A unique experimental typewriter stored in a New York state basement for decades turned out to be a one-of-a-kind piece of communications history. According to an announcement from Stanford University, historians and one unsuspecting granddaughter have rediscovered the long-missing MingKwai machine. However, instead of a more traditional setup the contraption featured five rows of keys topped with Chinese characters. After reaching out for help online, Felix realized her grandfather had been the owner of the MingKwai—one man’s innovative, if ultimately doomed, attempt to incorporate the Chinese language onto a mechanical typewriter. “The MingKwai Chinese typewriter combined ‘search’ and ‘writing’ for arguably the first time in history, anticipating a human-computer interaction now referred to as input, or shuru in Chinese.”Lin commissioned the Carl E. Krum Company to build the only known MingKwai prototype in 1947.