bring back 1960s tv shows like twilight zone too,back then tv was a narrator telling u a story,drawing u deep into a imaginary world with words,evoking all kinds of feelings and emotions like a book, dancing across ur mind with delight....storytelling was marvellous. todays picture tubes and big screens is chock full of action and explosions and incredible cgi and graphics.....but the story is non existent, the eyes are watching and registering images but the brain is empty,the alpha and beta and epsilon waves are dead.....the eyes are open like clockwork orange,but the patient is comatose.
The best thing about this "something from 60 years ago" is that contrary to your opinion it is not obsolete... you can't make typewriter carbon copies on modern non mechanical printer and it is important if you want to have two documents that you know they were printed together in the exact same time and on the exactly the same machine. Most likely also some companies using it for production of old fasion documents where you printing personal data in some legitimation. Why do you think typewriter carbon copies paper is produced to this day if this device is as you claim completely obsolete?
@@maunster3414 Ya, the old school legal assistants at Lawyers offices still like to use type writers. They still have a place when you have to fill out paper forms.
Later versions had backspace/ delete (with white tape) and then proceed with correction. The definition and density of type was way better than the competition as a one pass plastic ribbon was used. No ink.
It's better than modern stuff because it required actual engineering not simply telling a microcontroller exactly what you want and letting it do the hard work for you.
My dad was a Technical Specialist for IBM for many years. There were always typing elements laying around the house. If you think it hurts when you step on a LEGO in bare feet, you really have no concept of pain.
My dad was too! Never parts in the house, but his car was always full of them. Three big tackle boxes full of the itty-bitty parts, and my favorite, his IBM-supplied tool box, which looked like a briefcase - only fitting, since he also had to wear a suit with a white shirt & tie. "IBM Cleaning Fluid" was some mighty handy stuff, and later on it was joined by (I forget IBM's name for it) their version of Super Glue.
1980s: it takes only 5 seconds to change your fonts styles 2021: it takes only 5 seconds to dowload 2000 font styles and 2 hours to decide which one to use
"Someday all typewriters will work like the IBM _Selectric._ But why wait?" The simple confidence of this assertion is so powerful for some reason. A legitimately great slogan.
Ah brings back memories but not my hearing. I sat just in front of one of the fastest typists in the company. It was like being under machine gun fire.
Misfit-1 this is typer 37, I request 200 more sheets of paper, over. Typer 37 this is Misfit-1, we will send it shortly. ....... Typer 37 this is Misfit-1, Command wants to know How haven´t you ran out of ink? **-/*[¨{/+-*%#)***-/*[¨{/+-*%#)*... Misfit-1 this is typer 37, I request ink alongside the sheets of paper. (Teenager who has only seen a mechanical one, once in his life, please spare any ignorance)
@@vapourmile I'm 14 and I got 3. One electric smith corona, corona standard from 1935, and a webster xl-500. They're all different and are beutiful in every way. And I'm still on the hunt for more. Believe me when you get your first you won't stop typing
I repaired IBM Selectric typewriter’s back in the eighties in Toronto for all the big banks. Best job I ever had! It was just me and all the beautiful secretarys you could imagine. I sure miss those days.
I remember my junior high school had one of these in the counselor office area and the secretary in that office was a fast typist, so when she sat down to type something, you’d hear a few keys as she got her bearings, then a loud burst of static as she typed out the line, pause to start a new line, then repeat. 40 years later I can still hear Mrs. Mount typing away...
It's still amazing to realize how fast that thing whips around and stops accurately many times a second 😯 The inertial forces experienced in the parts must have been crazy.
I remember seeing it and using it for the first time in 1975 when I was 19 years old and got my first job in a bank on Praed Street, London. I was fascinated by it and marvelled at the ingenuity of it.
nah better show a bunch of inclusive teenagers doing stuff that has nothing to do with the product, because... you know... sell the dream not the product? but do charge for the product, not the dream.
"is a American Mid-Century mechanical wonder" Electromechanical, though. (Not to dismiss the fine mechanics making it work, of course, just there's still a motor that brought us that nice slo-mo insert in the ad.)
I did something worst: I was candidate to a job in the State Court of Justice in the 90's. The second phase of selective process was a typing test - on a school at Sunday. Each classroom (about 20 rooms) had 40 candidates and the same number of Underwood 198 typewriters. Can you think 800 typewriters starting at same time when the examiner said "Go"? It appeared a heavy ice rain destroying the roof.
My mother was a secretary. When we'd visit her office, the sound of this typewriter was extremely familiar. I even remember how impressed she was when the office switched over from the old kind of typewriter to this kind.
My grandmother had one of these when she was a secretary at a church in Wichita. Used it for years and kept it until it just quit working a few years, so she (sadly) chucked it because there aren't any trained typewriter mechanics in Arkansas except for one (who practices in Eureka Springs). I did get to use her Selectric II when I was in middle school and loved the way the keys felt and how the golf ball struck the characters onto the page at rapid speeds. Now as a 21 y/o college senior, I've possessed a Smith Corona Premier 100 for nearly two years and use it on a regular basis, but it's not the same as using an IBM Selectric (although those things are really heavy...).
