IBM Selectric typewriter review - and how it works!

IBM engineers were extremely clever folks. And whiffle tree. What a wonderful name for a mechanism!

Oh shoot, I wish you had gone into more detail about how the motor plays its role in all of this. I hope I find a video that actually does go into that. You were so close... and then yet... so far! Huhhh... Thanks for what you did show us, though!

"...But it's still deafening!"

Haha, not really. Quite the exaggeration there!

"...Because that was what everybody was used to at the time."

Maybe a majority, but not necessarily EVERYbody.

"...Whereas the Remington feels like a typewriter."
Actually, even with the Selectric's keyboard feeling like a computer's, it still feel's like a typewriter keyboard... because it IS one!

Man, with this typewriter being from the 60s but my mom not upgrading to one until the 80s (hers is LONG-gone now, though), I feel like this is way ahead of its time (and back then I honestly thought it was an 80s design; I was shocked when just several months ago I was taught that this is actually from the 60s), I'm surprised they already had the ability to delete! I originally thought this feature didn't come until the mid-80s!

"...Because no one was daft enough..."

Or so you guess, anyway. You could never be totally SURE about something like that.

So would you say that the interposers intersecting with the selector bails make up roughly the mechanical equivalent of the keyboard matrix that we know with computers today?

Oh my gosh, my electrical/electronic-geared mind would probably never have any idea how to design all these mechanical linkages!

Oh my heck, so these cables and levers have what amount to a combination of Boolean logic gates? It looks like that first set of levers you highlighted for us was sort of an AND and OR wired in series or series-parallel or something like that. Roughly correct?

"And now I can finally show you one."

Ha, you could show us one even if you hadn't found the working one... although rather limited in comparison.

I don't get it. Why would they cut the power cord off of something just because it's malfunctioning?

I used to repair these and other ball typewriters, like the Olivetti and Adler.

I had one as a computer printer on my TRS-80 M1 L2

My mother used to work on one of these typewriters back in the 70s. She worked at the Teachers Retirement Association inAustin Tx. Worked there for almost 14 yrs. She retired from there when we moved to the Ennis Tx. area. There were all kinds of typewriters there, but on her floor there were mainly IBM selectives I loved to hear them typing. They were so bad ass. Still are.

It must blow youngsters minds to find out IBM once an innovative company that wasn't just famous for illegally firing older staff

I have cerebral palsy on my right side which affects my ability to control my right hand precisely some teacher when I was in junior high had the bright idea that I should type for 3 hours a day and this extended into high school for many years I was tortured for 3 hours a day by a IBM selectric typewriter I have a brown one IBM selectric 3 you would think I would destroy it or something I used to have the IBM selectric two they forced me to type on

It's amazing when you consider that, technically speaking, the Selectric is also more-or-less a computational device all by itself. The complex mechanical system of pulleys and latches to precisely maneuver the Type Element are basically mechanical representations of logic gates.

I recently bought one of these, a Selectric III in black. A wonderful machine.

Gwen Shoal

Nice vid mate

Kaitlyn Forges

Botsford Union

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Jailyn Rue

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Now that's engineering

I envy your voice.

This one was how I found this channel! Been a while since I've put this one on, but paused to comment the sounds still trigger a deep sleep faster and thank you 😴

I used to service and repair them back in the '70's and early '80's in Johannesburg, Sth Africa. I could literally take it apart and reassemble it. You had to use special grease for something called spring clutch and occasionally replace the spring itself. It was definitely not a maintenance free machine, yet a wonder of mechanical engineering. In the last couple of years, IBM produced a model with an extra row of characters. Somebody had the ingenious idea of starting the movement, not from 0, but from -1, something simple but too complicated to explain here. Unfortunately, that made the machine even more sensitive.
I used to fix all types of typewriters and adding machines, the latter also incredibly complicated. There were also electric typewriters (Adler, Olivetti, Olympia etc) each with an entirely different kind of mechanism but with typebars. These were much faster than the golfball provided the typist had perfect timing fingers so as not to clash the typebars. You could type on them at the speed of speaking. Among them, the IBM proportional spacing - another ingenious mechanism yet with typebars, allowing m's to be wide and i's to be narrow.
Now, at the sunset of my life, I may not have travelled the world to see things, but I have come to know what I think is by far the greatest feat of mechanical engineering ever: the IBM Selectric golfball typewriter. I feel fully compensated.
Thanks for the beautiful article.

I wonder what the thinking was behind having the numbers and letters in that particular order?

I had an electric typewriter (not an IBM) that made that noise, too, when I was a kid.
I had no idea it wasn't supposed to do that lol.
I wonder what it is?

All that genius technology and innovation keeping the landfills warm in early 21st century.

My wife was reminiscing about her experience in a room full of people typing on these, 1979 to 1981.

ultimate THOCK

In the 1970's when I was in high school we had one of these. It was much better than the ones in the school library. I wonder what happened to it?

the force curve looks like the zealpc clickiez

A lot of electric typewriters have a motor with a flywheel that transmit their energy to the striking device. The motor runs at all times and the flywheel is heavy as to guarantee the energy burst required to be available and not to damage the motor. Perhaps the noise yours is making comes from that motor.

BTW, how the ball compares to the daisy? Thanks!

I had an original IBM TOOL BAG COMPLETE WITH PART MANUAL & REPAIR MANUAL.. I LEARNT DAY & NIGHT FOR YEARS I STILL HAVE SOME PARTS TILL TODAY.. THESE IKEY INTERPOSERS CAN BE FORMED/BENT TO FIX KEYS PRINTING DOUBLE CHARACTER SOMETIMES BY JUST LUBRICATING THE SMALL TRIGGER LEVER & CHECKING THE LEAF SPRING PRESSING IT... SIMPLE FIX. VELOCITY CABLE RIBBON MECHANISM HAS A TINT ROLLER THAT RIDES ON A A3 LOBE CAM . THAT CAN BE ADJUSTED .. THERE IS A COMPLICATED ESCAPEMENT RACK & COMPONENTS & TINY SPRINGS FOR ALLOWING THE ESCAPEMENT PAW TO TRIGER JUST FOR ONE SPACE SOMETIMES THIS PAW DOES NO IMMEDIATELY LOCK BACK UNTO THE ESCAPEMENT RACK CAUSING THE CARRIER TO JUMP 2 SPACES OR MORE SOME TIMES LUBRICATING WORKS & SOME TIMES FORMING THE ESCAPEMENT MECHANISMS & SOMETIMES INCRESING THE TINY SPRING TENTION