These don't sound like the typewriters in movies. :D When in word processing mode (meaning, you type everything in its memory and then print), they sound more like "klack TAPAKATAPAKATAPAKATAPAKATAPAKA PRRRRRRRRRRRRR TAPAKATAPAKATAPAKATAPAKA"
Almost anything is more satisfying than MX blues, they make a really terrible noise. ALPS and their derivatives (Matias most recently) wipe up the floor with them. Additionally, this dell laptop keyboard I'm presently typing on is more tactile.
As someone who was born at the very start of the 90s, surprisingly, I've used several mechanical keyboards but always loved the idea of an electronic typewriter. That said, I never got to use one and certainly never saw one as nice as this. That keyboard is an absolute beauty. I have an AJAZZ AK510 brown switch keyboard because of IBM beauties like this. I can't afford a model M so it's similarishness in style still makes me happy!
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ We still Clean, Service, Repair & Sell these Wheelwriter Typewriters in 2019 One of the Best electric typewriter ever made Long live the Typewriter
I just received my ThinkPad T41, it us just like new and the battery still works perfect. I am so amazed of this laptop, it may not be as fast as newer ones but it sure is better. Nothing gets in your way while using it! Thank you for inducing me into the world of old computers. ~Written on a clicky T41 Keyboard
I still own a few of these and newer Wheelwriter under the Lexmark Brand for nostalgic reasons. This particular Model has an option as you can see on the keyboard keys to activate the Printer commands. Even the best laser printers can't compete with the printed type of an impact printer.
Great typewriter--my favorite daisy wheel typewriter. I love the IBM Selectric too. And I actually repair and service both of them. Thanks for the video!
Love the Steve Benway reference! Technically speaking you could do graphics on that typewriter so long as it was made up of ASCII characters. I find it cool how you can move the page around with the arrow keys as I've only seen typewriters with a roller before.
I was the last class in my high school to learn typing on a typewriter. It happened to be one of those Wheelwriters. They were sure built like a tank, and worked great. Next semester everything was swapped out to computers.
I have quite a few typewriters, but only one full size electronic which is similar to that and probably ran alongside it as a competitor when new. It's an AEG Olympia Compact i ("i" probably meaning "intelligent") which is slightly more basic in the sense that it has no lights but it has various settings for CPI (all on the same type wheel), bold, underline, electronic tab settings etc... It also uses a daisy-wheel style set-up and a carbon ribbon cartridge. I've been using my manuals a lot lately, but really should get the old AEG out sometime and put it back into use again, and maybe make a TH-cam video of it. As a side-note, I'd love to work in an office where typewriters are still at least partially used. Here in the UK no such offices exist, even the most basic ones have laptops or desktop computers.
I remembered those old good days when you typed that checking-characters line ... Typewriters and Telexes . This IMB typewriter was the best typewriter all over the world . 👍
i learned how to "blind touch type on one of those . (blind touch type is where the instructors cover the letters and you have to know where the letters are by not looking at the keys )
I learned how to type on a fully mechanical typewriter. I still remember the iconic "ding" sound from the bell that indicated that you've reached the end of the page and you had to push the sled back which also scrolled up the page. Good times.
Nice Video !! I still service these here in Phoenix. IBM's & virtually every Typewriter made. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Both my old Elementary and High Schools used to have the same exact IBM typewriters and they continued to used them even well into the mid-2000s (they mostly used those IBM typewriters for envelopes).
If you ever need any help with this machine, we still repair and service them where I work, so I can get you an answer to any questions about taking it apart or how to fix something, let me know.
Where?!? I have an Actionwriter that works great (although I only have one font) but I still cannot possibly imagine any company actually using them today. Even all the people I know who collect typewriters don't really go newer than Selectrics.
I was watching a compilation of Japanese Sharp commercials from the 70s through to 90s the other day and the penny dropped for me on the "ELSI" name they went for their calculators. ELSI is the L and C in LCD. So ELSI Mate is like LCD Mate. And has the wonderful novelty of actually using more characters than the original acronym. It reminded me of the shortening of world wide web to www actually lengthens the amount of syllables when spoken.
We had an elderly secretary at my job who had a typewriter like this on her desk, and she refused to give it up when we began to remodel the office. However we did eventually manage to pry it away from her.
Nice one. I may be tempted to get one and make a teletype style terminal for my GNU/Linux systems, but oh my - this thing is gonna go through paper like a minigun! :)
Really nice! You should do a video hooking it up to a computer. I had a Mac plus with a brother daisy wheel printer when I was a kid. I loved watching it type out long docs like a ghost writer.
A few Months ago I picked up a Selectric I and Selectric II from an older Customer of the Place I worked. She wanted to throw them out to the Trash, her Husband used to service Typewriters in a big Company. The Selectric II actually works, but always prints the next Charackter to the chosen one, the Selectric I doesnt work at all. Only Motor Noise. I hope to get them to work. I love Typewriters.
Nice to see that it can be used as a printer... Most likely IBM assumed that if you were in an office using one of their PCs with a word processor, this would allow you to print from that. Nice to know. Although I'm sure that Microsoft would support this with Notepad, and older versions with DOS would obviously use this with EDIT.COM and probably QBasic for program code.
The batteries were there because the typewriter would retain the current line in memory for correction.. I sold these devices in Australia in the late 80s early 90s, they were the best typewriters in the world. Canon made typewriters too, but they were all plastic..