33 years ago(aka 1986) I learned to type on one of these fine machines in high school. Looking back, typing was one of the most useful classes I ever took.
well, i'm not so sure. at least since the mid 90's, typing is kind of something you don't really have to take classes for. i remember being rejected from a typing course because i was "too young". when i got my computer, i realized i didn't need it, and i was extremely satisfied to see the place that rejected my application shut down shortly after, for what i'm assuming was a lack of business.
The IBM Selectric is a marvel of modern mechanical engineering. In its heyday, it was a BIG deal. Even after the first generation of Selectrics went out of production in 1971 in favor of dual-pitch machines--and in 1973 with correcting functionality--they were THE standard of what was considered to be the most valuable piece of office equipment you could have. I don't care how obsolete anyone now considers these machines to be...I will always own one (in fact, I own two of them), and I will always use it from time to time, if only for the sheer enjoyment I get out of using it. What's even more amazing about these typewriters is that they were only designed for a life expectancy of 20 years...and so many of them, decades and decades later, are still in use and sought after by collectors.
My mom still mentions when she got one of these for her job and how much of a step up they were. Seeing one of them in action puts that into perspective.
Ah the steady whir of the Selectric motor - that's a sound that takes me back. My grandmother had a Selectric III that she used at her desk up until she retired. While she could never get cheques to print correctly from the invoicing and payment software they used at her job, her selectric-typed cheques were perfect every time (and had the benefit of working well with carbon copy receipts where ink and laser printers don't).
Without a doubt. Every IBM typewriter is the best that you can get, bar none. From the 50s and 60s executive models to all the Selectric's, all are excellent machines. You can pick them up for a few hundred dollars now. And they're good Investments. You can still get all the elements and new ribbon too.
The narrator really makes this work. In most modern commercials the people selling you the product to a "I'm acting and I want you to know I'm acting" sound that screams disinterest. This guy really sounds like he believes this is the best thing ever. Not in a fawning way. But like he actually had a hand in making it and is proud of what he's made. And that's why this add works over 50 years later.
I know the Digital technology made all our lives easy ... But i am very fascinated with the mechanical way of things back then Type writer , film camera , audio disc , projector , watch etc .... What a great inventions ...
@@eidrag That assumes they allow other companies to license the patent. Many companies do not license their patents, they use them to corner the market on innovation for 20 years. Edited for typos
@@Dumythic_Teck 1961: "I just purchased the latest in typing technology!" 2021: "Grandma, what's this fascinating fossil I found in the attic?" Grandma: "Oh, dear, I can tell you stories about this wonderous device!"
My mother had one of these. We called it "the boat anchor" because it weighed A TON!!! I think the body was made of 100% cast iron. She loved it, and only gave it up five years ago.
Our church had a typewriter like this back in the late 90s. They used this typewriter from everything to creating pamphlets to creating the church newsletter. It's still there in the church office gathering dust because the supplier of the ribbon finally stopped selling back in 2000s. We weren't using the original IBM ones, but there was this third party company that still made equipment for this typewriter in our area and they went out of business.
feels like youtube is trying to create a typewritter trend, I've been getting a lot of these recommendations and I've never searched for typewritters in my whole life lmao
I can appreciate old commercials like this. No weird marketing just simple here is what it does and why its cool. Kind of miss how simple and sometimes even wholesome some commercials were.
About a week ago, I got this video recommended to me. I realized that my school has had one of these sitting dormant on a shelf for years now. I asked about it, now it’s mine! Took a little work, but still works great!
My Brother Word Processor, which used a daisy printwheel, had a script font. I used it for personal letters, it was a nice change of pace from the more business-like fonts.
I took typing II in 1973. The room was full of IBM Selectrics, around 30 or so. The room had a reel-to-reel tape deck for music during the speed tests. Imagine 30 Selectrics at full throttle while songs like Elton John’s “Funeral for a Friend/Live Lies Bleeding” or Percy Faith’s “Superstar” were playing. Fifty years later and I still get goosebumps. Those were the days!
When I was in the Army and we were first getting PCs we had an IBM Selectric with a Centronics port so we could use it as a printer. We also had a program that would allow you to type on a form & it would save what you typed. It had what I think is called a "mail merge" function so the PC could fill in all the common portions and then pause to allow you to type in the soldier specific data. Then it would resume filling in the rest of the form. Worked a treat when you had a whole battalion going through an annual records update.
I recall seeing these commercials when I was a child... particularly one highlighting the fact that there was even a type ball for the symbols used in Labanotation, a system of recording dance choreography. What I find amazing today is the idea of a company doing an expensive series of prime-time network broadcast commercials for a high-end office machine that definitely was NOT a consumer product, just because they wanted everybody to know they had invented something amazing. PS - the original Selectric had the best touch ever... if you were a halfway decent typist, your fingers could just fly on that thing...
I remember finding and playing with one of these when I was real little. Had no idea what it could possibly be used for. Now I do. Might have sparked my love of typography as a kid.
