The IBM Selectric was a highly successful line of electric typewriters introduced by IBM on 31 July 1961.
IBM Selectric I
A Selectric typing element
IBM Selectric I
IBM Selectric II (with dual Latin/Hebrew element and keyboard). The switch to the right of the backspace key shifts the machine to right-to-left typing, as is required for Hebrew. Note also the two typing position scales, one numbered left to right, the other right to left.
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectively against the paper with a type element. At the end of the nineteenth century, the term 'typewriter' was also applied to a person who used such a device.
Mechanical desktop typewriters, such as this Underwood Typewriter, were long-time standards in government agencies, newsrooms, and offices.
Peter Mitterhofer's typewriter prototype (1864)
The 1969 Olivetti Valentine typewriter, featured in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York; London's Design Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum.
An Elliott-Fisher book typewriter on display at the Historic Archive and Museum of Mining in Pachuca, Mexico
