Hey there old sport! Your video is an absolutely fascinating dive into the world of the IBM Selectric Composer. It's amazing to see this impressive piece of technology in action, especially since it sits right at the intersection of typewriting and typesetting. Watching your demonstration, I can only imagine how revolutionary this machine must have been for newspaper and magazine production back in the day. Considering it offered a cost-effective solution for typesetting, even with its $30,000 price tag in today’s money, it must have been a game-changer compared to alternatives like the Linotype! I really appreciate your detailed explanation of how the Composer achieves variable character spacing. It's such a crucial feature for typesetting, allowing for proportional spacing of characters. The clever escapement mechanism that adjusts for the width of different letters is a testament to the sophisticated engineering behind the Selectric Composer. You made it easy to understand how this machine was able to produce text that closely resembled professional typesetting. The difference between the Composer and a standard typewriter is so clear, especially with those intriguing knobs for character spacing and justification. It’s obvious that every aspect of the Composer was designed with precision and purpose. The Composer’s ability to handle multiple languages with its interchangeable elements and language wheel is particularly impressive, highlighting its versatility at a time when multilingual publications were becoming more prominent. Your explanation of the justification process and the use of the justification tube was enlightening. The mechanical memory with its 60-unit capacity is a marvel, and your demonstration of the backspace mechanism showcased the level of thought IBM put into making this machine user-friendly yet powerful. The nuances involved in manually adjusting the velocity for certain characters really illustrate how much customization was possible with the Selectric Composer, truly setting it apart from typical office typewriters. I found your walkthrough of the Composer's setup for different font sizes and the justification procedure thorough and insightful. It's fascinating to see how each element, from the pitch selector to the platen knobs, plays a role in creating beautifully justified text. Your detailed explanation of how space bar width selection affects justification really highlights the precision and care needed to operate this machine effectively. I have to say, hearing your voiceover brought back some funny memories from our college days! Your English accent has that unmistakable Finnish rally twist we both perfected in those endless English conversations. Kudos for having the courage to do a voiceover-you really brought the video to life! The production value was fantastic, with clear visuals and a smooth narrative that made the whole presentation engaging from start to finish. A few questions came to mind while watching your video: How long have you had this machine, and how much have you used it? Also, are there any particular challenges you’ve faced while using the Composer that you didn’t cover here? The quick history facts at the beginning were a nice touch-are you planning on making another video focusing solely on the history of the machine? Furthermore, I noticed that this is Part 1 of your series on this glorious machine-what other parts do you have in mind, and what can we expect to see next? Thanks for this engaging demonstration. It’s videos like these that preserve the legacy of such iconic machines, giving us insight into the evolution of text production and the technological advancements of the past. Can't wait to someday see this beautiful piece of engineering in the flesh and try out all of those exquisite features myself. Keep up the great work! -MossMasa
Thank you for the kind words my friend! Due to scarcity and very complicated mechanics there are ~5 fully working Composers in the whole world so I'm quite proud to have brought this one back to life from a state of utter disrepair. I wanted to document the machine and its use since none of the other 4 people have done so, hopefully it'll be useful to someone repairing a Composer in the future, and at least a little entertaining for the rest. This video was mainly aimed at people who are already familiar with the general operating principles of the regular IBM Selectric, for those who aren't, this video by The Engineer Guy does a nice job showing how the type element works: ruclips.net/video/bRCNenhcvpw/видео.html I've been working on cleaning, repairing, and adjusting for about 6 months, haven't had too much time to really type on it yet but the hard part is done. Most of the challenges with this machine were faced in the repair phase, finding type elements and spare parts is almost impossible. It's not really meant for casual typewriting so there are no correction features like some other electric machines of the era, but otherwise it's a really great machine to type on. I optimistically named this video "Part 1", we'll see how long it takes for the next entry to be finished. I was planning on talking about the history and use of the machine, and then videos focusing on different mechanisms of the machine as they are incredible marvels of engineering. You're welcome to come and test out "King Ghidorah" anytime!
I was employed by a Scientific publishing house in the late 60s/early 70s and we used these machines to typeset our magazines. Brought back great memories! We initially pasted the galleys using Cow Gum (a rubber cement) and looking back it was amazing we didn't blow ourselves up with the fumes and most of us smoked! We eventually got a wax coating machine to stick down the typesetting - thank goodness. Not sure if you will cover it, but the progression after this machine was putting the information on to magnetic tape, so obviating the need to type everything twice!!