What always got me when the IBM PC came out -- the Selectric was a dream to type on. The touch was just perfect. Then the PC came out with a crappy, crappy keyboard, and you couldn't buy keyboards that felt like a Selectric. That always sort of bummed me out. Why couldn't they reproduce that feel?
What did you like? The loud whack of the head into the paper? The shaking of the desk? IBM is widely regarded as the best computer keyboard maker ever, with the keyboard on the IBM PC XT revered as one of the best computer keyboards ever made. And IBM's terminal days (pre PC) there were even keyboards that both looked and felt like the Selectric, some even including solenoids so you could have unreasonable levels of noise and shaking. What ya want, man?
Did you try beamsprings? All the mech varieties? Dont like any of them? I learned on a selectric and found ibm xt keyboards (model f) also to my tastes.
Regarded by whom, and of what era? Were the best a computer could have in 1982? I don't know. Even then I preferred the touch on a DEC VT220, although I still didn't think that measured up to the Selectric. Also, I'm fairly certain you meant to write that as past tense -- "the best keyboards a computer could have -- 30 years ago".
Tonnes of people on the internet, including literally 80% of the people on RUclips who make videos by the boatload comparing keyboards. Check out Chyrosan22 and others.
Robert, it appears you're in college and look to be in your younger 20s. If so, you're currently the age I was back at the time these keyboards were in real use, and you won't even be born for another 15 or more years. I find it exceedingly unlikely you have made your living using an original PC keyboard. I have. I also find it unlikely you have ever typed on a high quality office Selectric. I have. Heck, I find it unlikely you've ever TOUCHED an actual typewriter, but that's at least possible. I could be wrong about all that, of course. Warp -- you have a video of your 2-year-old. I'm guessing your age as 30-something. If so, that suggests most of what I said about Robert applies to you as well. It is likely that neither of you are speaking from personal experience. I watched a couple of Chyrosan22's videos. He admits he's reviewing vintage keyboards, and I won't argue that *for the time* the PC keyboard wasn't decent compared to other computer keyboards. Furthermore, from the typing demo, he appears to be about a 50-wpm typist, which is fine when you're thinking about what you're typing but shite if you're transcribing from shorthand, like my mother did. (The standard was 120 WPM. My best sustained was about 80, circa 1980, on a Selectric, but I'm an computer programmer and author, not a high end executive secretary.) But my comment was never a comparison between computer keyboards. My comment was specifically in comparison against a high end Selectic. And it was my personal experience that I could type significantly faster on the Selectric, and it felt better at the same time. Yes, I could type faster on a typewriter than I could into a computer, but only a high end Selectric and certainly not the portable I carried to college. Personally, I preferred DEC keyboards, but the differences between DEC and IBM PC keyboards wasn't that significant.
My parents are showing me this Letter-Ball, my dad kept one form his younger years. Tha k you for uploading this video ❤ they are soooo happy to see this machine working again
I know I have a computer that can hold more data in its RAM than these people thought was theoretically possible. But after using an old manual typewriter, this looks really nice.
Some of the most beautiful engineering went into this thing. I considered getting one a few years back, but then I learned about how there were folks who's entire job revolved around performing maintenance on them due to their sheer complexity (possibly putting watchmakers to shame!). This was a wild time for engineering & design; after all, this was the era of the first moon landing. Typing on one of these beauties remains on my bucket list. For now, my IBM model M keyboards will suffice, and then some. Thank you for sharing this commercial, it's great to see. You can really appreciate the "no-nonsense, business-oriented" flavor of old-school IBM.
I worked for IBM in the mid 60's and repaired those typewriters. Pretty easy to work on and fix. Later worked on the MTST which was the "automatic" version that kept the info on magnetic tape and played it back with the push of a button. PC's and lazer printers put them out of business.
Fun fact; The KGB developed a device to bug these and over the years they found several bugged selectric typewriters at various U.S embassies in the USSR.
I remember when they replaced these with plastic print wheels. The wheels won because they cost 1/25th the price to make. Didn't matter that they broke 4-5 times a year, you could afford to buy more for less than the cost on ONE of these.
Развлечения
"Someday all typewriters will work like IMB Selectric, but why wait?"
Absolute power sentence.
It was so needlessly ominous! Very fun
Smugvertisement.
bring back 1960s tv shows like twilight zone too,back then tv was a narrator telling u a story,drawing u deep into a imaginary world with words,evoking all kinds of feelings and emotions like a book, dancing across ur mind with delight....storytelling was marvellous.
todays picture tubes and big screens is chock full of action and explosions and incredible cgi and graphics.....but the story is non existent, the eyes are watching and registering images but the brain is empty,the alpha and beta and epsilon waves are dead.....the eyes are open like clockwork orange,but the patient is comatose.
@CC Oh no...
@@kasvos9292 You have to flog yourself 20 times for that! Unacceptable dude
You know an advertisement is good when it can make me want something from 60 years ago that's completely obsolete...
The best thing about this "something from 60 years ago" is that contrary to your opinion it is not obsolete... you can't make typewriter carbon copies on modern non mechanical printer and it is important if you want to have two documents that you know they were printed together in the exact same time and on the exactly the same machine.
