There's so much love between the printing element ball and the paper. A lot of "kissing".

Blimey, what an amazing machine.

Just think, with every keypress it has to raise the tape, rotate and tilt the ball, strike the paper, lower the ball, lower the tape, advance the carriage forward, and advance the tape. That's eight super precise movements that have to happen in a few milliseconds.

@HenryBloggit

3 жыл бұрын

And the ball has to rotate back to a neutral position after every keystroke before it can begin rotating to the next one.

@mosesberkowitz3298

3 жыл бұрын

and...the tape doesn't just move forward. You get 3 strikes, from bottom to top before it advances, so the machine is following a certain sequence. All mechanical, no microprocessors.

@tookitogo

2 жыл бұрын

@@mosesberkowitz3298 Insanely impressive IMHO. (Not that modern microelectronics aren’t _insanely_ insanely impressive, too, but that doesn’t diminish the Selectric to me.)

@mosesberkowitz3298

2 жыл бұрын

@@tookitogo To my Gen X mind, precision mechanicals like this (without any sort of microprocessor) is more impressive. Here's another one that just kills me kzread.info/dash/bejne/ioGl1sWRhLPAqaw.html

@tookitogo

2 жыл бұрын

@@mosesberkowitz3298 Oh yes, I love flap displays. I wish they’d kept the one here in Zurich.

Very cool footage. The quality the camera delivers is very good!

Back in the 90's, my computer company had exactly one typewriter, and it was one of these. We used it for typing checks. We used dot matrix and laser printers for everything else.

I had one of those! It was an upgrade from my old mechanical typewriter.

It's like it's giving a soft kiss, a friendly headbutt and gracefully belly touching.

@dr.angerous

3 жыл бұрын

disgusting omfg

My dad had one. This exact model. It made this sound. It had an underlying 60hz hum plus this, like, whirr that would phase in and out at around 1-2hz. It also had a distinct metallic smell. I think it's still around the house somewhere :/

@agnidas5816

2 жыл бұрын

Ah. That's why they didn't take off. That must be annoying as all fuck - typing at a little industrial motor all day. Secretaries threw that thing out asap:)

@Gr8thxAlot

Жыл бұрын

@@agnidas5816 They took off big time. These things were the gold standard of typewriters.

@Gr8thxAlot

Жыл бұрын

Ah, yes, I know that smell. Kind of like ozone and grease combined. It probably just means they need a good cleaning and tuning, but they take a lot of abuse regardless.

I was a IBM and Sperry Remington servicetechnician in Holland.

Amazing how long those mechanisms last with all that slop. I would think that the fasteners would wear down.

@nrdesign1991

5 жыл бұрын

Bear in mind the machine is half a century old, and has been beaten daily for many years.

@TheOmnipresent12

4 жыл бұрын

@@nrdesign1991 A credit to the machine when you think about it really.

@mosesberkowitz3298

3 жыл бұрын

The mechanisms are mounted on rubber and thus, shake a little. If they didn't vibrate a little on the rubber, (you call it slop) the machine would wear itself out very quickly.

@garcjr

Жыл бұрын

Considering (adjusted for inflation) these machines would cost over $3000 so I'm sure you want the best components for the time. No one will build a quality piece of electronics for business today.

WONDERFUL MACHINE ....IBM SELECTRIC 🙂

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy doge.

I am confused on what is happening with the tape, I am used to seeing fabric tapes that have the ink sucked in, and nothing is punched out of them, how does this type work instead, since it clear has punched out letters in the end.

@bountyhunter4885

3 жыл бұрын

It's a carbon film tape, that gets imprinted onto the paper. All you see on the film is the clear image of the type character that was used.

@Ramog1000

3 жыл бұрын

@@bountyhunter4885 oh thats cool ^^

@tookitogo

2 жыл бұрын

@@Ramog1000 The single use plastic ribbons like this give much sharper text than the fabric ribbons. They came in both permanent and correctable. (The latter didn’t adhere to the page as strongly, so a typewriter so equipped would actually backspace over the last letter, then type the same letter through a correction ribbon that was basically sticky tape that would lift the black letter off the page.) The advantage of fabric ribbons is that they were much, much, much cheaper to operate. Not only could you type over the same area of the ribbon over and over (just rewind the ribbon and use it again!), but you could easily and inexpensively re-ink the ribbon. Eventually it’d wear out and you’d replace it.

@KallePihlajasaari

5 ай бұрын

Back in 1988 or so there was a scandal at the university I went to (Wits) where some enterprising students had collected the used ribbons from the admin typing pool and reconstructed the exam papers to sell drafts on the black market before the big day. A few exams later they figured out the leak and the used ribbons were kept in the safe with the exam paper masters until after the exam date. Because the ribbons do not contain spacing information when one of the leaked papers was secured a spacing mistake clued them to the problem.

Why does the Z require the least movement? Wouldn't it have been designed the opposite way or am I missing something?

@EliosMoonElios

3 жыл бұрын

As it is electronic there is not a mechanical limit, it can be as fast as needed so the distribution doesn't matter, no need for eficient distribution.

@agnidas5816

2 жыл бұрын

@@EliosMoonElios it always matter. shieeeet....

You mean you did use your cellular iGadget and record this vertically? Good show.

1:14 kissing the paper with "Z" letter

FASTER!

@ChronosCameras

4 жыл бұрын

Never! :)

@mosesberkowitz3298

2 жыл бұрын

@@ChronosCameras Can you tell us how many frames per second this camera was filming at? I just watched a normal speed Selectric, and I"m guessing it's a couple hundred fps....