Want to Make Your Own?
Peter Black created a Blender file and instructions HERE.
MAY 2024 UPDATE: I had a WONDERFUL meeting at The Oslo Public Library/Deichman bibliotek sharing a co-creation project I’m doing in which the antique IBM Selectric II typewriter can be given the power to type in Scandinavian runes (Elder Futhark) by using specially-printed balls and inserting them into the typewriter.
Now, if you go to the library to the makerspace/verksted on the 3rd floor and ask them to print you a ball they will and you can type poems, stories, and letters in that alphabet (you just need to source a Selectric II typewriter)! You may learn learn more about all this l this at the link below!
The next task for the project is to create balls that can type in the Ogham Cruinn script created by Dr. Adam Dahmer and Dustin Ashley that was designed to conform with Modern Irish and Scots Gaelic languages, while maintaining a connection with the earlier Ogham traditions
How this came to be
For several years, Andrew McGregor and Scottish engineer Peter Black discussed how one could create a typewriter that could type in Scandinavian runes. Then one day Peter proposed that using a Selectric ball would likely be easier than custom fabricating the typebars that hold one character each.
So, how to create a custom Selectric ball?
A conversation before a magic show in Los Angeles between color scientist Phil Warren and Andrew McGregor led to the implementation as the idea dovetailed with something Phil was already working on. Then, Phil set out to figure out how to map Scandinavian runes onto a 3D-printed ball.
How it works
The Elder Furkhat script was mapped to a 3D-printed ball replicating those used on a 1971 IBM Selectric II typewriter thus allowing us to type in Elder Futhark.
The 3d model of the ball was crated by Phil in OpenSCAD and the file sent to @joseph_has_an_unoriginal_name for a high fidelity 3d print.
COMING UP NEXT: Typing in the Ogham alphabet.