Most likely also some companies using it for production of old fasion documents where you printing personal data in some legitimation.
Why do you think typewriter carbon copies paper is produced to this day if this device is as you claim completely obsolete?
@@Bialy_1 Actual examples, please? I've seen companies maintain dot-matrix printers for that purpose, but not for many years.
I would say it isn't obsolete since it works without the internet lol.
@@Mavrik9000, Brother makes typewriters albeit crappy ones.
@@maunster3414 Ya, the old school legal assistants at Lawyers offices still like to use type writers. They still have a place when you have to fill out paper forms.
Back when ads actually showed what the product does.
@omgwtfbbq Storytelling. Metaphysical concepts. Hot girls
Pretty hard to show how code and transistors or a capacitance touch screen work.
📠
@@Bartonovich52 well its easier now
now they just tell: you need to buy, because !
The slow motion part is priceless
Needs sounds and a porn soundtrack.
No no it’s the guys voice just listen to that Sultry voice.
It probably took about 10 miles of film roll to do that take
It's like a little kiss...
It looked like stop motion to me
damn, this thing is neat AF even by modern day standard.
Later versions had backspace/ delete (with white tape) and then proceed with correction. The definition and density of type was way better than the competition as a one pass plastic ribbon was used. No ink.
it really is a shame that all of these wonderful things reach obsolescence as soon as they are perfected
@@mariusberger3297 at least they earn historical and collection value.
It's better than modern stuff because it required actual engineering not simply telling a microcontroller exactly what you want and letting it do the hard work for you.
@@vinigretzky97 dude are you even hearing yourself right now XD
My dad was a Technical Specialist for IBM for many years.
There were always typing elements laying around the house.
If you think it hurts when you step on a LEGO in bare feet, you really have no concept of pain.
The "typing elements" were colloquially called "Golf Balls"... for obvious reasons :)
@@stoojinator I remember...
My dad was too! Never parts in the house, but his car was always full of them. Three big tackle boxes full of the itty-bitty parts, and my favorite, his IBM-supplied tool box, which looked like a briefcase - only fitting, since he also had to wear a suit with a white shirt & tie. "IBM Cleaning Fluid" was some mighty handy stuff, and later on it was joined by (I forget IBM's name for it) their version of Super Glue.
@@jongeers1954 Wish I could get my hands on some of that cleaning fluid that came in the gold metal gallon cans!
The foundation may be interested in these as a containment method.
1980s: it takes only 5 seconds to change your fonts styles
2021: it takes only 5 seconds to dowload 2000 font styles and 2 hours to decide which one to use
comic san it is...
1980?
Futura is the coolest font... It may not be the best, but it is the coolest.
still theres nothing quite satisfying as paper books and watching a mechanical machine at work.
tnr 12 pt.
"Someday all typewriters will work like the IBM _Selectric._ But why wait?"
The simple confidence of this assertion is so powerful for some reason. A legitimately great slogan.
can we appreciate how slow and calming the voice is. Commercials today are like 500 words per minute
5 gum commercials
"Slice" commercial
ruclips.net/video/o_n5mK2p69Q/видео.html
In the old days there were motortypists, now there are motormouths.
@@Murrel. this is exactly what i mean. Some commercials today are way too hectic
mega rush adhd mcdonalds culture, all thanks to piece of shit reagan
Ah brings back memories but not my hearing. I sat just in front of one of the fastest typists in the company. It was like being under machine gun fire.
Misfit-1 this is typer 37, I request 200 more sheets of paper, over.
Typer 37 this is Misfit-1, we will send it shortly.
.......
Typer 37 this is Misfit-1, Command wants to know How haven´t you ran out of ink?
**-/*[¨{/+-*%#)***-/*[¨{/+-*%#)*...
Misfit-1 this is typer 37, I request ink alongside the sheets of paper.
(Teenager who has only seen a mechanical one, once in his life, please spare any ignorance)
Sounds to me like PTSD.
I imagine hunter s thompson vietnam flashback on acid
u need to experience machine gun fire obviously
@@TBloodFPV
You need to look up how analogies work. Obviously.
A typist's dream. An engineer's worst nightmare. Those things were an absolute pig to fix.
Just buy another one. An accountant's wet dream.
Well thats the mechanics nightmare not an engineer
@@afish8883 a mechanic works on cars, not typewriters
@@memes_gbc674 mechanic works on mechanical.... not just cars.
@@mbpaintballa search up mechanic
I have access to technology people of this era could only dream of, yet I still am impressed by this typewriter and want to own one 😂
Me too! So stylish. Technology then was more exciting, and it still is even after fifty years.
@@vapourmile I'm 14 and I got 3. One electric smith corona, corona standard from 1935, and a webster xl-500. They're all different and are beutiful in every way. And I'm still on the hunt for more. Believe me when you get your first you won't stop typing
@Saudi King Volintine Ander of Arabia tech today are also art.
