GETTING A NEW (TO ME) TYPEWRITER.

[autowasherfreak]

<span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">IBM Wheelwriter 30.  The seller said it gives a printwheel error code, well of course it does, it doesn't have a printwheel installed.  I have a bunch of Wheelwriter ribbons and printwheels left over from a machine that died, that I haven't been able to sell on eBay.  I will have to pop the keys off and give the case a good cleaning, and probably blow it out with the air compressor.  Hopefully the batteries in the battery pack haven't leaked.  The case will need a good cleaning too.</span>

 

<span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">I just hope it arrives undamaged.</span>

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[kenmore58]

Great machine! I can really fly on one of those!

Ron

 

[westie2]

Looks like this one has some memory on it too.  You got you a great IBM there. 

 

 

[autowasherfreak]

It has memory and LCD display, I can't remember how much memory it has.

 

 

[cadman]

Wheelwriter

I could never get the right cadence for typing on a Wheelwriter, that slight delay always threw me off! Now a Selectric, that's a different story!

 

[autowasherfreak]

I prefer the Selectric II over the Selectric III.  The lighted margin scale on the III is nice.  The keys on the III are anti glare and larger than the II's keys.  I've never really had a problem with glare off of the keys on my II.  Here's a video of my early IBM Model 85 electronic, talk about heavy, I think it weighs more than my Model D Executive, and it's loud too.
 

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
 
 
 

 

[westingman123]

Wheelwriter

I typed many a docket on a Wheelwriter. A Selectric II will always be my typewriter of choice, however.

I miss that distinctive hum of 30 IBMs purring in our office. Those keyboards were the best, ever!

 

[iheartmaytag]

When I was a loan officer at a Credit Union we had one of those to process the loan documents with. Great machine.

 

[kenmore58]

Try teaching a typing class with 25 to 30 Selectrics going at once and you have a hangover!

As I used to tell my students, "Ladies, we're going to type today. We're just not going to turn the machines on." Or as I like to refer to it "Air Typing."

Ron

 

[miele_ge]

nice video of the 85.. VERY cool machine

Is that the dual pitch model? Has a great sound... almost as loud as my old MT/ST. That machine has a electro-mechanical tape reader that echoed each keystroke as it was being recorded on the magnetic tape. Really makes quite a racket!

Would love to find a clean Electronic 95 which I think was a triple pitch model. If I recall correctly, there was a stand alone diskette drive which could be used on some of the Electronics for unlimited storage capacity.

 

[alr2903]

Kenmore58, our school had IBM selectrics. We did in fact "air type" just as you posted. They were of the vintage that you centered and backspaced 1 space for 2 characters to center a heading. They were a shade of pink/mauve. Thanks for posting. I had not thought of that in years. arthur

 

[westingman123]

Ron:

You just brought back memories of typing class. "A-S-D-F! J-K-L-:!" We beginners, though, were only allowed the Olympia manuals. One had to advance to the Selectric, and in high school one could even use the Selectric II.

Miss Hubeli was known to crack your fingers with a ruler, should your wrists sag.

Honestly, though, when I worked at the Court, I found all the "clacking" rather soothing. Likely because if we were typing, we didn't have to deal with the paralegals and attorneys vying for better settings.

 

[autowasherfreak]

The Model 85 is triple pitch 10, 12, and PS. I had a Model 95, but it had problems with the motor and one of my cats turned it on while I was at work, and it ran day and when I got home it had froze up, and wouldn't even hum. I also had a Model 50, 65, 75 and Memory 100, but I couldn't find anyone willing to work on them locally so I tossed them out. I used a Model 75 when I was in college. I loved typing class, but didn't like the teacher at all, LOL. We had two typing rooms one for secretarial typing, and one for clerical typing. The secretarial room had Selectric II and III's Model A, B, C, and D typebar machines. The clerical room had a few Selectrics, various manuals, and a few electrics by Royal and Remington. I liked the clerical teacher, but couldn't handle the manuals. After I graduated in 1984 they got rid of all the old typebar and Selectrics and replaced them with Wheelwriter 3's.

