Nigel_Knowital Report This Comment Date: November 26, 2007 10:05PM
I did not know, but I know where to look!
"Before there were computers, "etoain shrdlu" would occasionally
appear in newspapers (especially in early sports news editions). It happened
whenever a linotype operator realized that he had made a typographical error. It
was the nature of those machines that a line started had to be finished in order
to flush pieces of type already on the way to be set. Due to the way the machine
was designed, "etoain shrdlu" was the most efficient phrase possible
for this purpose. Most of the time, the frame of type for the page would be
manually fixed. For some early editions, there was no time to fix the problem,
resulting in "etoain shrdlu" being published."
Found on VBforums
Amanda Report This Comment Date: February 06, 2009 12:42AM
Wow, thanks for this info. I couldn't even find it on the ol' Wikipedia! You're
awesome. :3