My grandparents had one when I was a kid until it went underwater in a flood in 2017. Now I have one from eBay
@@alexnajera3483 I have only Corona
Now just imagine any ad on TV these days. Bright colours, crazy editing and an overly excited voice over. I would take this any day
I was just thinking the 'Someday all typewriters will be like this - but why wait?' line was awfully even-handed and neat.
You're talking about food ads aren't you?
@@discountgumshoe3787 you want to be an SNL writer so bad
@Account Deleted Ten times That certainly was a series of words.
Compared to modern ads, this is almost an ASMR video
"Some day all typewriters will work like this"
They were spot on
Not really. Soon after, Daisy Wheel went into effect. Much cheaper to produce.
@@knerduno5942 - I think he was being sarcastic.
@@RFC-3514 He was quoting ad script
@@knerduno5942 - Sigh... You think "they were spot on" was part of the ad script? The ad script included a comment _about itself,_ in the past tense?
@@RFC-3514 What is the world are you talking about?
I feel like this method of changing fonts would be faster than scrolling through a list of a few hundred I'll never use.
And funner too
@Sum Bollz Yes more funner
@Sum Bollz finnyre
@Sum Bollz feng shui
You made the mistake of installing that free font pack for Open Office didn't you?
I repaired IBM Selectric typewriter’s back in the eighties in Toronto for all the big banks. Best job I ever had! It was just me and all the beautiful secretarys you could imagine. I sure miss those days.
Every other typewriter company has been silent ever since this dropped.
no it just seems so because their machines dont make so much noise
@@sk31370n Or maybe it's because most of them don't even exist anymore lol.
@@enzoperruccio r/wooosh
@@wardproductions2792 Cease
I loved this typewriter. I was clocked at 110 wpm on this machine. But they were so loud! It's no wonder I've lost my hearing!
Is it true that this typwriter weighted more than 1000 pounds or just a figure of speech?
figure of speech; they weighed less than 20 lbs.
Even if its less than 200 lbs, its still a lot
@@iskandermakhmudov my Olivetti Lettera clocks in at 9 Kg
@@jumbosilverette 31 lbs for the lightest Selectric I. 42 lbs for my Selectric III.
I remember my junior high school had one of these in the counselor office area and the secretary in that office was a fast typist, so when she sat down to type something, you’d hear a few keys as she got her bearings, then a loud burst of static as she typed out the line, pause to start a new line, then repeat. 40 years later I can still hear Mrs. Mount typing away...
Was she married to Mr. Bulge?
@@sk31370n goddamn you 😂😂😂
Was she hot??
It's still amazing to realize how fast that thing whips around and stops accurately many times a second 😯
The inertial forces experienced in the parts must have been crazy.
Gears are like that.
Not much mass. Those things were light as a feather.
The voice is the kind of voice I hear in a dream.
It's perfect.
I remember seeing it and using it for the first time in 1975 when I was 19 years old and got my first job in a bank on Praed Street, London. I was fascinated by it and marvelled at the ingenuity of it.
The good old days my friend ❤️
I'm still marvelled by it.
Damn the amount of class in that commercial, all topped off with "someday all typewriters will be like the selectric, but why wait?" Just perfection.
They should consider doing commercials this way again. Straight to the point and informative.
nah better show a bunch of inclusive teenagers doing stuff that has nothing to do with the product, because... you know... sell the dream not the product?
but do charge for the product, not the dream.
this is new iphone. it's biger and faster. the end
peoples then: why ads are so boring now
I wish they had shown the slow-motion scene a little longer--- This machine is a American Mid-Century mechanical wonder.
Look at this ! ruclips.net/video/izZ02t2UEGc/видео.html
@@sergioperroni5275 thank you!
"is a American Mid-Century mechanical wonder"
Electromechanical, though. (Not to dismiss the fine mechanics making it work, of course, just there's still a motor that brought us that nice slo-mo insert in the ad.)
Isn't IBM Japanese?..
@@tahunuva4254 Honestly? Of course not! Thats one of most American companies there is.
If you ever have been in an office with 50 typists click clacking away, only then will you know how truly loud these things where.
I did something worst: I was candidate to a job in the State Court of Justice in the 90's. The second phase of selective process was a typing test - on a school at Sunday. Each classroom (about 20 rooms) had 40 candidates and the same number of Underwood 198 typewriters. Can you think 800 typewriters starting at same time when the examiner said "Go"? It appeared a heavy ice rain destroying the roof.
Just how commercials should be short, sweet, and straight to the point.
Why are the voices in old ads so satisfying to listen to?
Because back then people didn't have attention spans of a few seconds, and didn't have to compete with the ever expanding amount of media of today
Microphones weren't as good so you had to be careful how you talked into them, and everyone smoked.
For a minute I believed that I need this.
My mother was a secretary. When we'd visit her office, the sound of this typewriter was extremely familiar. I even remember how impressed she was when the office switched over from the old kind of typewriter to this kind.
