SR-71

gatt writes:

Trivia: This is why periods always go inside the quotation marks (helps me
remember): In the old days of mechanical printing presses and manual
typesetting, the letter pieces looked similar to the strikers on old
typewriters; rectangular pieces of metal. A period piece [.] was only half
as wide as a double-quote [' '] and if it was at the end of a line, which is
common at the end of quotes or paragraphs, the half-width, full-heighth
period piece could lean just a little and eventually wiggle lose. As the
inking/printing mechanism moved over the wayward period, the piece could
snap off and monkey up the works.

To compensate for this, printing press operators and typesetters ignored the
editors made a command decision: They started tucking the [.] inside the
square [' '] piece in order to secure it and hold it still. According to
an old typesetter at the Oregon State printing press, that's why the period
goes inside the quote as such: [.][' '] (end of line)

Urban legend. This would not explain why the period goes outside
quotation marks in British typography.

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