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On 25 November 1998, after 16 years at the typewriter, Les Stewart from Mudjimba (Australia), reached his goal of typing every number from one to one million - in words (not numbers) on his manual machine. He started his marathon task in 1982 as therapy following an accident and a serious illness. Seven manual typewriters, 1,000 ink ribbons, 19,890 pages, 16 years and seven months later, he finished with the lines “nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine,” then “one million”.
When asked why he undertook this time consuming and repetitious task, Les says that he had little else to do now that he had been classed as an invalid, and can no longer work. Besides that, Les enjoys typing and used to be a police typing instructor before his sickness which meant his withdrawal from the force. Typing an average of three pages a day with one finger since April 1982, Les said his secret was to type for 20 minutes on the hour, every hour.
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