There’s 80 hammers, one for each character. They’re small.

But only 1 drum, which is a cylinder with a flat printing profile.

Imagine if you want to hammer a single nail, but with a steel beam in between:

  Hammer strikes here 
  v
  ============= Steel beam
  | | | | | | | 
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ wood

How does the second nail not get pushed in a little, too?

The hammer strikes the backside of the paper and presses it against the drum with the ribbon in between the drum and paper. The drum only rotates, it doesn't move otherwise. The ribbon and drum won't imprint a character unless something is pressing on the back of it.

Almost, the hammer strikes the ribbon and the front side of the paper. The drum is behind the paper.

Now I get it, thanks Ken!

Intuitively I thought the hammer was striking the back of the drum.. but now I see how that Won't Work.

It does, but you have to squeeze the ribbon enough to get ink out of it.

The print ribbon is simply drier than you are imagining.

Got it, thanks!