Where to buy a Selectric?

[Chuck Guzis]

On 12/29/2005 at 11:34 PM Scott Stevens wrote:

>There's really nothing else to compare to the immediacy of using
>a typewriter.  These days everything written is transferred into
>an electronic ether, to possibly be printed someday, more likely
>to just disappear.  It's a very 'real' experience to type a page
>of thoughts direct to a piece of paper.  And it is something that
>many people no longer experience.

A friend of mine resells IBM Wheelwriters (gets a couple of hundred the
each, depending on condition).  I could never stand the the things--press a
key and there's a variable delay between when you hit the key and when the
print hammer goes "chunk".  

The sensation reminds me of playing in an antiphonal brass choir in a large
church.  You have to time your playing visually by the director's baton--if
you try to play by what you hear, the result is a mess because of the time
it takes the sound from the other players to reach your ears.  So you have
to tune one of your senses out.

Give me a Selectric (or even an Executive) any day.

Did someone mention IBM 1620's using Selectrics?  The only 1620's I ever
saw used the traditional typewriter mechanism.   OTOH, the 1130 used the
Selectric mechanism.

Cheers,
Chuck