Coast man types into record books
THIRTY years ago, Les Stewart was told that in order to see his name printed in the Guinness Book of Records, he would have to do something extraordinary ... and bizarre.
So in 1983, after much consideration, he settled on a quest many said would be physically unachievable and extremely time-consuming.
The Mudjimba man began to type out all the numbers from one to one million in words, not numerals, with the Sunshine Coast Daily giving him the first of the seven manual typewriters he used.
The wacky feat took more than 16 years to complete, with Les swiftly inducted into the world-famous book.
The pensioner recently celebrated his 30-year-old record with the release of the new book, featuring his picture for the first time.
"I was really excited to see my picture this year because I knew some people were having a go at beating it by counting, but I think no one has tried to sit down and type it all out the way I did," Les said.
"I just did what I was best at and if you do what you're good at, then you're half way there."
Les's accomplishment also reached an international audience when his record was listed as the third-most bizarre world record ever on Oddee, a website which lists odd happenings around the world.
His record has remained at number three.
THE RIGHT TYPE
- Les Stewart holds the world's record of typing all numbers from one to one million in words (not numbers).
- He began in 1982 and finished with the entry "one million" on November 25, 1998.
- He used seven manual typewriters, 1000 ink ribbons, 19,890 pages.
- It took him 16 years and seven months to finish.
- His last lines were, "Nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine; one million".