My grandmother had one of these when she was a secretary at a church in Wichita. Used it for years and kept it until it just quit working a few years, so she (sadly) chucked it because there aren't any trained typewriter mechanics in Arkansas except for one (who practices in Eureka Springs). I did get to use her Selectric II when I was in middle school and loved the way the keys felt and how the golf ball struck the characters onto the page at rapid speeds. Now as a 21 y/o college senior, I've possessed a Smith Corona Premier 100 for nearly two years and use it on a regular basis, but it's not the same as using an IBM Selectric (although those things are really heavy...).
You clearly love to type)))
God probably struck her down for impure thoughts about that lovely typewriter
@@THRASHMETALFUNRIFFS Who can blame her, damn thing's practically engineering pornography.
I found one of these in an old warehouse. It still works and it is awesome. So lucky to have a working piece of history.
Not even gonna lie. This is badass.
33 years ago(aka 1986) I learned to type on one of these fine machines in high school. Looking back, typing was one of the most useful classes I ever took.
Must of been at a "poor" school. I was typing on an IBM System 34 terminal ;-)
I totally agree. In 1962 we could only learn typing from the school secretary on Saturday, but it's a great skill to have learned well.
well, i'm not so sure. at least since the mid 90's, typing is kind of something you don't really have to take classes for. i remember being rejected from a typing course because i was "too young". when i got my computer, i realized i didn't need it, and i was extremely satisfied to see the place that rejected my application shut down shortly after, for what i'm assuming was a lack of business.
The IBM Selectric is a marvel of modern mechanical engineering. In its heyday, it was a BIG deal. Even after the first generation of Selectrics went out of production in 1971 in favor of dual-pitch machines--and in 1973 with correcting functionality--they were THE standard of what was considered to be the most valuable piece of office equipment you could have. I don't care how obsolete anyone now considers these machines to be...I will always own one (in fact, I own two of them), and I will always use it from time to time, if only for the sheer enjoyment I get out of using it. What's even more amazing about these typewriters is that they were only designed for a life expectancy of 20 years...and so many of them, decades and decades later, are still in use and sought after by collectors.
The ability to switch fonts like that is amazing!
Me: 1960 was only 40 years ago.
Reality: 1960 was 61 years ago.
Props to IBM for acknowledging that patents expire and innovation filters into the market.
My mom still mentions when she got one of these for her job and how much of a step up they were. Seeing one of them in action puts that into perspective.
0:40 Did I write an entire paper in "I Shit Italics"? You're god damn right I did.
Thank you for pointing this out, made my hour. haha
Haha
good eye.
Ah the steady whir of the Selectric motor - that's a sound that takes me back.
My grandmother had a Selectric III that she used at her desk up until she retired. While she could never get cheques to print correctly from the invoicing and payment software they used at her job, her selectric-typed cheques were perfect every time (and had the benefit of working well with carbon copy receipts where ink and laser printers don't).
Without a doubt. Every IBM typewriter is the best that you can get, bar none. From the 50s and 60s executive models to all the Selectric's, all are excellent machines. You can pick them up for a few hundred dollars now. And they're good Investments. You can still get all the elements and new ribbon too.
The narrator really makes this work. In most modern commercials the people selling you the product to a "I'm acting and I want you to know I'm acting" sound that screams disinterest. This guy really sounds like he believes this is the best thing ever. Not in a fawning way. But like he actually had a hand in making it and is proud of what he's made.
And that's why this add works over 50 years later.
Sixty years later, and STILL not all typewriters work like the IBM Selectric.
Truly, as a society, we are moving backwords.
That's really cool.
Being able to change fonts on the fly like that must have been huge back then.
And to think we live in an era where we can see this and laugh as we use MS Word to test out wingdings for the 200th time
MS Word is from the previous millennium... it was created in 1983 and it was not the first computer program that you could use to replace typewriter.
@@Bialy_1 true, but it’s still a technological marvel compared to the electric typewriter at the time
weird comment
9/11 prediction bruh
I wonder if IBM had made a Wingding Ball?
I know the Digital technology made all our lives easy ... But i am very fascinated with the mechanical way of things back then
Type writer , film camera , audio disc , projector , watch etc ....
What a great inventions ...
"Soon every typewriter will work like this one"
Um, no IBM, you patented the utility. So you will sue them if they try! lolol
not sue, just charge for license
@@eidrag and sue if they refuse to pay the licence
@@eidrag That assumes they allow other companies to license the patent. Many companies do not license their patents, they use them to corner the market on innovation for 20 years.
Edited for typos
He said "someday", not "soon". Patents don't last forever.
"Someday all typewrites will be like IBM Selectric, but why wait?": amazing dialogue.
There'a only one person speaking
*monologue
1961: "Someday all type writers will work like this".
1970: "Except daisy wheels are cheaper and faster!"
2021: "What's a typewriter?"
...is that a new App?
Young people arent idiots just because we dont use technology from the past doesnt mean that we arents fascinated by it.
also 2021: What is a Nokia...
@@Dumythic_Teck 1961: "I just purchased the latest in typing technology!"
2021: "Grandma, what's this fascinating fossil I found in the attic?"
Grandma: "Oh, dear, I can tell you stories about this wonderous device!"
@@Dumythic_Teck just found out books used to be printed on paper????
