IBM's electric typewriter turns 50

Electric typewriters, especially models with memory and the ability to correct typed text, lasted longer than usual. I recall that the last factory for the production of typewriters closed only in April of this year . And in general, the appearance of electric typewriters was significant - it was thanks to them that new functions appeared, like memorizing symbols or text. One of the most advanced and, therefore, popular models of its time was the Selectric machine from IBM. Today she is 50 years old.

You probably shouldn't spend a moment of silence, but you can remember what this device was like. So, in this model, one of the first, the developers abandoned the moving carriage. Yes, yes, now it was not necessary to spend time on getting the carriage back into place - and by the way, the typist for a long time could not get used to it.
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In addition, in this model it was possible to change the layouts, fonts and symbols - this was possible for the first time. The machine was a little less than its counterparts, and when you consider the lack of a retractable carriage, then this device took up less space on the office desk than other models. Already in 1964, the new model Selectric, with a simple test editor.

This machine lasted long enough, until 1986, when IBM decided to abandon the entire model range. Below you can see the advertisement of that time, in which the advantages of this typewriter are shown, and everyone around is happy.



By the way, when I was a student, I remember that one of my classmates acquired some fancy electric typewriter with memory and other functions more typical of a PC. I don’t know, maybe a classmate is still working on this typewriter ... And another interesting fact from life - in one of the jobs where I worked, there was one employee who used to be considered the best typist of the city. What is interesting, all attempts to retrain her to work on a PC did not lead to anything. In the end, she even got sick because of the increased pressure - she was so afraid of all this modern technology.