 

[rp2813]

I agree that the manual typewriters made much more of a classroom racket than the relatively quiet Selectrics, particularly in my  pre-war school building where acoustics weren't a consideration.  I only had a year of typing class so didn't use an electric until my first job out of high school, where I had my first experience with a Selectric and was very impressed by that system.

 

I recently typed on a manual 1940 Smith Corona and it was not only cumbersome, but also required a level of discipline that I lost back in the 80's when I was introduced to the luxurious world of word processing.  I don't think I'd do very well on a Selectric anymore either.  Even a correcting one.

 

[autowasherfreak]

I have an Olympia SM9 manual, and I have tried and tried to use it but I'm so used to electrics, electronics, and computers that don't have strength in my fingers to type. A really good friend gave it me, and I don't think I could part with it.

 

[tomturbomatic]

We still have a few of these in the office, mostly for envelopes. I am such a bad typist that it is better that I make my errors on a screen than on paper. When I have to use it, I type very slowly and deliberately to avoid mistakes.

 

[twintubdexter]

I have to sneak these true stories in wherever I can...

I never took typing in high school which is something I have regretted for the last 95 years or so. In college I purchased a new deluxe Smith Corona electric typewriter with power return. When I needed to type a paper it took me hours and the side of the typewriter where the motor was got so hot you could barely touch it. I was fortunate not to need typing skills at my places of employment since I often had assistants and secretaries, 3 of them at the SF department store where I was a buyer. When I left that job to buy for a major distributor on Folsom Street (a mistake of gigantic proportions) I told my new employer I could not type prior to being hired. There was a beautiful sky-blue IBM Selectric in my new office to type purchase orders on. The evil president of the company...and I mean he was a total maniac...blew up when he heard my speed on the Selectric even though my cool boss, a VP, came to my defense several times. When I told the maniac that he should be happy I had progressed to not only using 2 fingers but both of my thumbs on the spacebar he went ballistic and stormed next door into my boss's office and read him the riot act upon which he took off his shoe and threw it at Mario (my boss.) The shoe hit this shower-like glass with chicken wire embedded in it that was part of the partition between our offices and it shattered sending pieces of safety glass all over my desk and into the typewriter. This kind of bizarre behavior was totally foreign to me especially having come from 15 years at a 100 year old department store that was overflowing with pomp and circumstance and had a rule for everything. Mario explained that this was "normal" and that the president's father had a fatal tantrum-induced heart attack in his office when he was head of the company. I appreciated Mario trying to console me, but after all he was the individual who persuaded me to leave my prior position. I went home, did some thinking and quit the following day which totally infuriated the maniac. He had a 2 week "severance" check printed immediately and told me to "get out!" I have a feeling things were never the same for Mario...poor guy, he had just bought a new Ferrari the month before.

yeesh!...talk about gettin off-track on the subject...

 

[abcomatic]

Hands on home keys

I learned to type on a Royal Manual when I was in high school. I took typing my junior year (1965-66). I loved Mrs.Cherry. She was from Kentucky and was a great looker. Here accent was wonderful to us from Pontiac, Il. I remember her like yesterday. Unfortunately, she and her husband Harold were killed in an automobile accident when they were going to Kentucky to visit relatives.
"Claaaassss, haaands on home keys, haaands on your lap, haaands on home keys, check them." What fun. Gary

 

[ovrphil]

RE: GETTING A NEW (TO ME) TYPEWRITER

AutoWasherFreak - congrats; I know the Wheelwriters are fast, but I've never used one...hope this works out with only minor cleanup or fixing. IBM made many models of the Wheelwriter - anyone know which are preferred?

Twintubdexter: Beautiful blue IBM Selectric! Do you own this now? I like the first Selectric - style and colors, mostly; some prefer the II's.

Besides the IBM, I have a few typewriters; just picked up this Smith Corona 2400 PWP personal word processor- unfamiliar with it, but it looks interesting! My tan Selectric II powers up, lights up, but won't return- stuck(heard this was one of the common problems of the III's). Had it repaired, but now it's acting up.

I enjoy typing and the high school typing class I took turned out to be a really useful tool - but I have worked with people who two-finger it, very very fast.

Enjoyed this thread.