An electric typewriter is a typewriter that uses an electric motor to power the mechanism that strikes characters onto paper, replacing the manual finger force required by traditional typewriters. Instead of you slamming each key hard enough to swing a metal bar into a ribbon, a light keystroke triggers the motor to do the heavy lifting. Electric typewriters dominated offices from the 1950s through the 1980s and evolved into electronic models with memory and correction features before personal computers largely replaced them.
How an Electric Typewriter Works
On a manual typewriter, every letter you print requires enough finger pressure to physically swing a metal typebar up to the paper. That gets tiring fast, and it limits how quickly you can type. An electric typewriter keeps a motor running continuously. When you press a key, you’re essentially flipping a switch that lets the motor’s energy drive the typebar forward. The result is uniform, consistent impressions on the page regardless of how hard or softly you press.
In most electric typebar models, the motor spins a roller or axle connected to the typebar mechanism by a rubber belt. That spinning energy is what swings the bars. More advanced designs use solenoids, which are small electromagnetic devices that convert electrical current into physical motion. A solenoid system can selectively unlatch and drive individual keys using a cord threaded through all the actuators in a row, so only the character you selected actually strikes the paper. The motor also powers the carriage return and paper advancement, which are entirely manual operations on older machines.
The IBM Selectric Changed Everything
The most significant leap in electric typewriter design came in 1961 with the IBM Selectric. Instead of a basket of individual typebars that could jam against each other, the Selectric used a single chrome-plated plastic element, roughly the size and shape of a golf ball, that rotated and tilted to the correct character position before striking the paper. This eliminated typebar clashing entirely and allowed faster, smoother typing at 14.8 characters per second.
The golf ball element was also interchangeable. You could pop it out and snap in a different one to switch fonts within the same document. This made the Selectric enormously popular in offices where documents needed italic headings, different typefaces for legal text, or specialized characters for scientific notation. The trade-off was that swapping elements frequently, sometimes multiple times within a single sentence, slowed work down considerably.
Selectrics became so reliable and fast that they were widely adopted as computer terminals, replacing older output devices at data centers and offices alike. The machine’s influence on office culture was enormous. For two decades, “typing” in a professional setting essentially meant using a Selectric.
Electric vs. Electronic Typewriters
There’s an important distinction between electric and electronic typewriters, and the terms aren’t interchangeable. Electric typewriters are fundamentally mechanical machines with a motor assisting the striking mechanism. Electronic typewriters, which appeared in the late 1970s and 1980s, replaced much of the mechanical system with digital components.
Most electronic typewriters use a daisy wheel instead of typebars or a golf ball. A daisy wheel is a flat disc with characters molded on the end of flexible spokes radiating from a center hub. Stepper motors (controlled by digital circuits) rotate the wheel to the correct character, and a solenoid fires it against the ribbon. These machines have simpler mechanical parts than their electric predecessors, which makes them more reliable in some ways, though they can feel different to type on. Many users notice an annoying lag between pressing a key and seeing the character appear, which makes it harder to maintain a typing rhythm.
Late-model electronic typewriters added features that blurred the line between typewriter and word processor. Some included small LCD screens and internal memory. IBM’s 1978 Model 75, built on the Selectric platform, could store up to 15,500 characters (roughly 10 double-spaced pages) and let you edit text on a display before printing. These machines offered basic word processing capabilities like text recall and revision without retyping an entire page.
Self-Correcting Ribbons
One of the most practical innovations on electric and electronic typewriters was the correction system. Earlier typists had to use white correction fluid or retype entire pages. Self-correcting electrics introduced a two-ribbon system that made fixing mistakes almost effortless.
The typing ribbon on a correctable typewriter isn’t a traditional ink-soaked fabric. It’s a clear plastic strip coated with a black layer that transfers onto the page when struck. To correct an error, you press the backspace key, engage the correction ribbon (called a lift-off tape), and retype the wrong character. The lift-off tape is slightly sticky and physically pulls the coating back off the paper, leaving a clean surface where you can type the correct letter. The result is a correction that’s nearly invisible, unlike the smudgy mess of correction fluid.
Ribbons and Print Quality
Electric typewriters use two main categories of ribbon, and the choice affects both the look of your text and how long the ribbon lasts. Carbon ribbons are a single-use plastic film that produces the sharpest, highest-contrast text. Each section of the ribbon is used once and advances automatically, so you get consistently crisp characters. The downside is cost and waste: once the ribbon is spent, it goes in the trash.
Fabric ribbons, typically made from nylon, are the reusable alternative. They produce a slightly softer impression that many people associate with the classic typewritten look. Nylon ribbons are durable, less prone to drying out than older cotton or silk options, and can even be re-inked to extend their life. For everyday typing where archival sharpness isn’t critical, they’re the more economical and environmentally friendly choice.
Who Still Uses Them
Electric typewriters haven’t disappeared. Nakajima, a Japanese manufacturer that has been producing typewriters for over 30 years, still sells new electronic models. Their WPT-150 portable electronic typewriter retails for around $220, and the WPT-160 for about $280, both available for same-day shipping. These are basic, functional machines aimed at users who need to type on pre-printed forms, address envelopes, or produce single documents without booting up a computer.
A small but active repair industry also supports older machines. Specialty shops across the U.S. and internationally stock replacement parts for IBM Selectrics, Smith-Coronas, Olivettis, and other classic brands. Some repair technicians maintain inventories of hundreds of new-old-stock parts, and a few have started fabricating replacement components with 3D printers. The most common repair on electric typebar models is replacing the rubber belt that transfers force from the motor to the striking mechanism, since rubber degrades over time even when the machine sits unused.
Interest in typewriters has grown among writers and creative professionals in recent years, reversing what once looked like a terminal decline in the repair trade. Some young technicians are learning the craft, and surviving shops report increased business. Finding a qualified repair person still takes effort depending on where you live, but the infrastructure hasn’t vanished the way it has for many other obsolete technologies.