My mother had one of these. We called it "the boat anchor" because it weighed A TON!!! I think the body was made of 100% cast iron. She loved it, and only gave it up five years ago.
Our church had a typewriter like this back in the late 90s. They used this typewriter from everything to creating pamphlets to creating the church newsletter. It's still there in the church office gathering dust because the supplier of the ribbon finally stopped selling back in 2000s. We weren't using the original IBM ones, but there was this third party company that still made equipment for this typewriter in our area and they went out of business.
feels like youtube is trying to create a typewritter trend, I've been getting a lot of these recommendations and I've never searched for typewritters in my whole life lmao
You don't have to search, just look at one and Youtub latches on to you.
Have you been interested in other mid-century topics ?
We already have a Polaroid trend so why not
Nah it's just the algorithm hooking you onto the next good stuff
it seems they're trying it again
Finally my life questions answered...
I was wondering what the hell is this font covered odd shaped ball that my mom uses it as a sewing kit holder
I have one of these. And in 2023, the technology still amazes me.
Agreed
Can't wait for the ad where they show us how this is gonna help us recover from Covid-19 👌
"We're with you in these trying times, buy product"
I learned to type on this. Coolest typewriter ever!
An icon of American industrial design
I can appreciate old commercials like this. No weird marketing just simple here is what it does and why its cool. Kind of miss how simple and sometimes even wholesome some commercials were.
For those who don’t have it, it’s an amazing typewriter with a great idea and barely any misprints
Back when products were built to last and customer satisfaction was a priority.
Before planned obsolescence
My previous PC lasted for 10 years. It's still working but do feel dated for my current workloads.
*This is the best thing that's happened to typing since electricity*
I learned to type in high school on that typewriter in 1979. No more jammed strike arms!
The fact that you have to watch an ad for 15 seconds to watch another ad only to be followed by another 15 second ad. What a world we love in
I loved it! That was great to use this typewriter.
Damn, now I want one of those too.
This takes "Typing with your balls" to a whole new level
About a week ago, I got this video recommended to me. I realized that my school has had one of these sitting dormant on a shelf for years now. I asked about it, now it’s mine! Took a little work, but still works great!
Trabalhei com uma máquina Composer no Banco Itaú (Merchandising) nós anos 90, fazia a atualização dos catálogos de produtos do Banco. Maravilhosa!!!!
I loved the cursive font! The IBM Selectric typewriter was the only typewriter to feature a cursive font (correct me if I'm wrong).
There were a few other machines that offered a cursive font BUT they didn't have the IBM Selectric cursive font, which was better!
My Brother Word Processor, which used a daisy printwheel, had a script font. I used it for personal letters, it was a nice change of pace from the more business-like fonts.
I took typing II in 1973. The room was full of IBM Selectrics, around 30 or so.
The room had a reel-to-reel tape deck for music during the speed tests.
Imagine 30 Selectrics at full throttle while songs like Elton John’s “Funeral for a Friend/Live Lies Bleeding” or Percy Faith’s “Superstar” were playing.
Fifty years later and I still get goosebumps.
Those were the days!
When I was in the Army and we were first getting PCs we had an IBM Selectric with a Centronics port so we could use it as a printer. We also had a program that would allow you to type on a form & it would save what you typed. It had what I think is called a "mail merge" function so the PC could fill in all the common portions and then pause to allow you to type in the soldier specific data. Then it would resume filling in the rest of the form.
Worked a treat when you had a whole battalion going through an annual records update.
Interesting, this old ad is engineered to be precisely 1 minute.
Yeah, because they bought 1-minute timeslots to run it in lol
just bought mine today 31st of January 2018
I recall seeing these commercials when I was a child... particularly one highlighting the fact that there was even a type ball for the symbols used in Labanotation, a system of recording dance choreography. What I find amazing today is the idea of a company doing an expensive series of prime-time network broadcast commercials for a high-end office machine that definitely was NOT a consumer product, just because they wanted everybody to know they had invented something amazing. PS - the original Selectric had the best touch ever... if you were a halfway decent typist, your fingers could just fly on that thing...
My family's first computer was some new IBM model intel i386 pc with windows 3.1. But ,before that, I remember we had a fancy electric typewriter.
I love how the director probably had hundreds of fonts to choose from but went with ''SHT ITAL''.
Director must have been French.
Pardon his french?
Whoa! My sister worked in an office in 1960 and received the first of the Selectric and it was truly the "Cat's Meow" and she was envied!! Uhmm?? LOL
That IBM selectric had one of the best keyboards out there. The feel of that click was so solid.
I remember finding and playing with one of these when I was real little. Had no idea what it could possibly be used for. Now I do.
Might have sparked my love of typography as a kid.
Can it run CS:GO?
Source only :)
Ye but you need mac for. It
@Użytkownik bez nazwy. r/woooosh
@@luckyducki r/r/woooosh
Alpha Beta
r/r/r/whoosh
Off the hook. The ball is called an element
A lot of angles got there wings in the making of this movie.
something i love about old old film is when the camera is stationary, but theres just a slight wibble wobble of the screen
What always got me when the IBM PC came out -- the Selectric was a dream to type on. The touch was just perfect. Then the PC came out with a crappy, crappy keyboard, and you couldn't buy keyboards that felt like a Selectric. That always sort of bummed me out. Why couldn't they reproduce that feel?
