 'the', 'there', 'and' and the like could be typed with minimal shifting of the index pointer.

However, there was never a standard developed for linear indexes. So there is no such thing as a 'qwerty' for linear indexes.

Clumsy as the linear index may appear to be, quite a few succesful machines with linear indexes were produced, including the German Frolio/Gundka.

The index of the Gundka is in fact slightly curved, but not enough to give it a place among the circular index machines.