You never know what you are going to find in the Oxfam shop in Abingdon. Last weekend there was German typewriter. The top line does not read QWERTY as the Y and Z have been swapped. Letters with umlauts such as Ä, Ö and Ü have been added on the other side.
Nearby, the Oxfam shop also has a QWERTY typewriter.
As the centrepiece, on another table, there is a beautiful old Singer sewing machine.
In the next couple of weeks, when the date is confirmed, a jazz record enthusiast will be playing music in the shop and selling off some of his large collection to raise funds for Oxfam.
The ‘z’ is a more common letter than ‘y’ in German, so it helps to have it so the index finger uses the ‘z’. Also ‘z’ and ‘t’ are often used together in the language, so it helps to have ‘z’ and ‘t’ on the keyboard to be typed separately with both index fingers to avoid jams. Apparently …..