{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O164600"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O164600/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BR3155/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BR3155/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2007BR3155","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BR3156","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O164600","accessionNumber":"M.225:1 to 3-2007","objectType":"Typewriter","titles":[{"title":"Selectric 1","type":"manufacturer's title"},{"title":"Golfball","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"By the mid 1970s IBM Selectric typewriters accounted for around 75 percent of the US electric typewriter market however from that point on the challenge from other manufacturers and their various products and approaches to word processing would see a rapid decline in IBM's influence in this area. Xerox, Olivetti and later Apple all made inroads into this field to upset the established order.\r\nIBM commenced the Selectric typewriter development program a good 14 years prior to its eventual unveiling. In that time the management of IBM's electric typewriter products industrial design moved from the office of Norman Bel Geddes (which closed in 1947) to Eliot Noyes who had been working for Geddes and open his own office and took over that work.\r\nIBM underwent a complete overhaul of its products, packaging, stationary, advertising and corporate identity through the late 1950s to the early 1960s and Eliot Noyes was involved in this project alongside Marcel Breuer, Paul Rand and Charles Eames.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Typewriter with a curved steel casing, beige in colour, with a standard QWERTY keyboard, black keys with white letters, knobs, paper plate and an electric cord. A ruler and page margin setter is made in chrome and is set above the keyboard, which is recessed into the softly curved steel casing, shaped to narrow at the front. There are no corners on the model and there are rubber feet at the base to elevate the machine off the table surface.\r\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Noyes, Eliot","id":"A22877"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"IBM","id":"A22878"},"association":{"text":"manufacturer","id":"x33306"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"steel","id":"AAT133751"},{"text":"plastic","id":"AAT14570"},{"text":"rubber","id":"AAT12941"},{"text":"electronic components","id":"THES274431"},{"text":"mechanical components","id":"THES274561"}],"techniques":[{"text":"pressing","id":"AAT53136"},{"text":"assembling","id":"AAT53007"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Steel, plastic, rubber, electronic and mechanical components","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Electrical appliance","id":"THES49024"},{"text":"Product design","id":"THES49025"},{"text":"Interiors","id":"THES48933"},{"text":"Household objects","id":"THES48939"},{"text":"Shekou","id":"THES279777"},{"text":"Values of Design","id":"THES279818"},{"text":"Design Society","id":"THES279819"}],"styles":[{"text":"Modernist","id":"AAT21474"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2007BR3155","2007BR3156"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES399630"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES399630"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES399630"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Typewriter","id":""}],[{"text":"Typewriter reel","id":""}],[{"text":"Typeball","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"United States","id":"x29333"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1961","earliest":"1961-01-01","latest":"1961-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"1961-1973","earliest":"1961-01-01","latest":"1973-12-31"},"association":{"text":"manufactured","id":"x29350"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"19","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"47","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"maximum","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"37.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"17","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"`IBM' manufacturer's logo is printed on a plate attached to the centre front and centre back of the body.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"The IBM Selectric typewriter was a highly successful model line of electric typewriters introduced by IBM on 31 July 1961.\n\r\nInstead of the \"basket\" of individual type bars that swung up to strike the ribbon and page in a traditional typewriter, the Selectric had a type element (frequently called a \"type ball\", or more informally, a \"golf ball\") that rotated and pivoted to the correct position before striking. The type element could be easily changed so as to print different fonts in the same document, resurrecting a capability that had been pioneered by the Blickensderfer typewriter almost 70 years before. The Selectric also replaced the traditional typewriter's moving carriage with a paper roller (\"platen\") that stayed in position while the type ball and ribbon mechanism moved from side to side.\n\r\nThe Selectric mechanism was notable for using internal mechanical binary coding and two mechanical digital-to-analogue converters, called whiffletree linkages, to select the character to be typed.\n\r\nSelectrics and their descendants eventually captured 75 percent of the United States market for electric typewriters used in business. IBM replaced the Selectric line with the IBM Wheelwriter in 1984 and transferred its typewriter business to the newly formed Lexmark in 1991.\r\n\nFor further information about the development of the IBM Selectric \"golfball\" typewriter, see references.\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"IBM Selectric 1 typewriter, steel and plastic, designed by Eliot Noyes, United States, 1961","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Harwood, John. Imagining the Computer: Eliot Noyes, the Eames and the IBM Pavilion, in David Crowley and Jane Pavitt, ed. <font -u>Cold War Modern, Design 1945-1970</font>, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2008, p.193. ill. ISBN. 978-1-851-77543-9"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Further information about the development of the IBM Selectric \"golfball\" typewriter:\n\nhttp://web.archive.org/web/20230118194137/https://www.ibm.com/about"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Mass produced","id":"THES48863"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["M.225:1-2007","M.225:2-2007","M.225:3-2007"],"accessionNumberNum":"225","accessionNumberPrefix":"M","accessionYear":2007,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Typewriter","Typewriter reel","Typeball"],"assets":["2017KC4733"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-09","recordCreationDate":"2008-07-30","availableToBook":false}}