What did you like? The loud whack of the head into the paper? The shaking of the desk?
IBM is widely regarded as the best computer keyboard maker ever, with the keyboard on the IBM PC XT revered as one of the best computer keyboards ever made.
And IBM's terminal days (pre PC) there were even keyboards that both looked and felt like the Selectric, some even including solenoids so you could have unreasonable levels of noise and shaking. What ya want, man?
Did you try beamsprings? All the mech varieties? Dont like any of them? I learned on a selectric and found ibm xt keyboards (model f) also to my tastes.
Regarded by whom, and of what era? Were the best a computer could have in 1982? I don't know. Even then I preferred the touch on a DEC VT220, although I still didn't think that measured up to the Selectric.
Also, I'm fairly certain you meant to write that as past tense -- "the best keyboards a computer could have -- 30 years ago".
Tonnes of people on the internet, including literally 80% of the people on RUclips who make videos by the boatload comparing keyboards. Check out Chyrosan22 and others.
Robert, it appears you're in college and look to be in your younger 20s. If so, you're currently the age I was back at the time these keyboards were in real use, and you won't even be born for another 15 or more years. I find it exceedingly unlikely you have made your living using an original PC keyboard. I have. I also find it unlikely you have ever typed on a high quality office Selectric. I have. Heck, I find it unlikely you've ever TOUCHED an actual typewriter, but that's at least possible.
I could be wrong about all that, of course.
Warp -- you have a video of your 2-year-old. I'm guessing your age as 30-something. If so, that suggests most of what I said about Robert applies to you as well.
It is likely that neither of you are speaking from personal experience.
I watched a couple of Chyrosan22's videos. He admits he's reviewing vintage keyboards, and I won't argue that *for the time* the PC keyboard wasn't decent compared to other computer keyboards. Furthermore, from the typing demo, he appears to be about a 50-wpm typist, which is fine when you're thinking about what you're typing but shite if you're transcribing from shorthand, like my mother did. (The standard was 120 WPM. My best sustained was about 80, circa 1980, on a Selectric, but I'm an computer programmer and author, not a high end executive secretary.)
But my comment was never a comparison between computer keyboards. My comment was specifically in comparison against a high end Selectic.
And it was my personal experience that I could type significantly faster on the Selectric, and it felt better at the same time. Yes, I could type faster on a typewriter than I could into a computer, but only a high end Selectric and certainly not the portable I carried to college.
Personally, I preferred DEC keyboards, but the differences between DEC and IBM PC keyboards wasn't that significant.
Wikipedia ball, is that you?
That sound reminds me of my grandfather's clinic back in the 1970s. The secretary was always typing on those giant electric typewriters!
My parents are showing me this Letter-Ball, my dad kept one form his younger years. Tha k you for uploading this video ❤ they are soooo happy to see this machine working again
"Someday all typewriters will work like IMB Selectric"
Wow I didn't know my keyboard had a little tiny ball in it!!!
Hmmmmm, see if you can spot a difference here: k e y b o a r d..........................t y p e w r i t e r
@BathRo Not just that, but they copied the top liked comment and kept the *same* typo
Cringe x2
I don't know why the almighty Algorithm™ chose to suggest me this video in late April of 2021 but I liked it very much, indeed. Hail The Algorithm™!
I know I have a computer that can hold more data in its RAM than these people thought was theoretically possible. But after using an old manual typewriter, this looks really nice.
Some of the most beautiful engineering went into this thing. I considered getting one a few years back, but then I learned about how there were folks who's entire job revolved around performing maintenance on them due to their sheer complexity (possibly putting watchmakers to shame!). This was a wild time for engineering & design; after all, this was the era of the first moon landing. Typing on one of these beauties remains on my bucket list. For now, my IBM model M keyboards will suffice, and then some. Thank you for sharing this commercial, it's great to see. You can really appreciate the "no-nonsense, business-oriented" flavor of old-school IBM.
Keyboards 15 years later: Ima end this mans whole career
Hipsters 35 years after that: Im gonna ironically resurrect this man's whole career.
Now they want us to go back to foldable phones. Hilarious.
I worked for IBM in the mid 60's and repaired those typewriters. Pretty easy to work on and fix. Later worked on the MTST which was the "automatic" version that kept the info on magnetic tape and played it back with the push of a button. PC's and lazer printers put them out of business.
Fun fact; The KGB developed a device to bug these and over the years they found several bugged selectric typewriters at various U.S embassies in the USSR.
clack clack clack clack DING!
clack clack clack clack DING!
I remember when they replaced these with plastic print wheels.
The wheels won because they cost 1/25th the price to make. Didn't matter that they broke 4-5 times a year, you could afford to buy more for less than the cost on ONE of these.
I'm watching this from 2021.
And this ad has me impressed about tech from the 1960's. 😯
Thats groundbreaking, Cant wait for this product to hit the market ..