I thought I had hit the jackpot when I got my first one of these! RIP, Friend. You were a faithful companion for many, many years. *SNIF*
Posted on 12/21/2009 3:58:20 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
TAMPA — For the first time in history, it allowed a human to tap a backspace key and make a mistake go away.
Called "Selectric II," it was conceived when Richard Nixon was president, when IBM made typewriters and when a hand-typed card catalog tracked every book at Tampa's downtown library.
Librarians got machines for the public, giving each a room of its own with walls the shade of an avocado. The workhorses spit out labels for spines of books and stamped Dewey decimals on paper cards. They typed resumes, got people jobs.
But sometime around the election of Ronald Reagan, IBM teamed up with a 32-person company called Microsoft and started selling "personal computers" for $1,565 apiece.
In 1982, Time named the computer Man of the Year.
After that, computers got lighter, cheaper. Libraries stocked up, monitors aglow.
No one watched as vandals slipped into the avocado rooms and did wretched things to typewriters. Soon they were kept behind locked doors.
Four public typewriters became three. Then, two. One.
Then sometime last week, the typewriter hammered over the same spot again. And again. Its ribbon refused to advance. Even the backspace key could do nothing to help.
Librarians rushed to find a second typewriter, one they'd kept hidden in case this one broke. But it, too, refused to comply.
If people asked — and not many did — librarians sent them half an hour away to Ruskin, where the last working county library typewriter remains. They called a repairman who gets maybe five jobs a month and takes payment only in paper checks. For $60 plus parts, it will be good as new.
Until then, the downtown library's last typewriter sits alone behind a locked door, shrouded with a paper sign, which in big, bold letters reads:
OUT OF ORDER.
Typed on a computer.
I thought I had hit the jackpot when I got my first one of these! RIP, Friend. You were a faithful companion for many, many years. *SNIF*
Wayback Machine.
Darn. I really like my Selectric 251.
Don’t worry, one decent EMP and they’ll be worth their weight in gold.
High tech,man!
Actually, I think there was a Selectric and a Correcting Selectric. Also there was a Selectric III.
I have a Correcting Selectric II, bought from a former employer for $80 when the employer wanted to dump its machines. Alas, there are problems with it, but I can’t find anyone to repair it (I doubt repair places could even get parts for it).
I loved those machines. When I first started out as a secretary, I used a manual typewriter, then a Royal Electric, then gradually moved into the IBM Selectric/Correcting Selectric lines. To this day, I still think I can type an envelope faster on a typewriter than I can type and print an envelope on a computer. They were also good for forms you can’t fill in with a computer.
Wow you had one of those ? You must be really old ....(Ducking for cover)
We had a lady in out unit that could jam that thing she typed so fast. She was the CO’s clerk of course.
Time goes on......
Life and functionality extended with computer interface installed in Selectrics. Used it as first wordprocessor output printer. RIP!
Still have two of them.
I’m sure Dan Rather will miss his.
I loved mine!
You can still get them. I just found a “professionally reconditioned” Selectric 111 on Ebay.
Found it with mah trusty macbook.
I typed my master’s thesis on one in 1984.
It’s gone, but I salvaged three `daisy wheel’ models in our office. Got two to work, have cartridges with both text and correct-tape in reserve.
Still easier to type an envelope address on a typewriter, JMHO.
I pounded out newscast copy 1976-80 on a Selectric. All caps. Never used the correcting feature.
In its day, the most stolen office machine. That’s quite a tribute to the Selectric.
I took typing classes on Selectrics and used them for research papers. They were good machines. I have an old brother electric typewriter that still works; or did last time we fooled with it.
Not that I'm looking.
I learned to type on a selectric. I was one of a handful of guys in high school who took typing (Thanks Mom!).
I think it’s no coincidence that I’m in IT. Being able to type has been invaluable.
Sure wish I could find a keyboard that had the same touch as a Selectric...
I was at Smith Corona (software engineering contractor) when they went under. Desperate to satisfy shareholders, they lost sight of the fact that there was a market for typewriters, and foolishly tried competing with computers, and failed.
***To this day, I still think I can type an envelope faster on a typewriter than I can type and print an envelope on a computer. They were also good for forms you can’t fill in with a computer.***
AMEN, AMEN, AMEN.
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