The Daily Novel

Over in Florida Dr Jose Sifontes has invented a method for turning municipal waste and horse manure into gas in just three weeks. Sifontes used to work for Mobil. But a few years ago (inspired perhaps by his theology degree) he decided to strike out on his own. He used his own money to do research and now he reckons he has got the thing working.

The full story is in a new blog The Fuelling Station (link under Work in the panel to the right of this one) which is on the Tampa Bay site associated with the St Petersburg Times. It is written by an ex-student of mine in the 1980s, David Adams.

Not only was he a good reporter and journalist but he took the trouble to learn the basic skil of touch typing which he found a bit difficult. Countless times as I left the office about seven I would find him alone in a room tapping away on an ancient Imperial typewriter.

That was long before the days of typingbytouch. He was using an ingenious invention by Robert Flanders. Flanders had worked for National Coal Board for most of his life but in the 1970s ended up managing something or other at The Financial Times, where the editor was having great difficulty in getting the Oxbridge graduate trainees to learn to type.

One night, lying in his bath, Flanders had an inspiration. A looseleaf pad with a typing exercise printed out double spaced. You tore off the sheet, inserted it into the typewriter, and typed the words in the space below. The Financial Times thought they should own this invention. So Flanders resigned, went back home to Lewisham and developed it there. He wrote the boy’s adventure story Tom’s Tale, which is part of typingbytouch. He patented the pad idea and made enough money to pay the mortgage for a few years.

But then the computers took over. And you cannot patent an idea. Though the same concept is used in most computer typing tutorials Bob had to find another way to earn his living. He generously told me I could use Toms Tale in my Writers Keyboard Tutor for free. I last heard from him a few years ago when he was using that program to teach dyslexics. His researches into the psychology of learning difficulties led him to believe that learning to type helped dyslexic’s to overcome their disability.

Bob was the sort of chap who was always more interested in solving interesting problems than making pots of money. Dr Sifontes sounds a man of the same ilk.