
The Selectric Typewriter - bookofjoe
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/selectric/
======
kabdib
I have a Selectric II, bought for $15 at a second-hand store. It's a glorious
machine for writing, the keyboard is second to none and words just seem to
flow out of my hands when I type on the thing. It's wonderful.

The problem is, the whole house can hear it. Every keystroke, _especially_
every carriage-return (those are like thunder). It beggars concerns about
super-clacky PC keyboards disturbing people. I cannot imagine what typing
pools and newsrooms sounded like in the 60s and 70s.

------
dbrower
The Selectric keyboard touch and feel was vastly superior to the best
mechanical keyboard you can get today.

Truly fabulous.

I really wish there had been a terminal or keyboard based on that. I like my
UNICOMP clacky, but I'd gladly pay $1000 for a Selectric-feel unit.

~~~
miles
> I'd gladly pay $1000 for a Selectric-feel unit.

 _The DasKeyboard Brings Back the Feel of an IBM Selectric_
[https://www.pcworld.com/article/251792/the_daskeyboard_bring...](https://www.pcworld.com/article/251792/the_daskeyboard_brings_back_the_feel_of_an_ibm_selectric.html)
"If you remember what it was like to type on an old IBM Selectric typewriter,
you know about what the experience of typing on the DasKeyboard ($129) is
like. The company actually had a couple of old IBM Selectric typewriters at
their booth."

 _Turning A Typewriter Into A Mechanical Keyboard_
[https://hackaday.com/2015/08/27/turning-a-typewriter-
into-a-...](https://hackaday.com/2015/08/27/turning-a-typewriter-into-a-
mechanical-keyboard/)

Relatedly: _Turning An IBM Selectric Into A Printer_
[https://hackaday.com/2012/06/13/turning-an-ibm-selectric-
int...](https://hackaday.com/2012/06/13/turning-an-ibm-selectric-into-a-
printer/)

~~~
kps
> _The DasKeyboard Brings Back the Feel of an IBM Selectric_

No. Not even close. Das use Cherry MX switches of various kinds, none of which
feel like a Selectric.

------
Fjolsvith
First job I had after leaving the Air Force was at an office supply store as a
technician. I learned how to clean this typewriter with carb cleaner and lube
it back up with Teflon oil. They last forever if cleaned yearly.

My mother could type over 100 wpm on one back when she was a young woman.

------
rmason
You cannot imagine how high tech looking those 'IBM ball' typewriters were
when they came out. Nobody called them selectric.

I remember when all the administrative staff got them at our school. When I
got to high school we wanted them for the school newspaper but got rejected.
We were told they were a 'serious tool' and far too expensive for mere
schoolchildren to be able to use.

------
avmich
Pretty interesting, though I disagree with the videos on www.engineerguy.com
that Selectric was a digital to analog converter. It converted a digital
signal - a key pressed - into a digital output - a glyph printed, though tilt
and turn take specific values from continuous range.

------
musicale
The swappable typefaces are wonderful - it appears that there were dozens of
them:

[https://typeballs.com](https://typeballs.com)

[http://typebarhead.blogspot.com/2012/04/ibm-selectric-
typeba...](http://typebarhead.blogspot.com/2012/04/ibm-selectric-typeball-
fonts.html)

[https://munk.org/typecast/2013/11/03/gp-ibm-selectric-
typeba...](https://munk.org/typecast/2013/11/03/gp-ibm-selectric-typeball-
catalog-font-styles/)

------
reaperducer
There's a zoning ordinance still in effect in downtown Chicago from the 1960's
that reserves a prime block of land for a 24-story IBM typewriter repair
facility.

[https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2019/12/12/odd-
chicago-z...](https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2019/12/12/odd-chicago-
zoning-rule-says-no-to-skyscraper-yes-to-typewriter-repair-shop/)

------
Simulacra
Soviet's spying on the Selectric:
[https://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/bugs/selectric/#gunman](https://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/bugs/selectric/#gunman)

------
drannex
I am inquiring about an IBM Selectric 251 typewriter[1], I believe it may be
in your back room.

[1].
[https://fringe.fandom.com/wiki/Store_Owner](https://fringe.fandom.com/wiki/Store_Owner)

------
lootsauce
The parent site IBM 100 lists many of IBM's historical highlights.

"Over the past 100 years, hundreds of millions of IBMers, clients, customers
and business partners all over the globe have helped IBM make the world work
better. To every single individual, thank you. We pledge boldness in IBM’s
second century to create a company that never stops moving toward the future.
Ever onward."[0]

Lofty speak, and not to be a party-pooper but I can't help but think, if we're
getting all nostalgic about IBM history, then part of me just can't help but
bring it up. IBM collaborated with Nazis and helped enable the holocaust which
has been well document by Edwin Black. [1]

As the Nazis invaded a country they would perform a census to identify the
undesirables to be removed to concentration camps. This was an industrial
scale data management and logistics problem that IBM was uniquely qualified to
facilitate. The fact that they did so is not contested although it is not
spoken of often and surely does not condemn today's IBM. We should however
take it as an object lesson in the double edged sword of technology and the
warning that we must restrain firms that would have us think they won't be
evil.

"...in the 2012 reissue Black presents a letter dated 1941 from IBM that
directed a Dutch subsidiary to work with Dehomag — years after business with
Germany was supposed to have ceased. Furthermore, according to Black’s 2012
evidence, Watson took a one percent commission on all profits made in business
with the Nazis, and had to personally approve all expenditures on said
business, such as bomb-fortifying Dehomag installations."[2]

"What Hitler has done to us through his economic warfare, one of our own
American corporations has also done . . . Hence IBM is in a class with the
Nazis . . . The entire world citizenry is hampered by an international
monster." \- Economic Warfare Section Chief Investigator Howard J. Carter [2]

[0]
[https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/](https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/)
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust)
[2] [https://allthatsinteresting.com/ibm-nazis-
ww2/3](https://allthatsinteresting.com/ibm-nazis-ww2/3)

~~~
Fjolsvith
> We should however take it as an object lesson in the double edged sword of
> technology and the warning that we must restrain firms that would have us
> think they won't be evil.

Somehow that makes me think of the motto of a big tech company.

History is so inconvenient.

