IBM Selectric (1961) and IBM Datamaster (1981)

Introduced July 1961 and July 1981

Remember typewriters? You know, the obsolete technology that existed before the obsolete technology called word processors? Somewhere after people wrote stuff down by hand? No? Oh well, the IBM Selectric probably isn’t for you.

By 1961, typewriters were clunky, slow and inflexible… but businesses everywhere relied on them. IBM had a different vision of what a typewriter could be, and the Selectric was much more feature rich than most of the machines on the market at the time.

Early IBM Selectric Typewriter

One obvious different was the print head – instead of having an individual arm with each letter laid out in a complex mechanical arrangement, the Selectric had a “golf ball” print head which would rotate to find the letter you wanted. On the Selectric, the head moved from left to right rather than the paper moving from right to left. Crucially, if the operator wanted to change the font they would just stop typing and swap in a different print head.

A quite complex electromechanical arrangement made all this work, and to get the best out of the Selectric required either experience or training. But it was faster, more reliable and more flexible than traditional devices and IBM took a large share of the business market.

New versions with more features followed, although the Selectric units were incompatible with each other. Some had correcting ribbons, wordprocessing features and even local storage. Variants of the Selectric could be used as computer printers. By the time the brand was retired in 1986, IBM had sold more than 13 million Selectric devices.

20 years further on, IBM found itself on the cusp of a larger revolution. Business computers had been getting smaller, more powerful and – crucially – cheaper, which was becoming a possible threat for IBM’s large computer business.

IBM wanted its own microcomputer and had started working on creating a unit based on an Intel processor, which was a major design break for IBM who had previously used their own PALM CPUs in their machines. The results of this unconventional effort by IBM is probably not the computer that first springs to mind – the IBM PC – but instead the IBM System/23 Datamaster.

IBM Datamaster

The Datamaster used many of the same or similar elements that would be seen in the PC, including the Intel CPU, expansion bus and keyboard. Instead of the PC’s now-familiar modular design, the Datamaster was an all-in-one box (not dissimilar to the original Mac) designed to be set up by people with no technical experience. It was also IBM’s cheapest computer to date.

Unfortunately for the Datamaster, it had been stuck in development hell and took a very long time to come to market. As it was being readied for launch, the team behind it were also finalising the IBM PC which was launched the very next month. The PC had learned many lessons from the Datamaster, keeping what was good and throwing out what wasn’t. The PC changed the world, the Datamaster found modest sales in die-hard IBM shops.

The Selectric was arguably the ultimate electric typewriter, and while the Datamaster wasn’t the ultimate microcomputer it paved the way for what arguably evolved into one. Both devices are quite collectable, although the Datamaster is much rarer than the Selectric. Out of the two, the Selectric might still be of more practical use... and your children may well never have seen anything quite like a typewriter before.

Image credits:
Marcin Wichary via Flickr – CC BY 2.0
Steve Lodefink via Flickr - CC BY 2.0

Renault 4 (1961)

Introduced July 1961

One of world’s most successful single models of car, the Renault 4 sold over eight million units in 33 years of production. It was an enduring success, utilising several technologies which were novel in the 1960s but commonplace in later years.

Although the Renault 4 is shaped like a small station wagon or estate car, it was actually the world’s first mass-produced hatchback. It was also front-wheel drive, at a time when almost everything else on the road was rear wheel drive. Indeed, the engine was in the front as well when rear-engined cars were still a thing.

Renault 4

The design was modern by early 1960s standards, and the target market was people who up until then had been buying the Citroën 2CV. Despite the rival 2CV having been introduced in 1948, it was still a strong seller due to its practicality and simplicity. However, the Renault 4 offered more power, more comfort and lower maintenance costs.

Unlike modern cars, the Renault 4 is built on an independent chassis with the body being placed on top. The chassis provided all the structural strength, allowing more windows and thinner pillars in the car itself giving better visibility. A range of engines were available – the smallest was in the Renault 3 (fundamentally the same car as the Renault 4), giving 22 horsepower. The Renault 4 had up to 32 horsepower. The rival 2CV thrashed around on just 12 horsepower at the time.

It was a practical car, and comfortable too. Although it maybe lacked the charm of the 2CV, it went on to be a massive sales success worldwide. Licence-built versions of the Renault 4 were made in such diverse countries as Argentina, Ireland, Morocco, Australia, Mexico and Yugoslavia. There was a popular van ("fourgonnette") version, plus a pickup and dozens of quirky custom versions made by converters and enthusiasts.

Renault 4 fourgonnette

After the Renault 4’s launch came a host of other front-wheel drive hatchbacks, both from Renault and other manufacturers. The 4 lingered on though, with French production going on until 1992 (and until 1994 in Slovenia). Eventually it was replaced with the first-generation Twingo which successfully built upon the 4’s design philosophy – becoming a modern classic in its own right.

Today the Renault 4 is a rare sight on British roads – much rarer than the rival 2CV – with prices starting at just a few thousand pounds for a slice of Gallic charm. 

Image credits:
Spline Splinson via Wikimedia Commons – CC BY 2.0
Gzzz via Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 3.0

IBM 7030 Stretch (1961)

Introduced May 1961

Sometimes products are released that look like they are sure-fire successes at the time, but end up in the long run as being insignificant. Sometimes products are launched that look like failures, but end up changing the world in some way. The IBM 7030 Stretch is a little of one and a little of the other.

The 7030 was IBM’s first fully transistorised computer, and at launch it was the fastest computer in the world. Projected to be priced at an eye-watering $13.5 million dollars in 1961 money (about ten times that today), this was a serious computer for serious organisations – coming in at 32 metric tons and consuming 100kW of power.

Transistor technology had been developing at a rapid rate by the start of the 1960s and IBM proposed using diffusion transistors for the new design. This was a risk move for the typically risk-averse IBM, but competition with companies such as UNIVAC was heating up. The initial goals for the 7030 was impressive – a 64-bit system capable of a processing capacity of 10 MIPs. When the technical complexities of the project began to dawn, this was dropped to 4 MIPS. When the 7030 was launched, it actually shipped with 1.2 MIPS. 

IBM 7030 Stretch

The system performance was a disappointment – even though it turned out that the 7030 was the fastest computer in the world. IBM cancelled new orders and halved the price for those who had already ordered it. In IBM’s eyes, the 7030 was a failure. Just 9 units were sold – including one secret version known as “Harvest”. There were significant internal recriminations at IBM, with plenty of finger-pointing going round and people anxious to assign blame.

But the 7030 was more of a technological success than was realised, and the innovations in hardware and software found their way into other IBM products, especially the successful IBM System/360 series which found their way into corporations everywhere. And although many of the technologies in the 7030 were soon obsolete, they all provided an important stepping-stone in the development of 1960s computing.

IBM 7030 Stretch

Two key figures in the 7030 Stretch were Gene Amdahl, a legendary designer of powerful early mainframes and Frederick Brooks who went on to write the seminal software engineering tome “The Mythical Man Month”. This book attempted to learn from the mistakes in the project management of Stretch and other projects, significantly the idea that adding more people to a late software project will only make it later. Despite being in print for more than 40 years, corporations continue to make the same mistakes that IBM did in the early 1960s.

Image credits: Don DeBold via Flickr - CC BY 2.0
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