Hey there old sport! Your video is an absolutely fascinating dive into the world of the IBM Selectric Composer. It's amazing to see this impressive piece of technology in action, especially since it sits right at the intersection of typewriting and typesetting. Watching your demonstration, I can only imagine how revolutionary this machine must have been for newspaper and magazine production back in the day. Considering it offered a cost-effective solution for typesetting, even with its $30,000 price tag in today’s money, it must have been a game-changer compared to alternatives like the Linotype!
I really appreciate your detailed explanation of how the Composer achieves variable character spacing. It's such a crucial feature for typesetting, allowing for proportional spacing of characters. The clever escapement mechanism that adjusts for the width of different letters is a testament to the sophisticated engineering behind the Selectric Composer. You made it easy to understand how this machine was able to produce text that closely resembled professional typesetting.
The difference between the Composer and a standard typewriter is so clear, especially with those intriguing knobs for character spacing and justification. It’s obvious that every aspect of the Composer was designed with precision and purpose. The Composer’s ability to handle multiple languages with its interchangeable elements and language wheel is particularly impressive, highlighting its versatility at a time when multilingual publications were becoming more prominent.
Your explanation of the justification process and the use of the justification tube was enlightening. The mechanical memory with its 60-unit capacity is a marvel, and your demonstration of the backspace mechanism showcased the level of thought IBM put into making this machine user-friendly yet powerful. The nuances involved in manually adjusting the velocity for certain characters really illustrate how much customization was possible with the Selectric Composer, truly setting it apart from typical office typewriters.
I found your walkthrough of the Composer's setup for different font sizes and the justification procedure thorough and insightful. It's fascinating to see how each element, from the pitch selector to the platen knobs, plays a role in creating beautifully justified text. Your detailed explanation of how space bar width selection affects justification really highlights the precision and care needed to operate this machine effectively.
I have to say, hearing your voiceover brought back some funny memories from our college days! Your English accent has that unmistakable Finnish rally twist we both perfected in those endless English conversations. Kudos for having the courage to do a voiceover-you really brought the video to life! The production value was fantastic, with clear visuals and a smooth narrative that made the whole presentation engaging from start to finish.
A few questions came to mind while watching your video: How long have you had this machine, and how much have you used it? Also, are there any particular challenges you’ve faced while using the Composer that you didn’t cover here? The quick history facts at the beginning were a nice touch-are you planning on making another video focusing solely on the history of the machine? Furthermore, I noticed that this is Part 1 of your series on this glorious machine-what other parts do you have in mind, and what can we expect to see next?
Thanks for this engaging demonstration. It’s videos like these that preserve the legacy of such iconic machines, giving us insight into the evolution of text production and the technological advancements of the past. Can't wait to someday see this beautiful piece of engineering in the flesh and try out all of those exquisite features myself. Keep up the great work!
-MossMasa
Thank you for the kind words my friend!
Due to scarcity and very complicated mechanics there are ~5 fully working Composers in the whole world so I'm quite proud to have brought this one back to life from a state of utter disrepair.
I wanted to document the machine and its use since none of the other 4 people have done so, hopefully it'll be useful to someone repairing a Composer in the future, and at least a little entertaining for the rest. This video was mainly aimed at people who are already familiar with the general operating principles of the regular IBM Selectric, for those who aren't, this video by The Engineer Guy does a nice job showing how the type element works: ruclips.net/video/bRCNenhcvpw/видео.html
I've been working on cleaning, repairing, and adjusting for about 6 months, haven't had too much time to really type on it yet but the hard part is done. Most of the challenges with this machine were faced in the repair phase, finding type elements and spare parts is almost impossible. It's not really meant for casual typewriting so there are no correction features like some other electric machines of the era, but otherwise it's a really great machine to type on.
I optimistically named this video "Part 1", we'll see how long it takes for the next entry to be finished. I was planning on talking about the history and use of the machine, and then videos focusing on different mechanisms of the machine as they are incredible marvels of engineering.
You're welcome to come and test out "King Ghidorah" anytime!
Thanks for making this video!
I was employed by a Scientific publishing house in the late 60s/early 70s and we used these machines to typeset our magazines. Brought back great memories!
We initially pasted the galleys using Cow Gum (a rubber cement) and looking back it was amazing we didn't blow ourselves up with the fumes and most of us smoked!
We eventually got a wax coating machine to stick down the typesetting - thank goodness.
Not sure if you will cover it, but the progression after this machine was putting the information on to magnetic tape, so obviating the need to type everything twice!!