Photo: Etan J. Tal, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

One example. Colors, sub-models, and production years vary; the machine you find may differ.

IBM Selectric I / II

1961–86 · United States · Electric · 15 kg

Electric

The keystroke

Effortlight

Smoothnesssmooth

Snapbalanced

Precisiontight

Landingmoderate

Volumeclacky

Introduced by IBM in 1961, the Selectric replaced the typebar with a spinning, tilting golf-ball element. The carriage stays still while the element moves, so it is quieter, faster, and more reliable than any portable that came before it. The Selectric II added correction tape. For long sessions and dense pages, it's still the fastest manual-feel machine you can buy used.

Worth knowing

Introduced in 1961, it swapped the basket of swinging typebars for a single tilting, rotating element — the “golf ball” — so the carriage stayed still and the type element moved. Wikipedia ↗
By the mid-1980s the Selectric line had sold well over ten million units, and for years it set the sound and feel people expected from an office machine. Wikipedia ↗

Used by

Hunter S. Thompson used a Selectric briefly during the Rolling Stone years (1970s)

David Foster Wallace documented as one of his drafting machines (1990s)

Hunter S. Thompson Rolling Stone years (1970s)

All sources

External, in their original form. The people who know these machines best — click through to read and watch.

overviewWikipedia galleries & serialsTypewriter Database photo archiveWikimedia Commons oz.typewriter searchRobert Messenger

Where to find one

Listings come and go. These show whatever IBM Selectric I / II machines are on the marketplace right now.

See IBM Selectric I / II listings on eBay marketplace

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Specifications

Manufacturer: IBM
Origin: United States
Years: 1961–1986
Form: Electric
Mass: 15 kg
Shift: type-element