From: "Mike Ross"
<mross666(a)hotmail.com>
IBM made a bunch of printer terminals based around the
Selectric typewriter
- 1052, 2740, 2970 etc. Look in any old copy of BYTE, and you'll also find
several vendors were selling 3rd party terminals based around IBM
Selectrics, often converted for ASCII/RS-232c operation, as teletype
alternatives.
Where have they all gone? (I appreciate, from what I've heard, that many
folks who used them in anger would reply 'I don't know, I don't care, good
riddance!') Early DECwriters are not uncommon. Teletypes are (almost) ten a
penny, ASR33s show up frequently enough on ebay, I have several.
But the only Selectric based unit I've *seen* in over ten years of
collecting is a 2970 Reservation Termainal (see
http://www.corestore.org/2970-1.jpg ) which I was offered a year or so ago.
It needs a fair bit of TLC, and it's a print-only device; it can receive
data from a host and print it, but not send anything back from the keyboard.
I'd love to get a bidirectional equivalent to use as an 'authentic' terminal
for a 360 emulator I work with... any clues? Can anyone recommend a
Selectric repair shop? No way I want to try to fettle something THIS
mechanically-intimidating myself!
Look at my sig...you'll see where they've all gone :) I have a
dozen or so Selectric, Selectric II, and Selectric III typewriters,
mostly in various states of sticky disrepair.
Actually, I don't have any Selectric terminals, although I do have a
Selectric Memory Typewriter. My brother worked at a Byte Shop in the
late 70s, and recalls having either converted a Selectric or making a
conversion work.
I do have a manual from 1962 titled "IBM Customer Engineering Manual of
Instruction, I/O Printer, (Modified IBM Selectric), which shows the
glorious workings of this fascinating machine...the manual has lots of
text and diagrams explaining the Selectric mechanism, but not much in
the way of photos showing the solenoid mechanisms.
We were thinking a few years ago of trying to rig up a homebrew
conversion of one of my typewriters, but never got round to it. But I
did (in 1999?) see a conversion kit sell on ebay...and I was foolish
enough to not buy it.
--
Jim
Visit the Selectric Typewriter Museum!
http://www.mindspring.com/~jforbes2