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Thomas S Mullaney
Thomas S Mullaney
Thomas S Mullaney is a professor of Chinese history of Stanford University, a Guggenheim fellow, and the Kluge Chair in Technology and Society at the Library of Congress. He is the author or lead editor of six books, including The Chinese Typewriter, Your Computer is on Fire, and the forthcoming The Chinese Computer - The First Comprehensive History of Chinese-language Computing.

Online Chinese typing tools built on pinyin input – once thought unsuited – and using the power of predictive text allow phone and computer users to type in Chinese faster than anyone can in English.

Thomas S. Mullaney recounts how his unparalleled collection of early Chinese information technology came about and his failed quest to repatriate the items he had spent 15 years amassing.

In the 1940s, a revolutionary IBM Chinese typewriter took the world by storm. Thomas S Mullaney went in search of the remarkable woman who helped make it happen.