In case anyone else wants to play around with this same idea, here is the list of word lengths from the May 19, 1972 memo that I've put together (it doesn't cover every word, but should be good enough):

call 5 + 5 + 3 + 3 = 16 units
will 8 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 17
also 5 + 3 + 4 + 6 = 18
File 7 + 3 + 3 + 5 = 18
he’s 6 + 5 + 3 + 4 = 18
drill 6 + 4 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 19
told 4 + 6 + 3 + 6 = 19
says 4 + 5 + 6 + 4 = 19
that 4 + 6 + 5 + 4 = 19
unit 6 + 6 + 3 + 4 = 19
date 6 + 5 + 4 + 5 = 20
how 6 + 6 + 8 = 20
May 9 + 5 + 6 = 20
now 6 + 6 + 8 = 20
have 6 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 21
with 8 + 3 + 4 + 6 = 21
Says 6 + 5 + 6 + 4 = 21
staff 4 + 4 + 5 + 4 + 4 = 21
time 4 + 3 + 9 + 5 = 21
been 6 + 5 + 5 + 6 = 22
Bush 7 + 6 + 4 + 6 = 23
from 4 + 4 + 6 + 9 = 23
1972 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 24
fixed 4 + 3 + 6 + 5 + 6 = 24
three 4 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 5 = 24
come 5 + 6 + 9 + 5 = 25
flight 4 + 3 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 4 = 25
other 6 + 4 + 6 + 5 + 4 = 25
think 4 + 6 + 3 + 6 + 6 = 25
could 5 + 6 + 6 + 3 + 6 = 26
about 5 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 4 = 27
wants 8 + 5 + 6 + 4 + 4 = 27
Memo 9 + 5 + 9 + 6 = 29
Phone 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 5 = 29
would 8 + 6 + 6 + 3 + 6 = 29
talked 4 + 5 + 3 + 6 + 5 + 6 = 29
accept 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 4 = 30
follow 4 + 6 + 3 + 3 + 6 + 8 = 30
coming 5 + 6 + 9 + 3 + 6 + 5 = 34
options 6 + 6 + 4 + 3 + 6 + 6 + 4 = 35

Might be useful to link to this, too, in which a Selectric Composer was used to actually try to duplicate part of a forged Killian memo.

Your examples of the functioning of unit values for calculating type width are not true for the IBM Composer according to IBM's website. The reason why is that that model of typewriter had the capability to adjust the unit value to justify or adjust the type on the document. This would be true for non justifying typewriters but not the IBM Composer. Also, that typewriter was actually a typesetter for the production of press ready documents, so the type would show up as almost word processing - laser print quality.

J. Smith

True, J. If you had a cold type typesetter in your National Guard office and you had training on it, and extra type balls, you could do proportionate and superscript.

But you'd still have to wait a decade or so for the font face with the same spacing as the memos.

Other than that - no problem.

John:

A couple of points: the IBM Selectric Composer did not achieve justified margins by varying the spaces within words. It varied the spaces between words:

"To justify a line of type printed with the SELECTRIC Composer, it is necessary to vary the amount of space between words (but not between characters within a word) to maintain the proportionality of the characters."

That's from this site.

The spacing for characters on the IBM Selectric was determined mechanically, which is spelled out in great detail here. There were fixed units assigned to characters, with those "units" having the ability to be varied for a given font. It did not have the ability, as Word does, to make alterations to word spacing on the fly (unless you switched type balls, of course).

I hope this makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't and I'll take another crack at it. If I've misunderstood your point, or am otherwise incorrect, let me know and I will endeavor to address things.

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