I have one, but mine is french and a bit older. I had to clean it, the mechanism was going all over the place because there was so much friction, grease made it go as new. I also learned (while dismantling mine) that these have 8088 in them with roms, so this is just a pc in a type writer.
i had an earlier model from IBM with the "ball head", and it featured a 10 digit block. the device came used from an accouting department. from the dirt on the keycaps they seemed to have used it as a calculator on steroids. but since it had no display (apart from some leds) i am not sure if it could calculate.
I was given a Saisho CP 900 cassette player/clock radio that had a 9v backup battery as old as that.When I pulled it out, it pulled the 9v clip broke with the contacts still stuck to the battery!
It would be awesome to actually see your Thinkpad (or any other modern PC with printer parallel port you have) to print using the typewriter! It'll be great if you make a video of it printing from a PC.
IBM engineer - I need to find something for this voice synthesiser to do on the show room floor! Executive - Have you finished swapping out the Daisy wheels? IBM engineer - The what? Executive - Daisy, the Daisy wheel. Give me the answer, have you done it?!
I thought that you were going to demonstrate the printer function. I just want it to see how many pages per minute it can do, working like a printer. Still, I think is cool that still has compatibility with modern operative systems.
I thought I remembered seeing somewhere that at least some of the wheel writers could be set to store an entire typed line without printing so that it could do dual justification by printing the whole line out at once. Is that one of the features of this model?
Nice typewriter! What's even nicer is that you can still buy the ribbons for these... although I bet if you couldn't, you could get a cartridge for another model that is still in production and thread in the ribbon into your old cartridge... that's usually what you gotta do with manual typewriter ribbons, since the reels vary, but the ribbon is always the exact same size. Are you gonna keep it set up so you can quickly type things out, or label things that you wouldn't be able to label with a computer printer? Or maybe even hook it up to one of your vintage computers? Also, when you run out of ribbon, you have to go through it and see what's been typed on it in the past. lol. Nice calculator too! Yea, the dollar store ones... even the less crappy ones in the stationery section in other stores are total junk. I bought a Radio Shack EC-4075 calculator on eBay because it does time calculations... it has been extremely useful to me, but it didn't come with its pleather case, so I slapped a slip case together with some scrap denim to protect it from dust and scratches. OOH now you have a wall mounted rack for holding 8 tracks! That's awesome. it can go beside your wall-mounted cassette rack.
I found a WheelWriter Series II, Model 3 in our school library. There was another one (identical) in storage, and I wanted to make an offer on it but I wasn't willing to take the risk - plus it had a note that said "stuck carriage return." Our school district bought them in 1989-ish, and the librarian still uses hers from time to time to make book labels. (I've used it a couple times - she gets angry when I use it as she thinks the ribbons are no longer sold.) I wonder if someone can make a video showing the planar boards (there is one in the back by the power supply and one under the mechanism itself) to see what type of ICs it use.
I don't know if IBM/Lexmark is still making ribbons for the Wheelwriter, but I know for a fact that you can still get aftermarket ribbons (including the correction ribbon) for it.
Lexmark doesn't, as Lexmark has pretty much stopped supporting these older typewriters. (Although there is some evidence, although it may be outdated, that Lexmark may still make newer Wheelwriter models.) Lexmark spun-off of IBM in 1991, and took over their typewriter, printer, and keyboard business that year. The Selectric and Wheelwriter models, as well as the Quietwriter models (Quietwriter is the same chassis but with a non-impact print head), were made in IBM's state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Lexington, KY.
hello! My old smith corona word processor I got from a family member happens to be a similar system. do you happen to know if the locking mechanism for where the fontwheels go are replacable/fixable? It broke ages ago but I'd love to eventually get it repaired thanks much (I know the SMith Corona has a very different system. internet says it's part of their h series typewriters, but i'm trying to find out if i can get it fixed)
UPDATE: I had my library (where I work) buy a used IBM Wheelwriter 3. I had my library bought a used machine because I knew the IBM machines were workhorses. The machine they had before was a cheap Brother brand - it broke even when new. I wanted a REAL typewriter so I went online to look for a used business model. I think in 2003 when we bought the Wheelwriter it was still a bit pricey, I think $325, but I felt it was a worthwhile investment. At the time we bought six ribbons and six correction tapes and I think we have only used 3 or each in 13 years. I just dust it out once a year and wipe down the bars the carriage rides on with synthetic grease, and that all it needs to work like a champ.
I used to service these things, great machines. Preferred the Olympia machines though. A proper beast is a Brother Em1 a scary machine to work on, linear carriage.
Who did the daisywheel typewriter first? I have a brother electronic typewriter that can write on floppies and also accepts a CRT monitor that I inherited from my grandfather.
Primer maquina de escribir electrónica de IBM que intentaba destronar a la IBM selectric , igual la velocidad de escritura no pudo superar a la selectric
"were moving clears stuff into new building oh no we have this junk left over man i don't wanna do a dump run and we can leave it, i know lets have vwestlife have it he's always a sucker for cheap free eletrical items, hay we got you something!" i would persume that's how you got this
At that point it would be kinda like printer cartridges or something in a modern office. You still wouldn't need them often enough to be worth taking out of the box before you needed them.
The sound of a typewriter is really quite relaxing. Although I can imagine a whole office of them being quite loud. Great find though :)
It's why I use Cherry MX Blues, IBM buckling springs are great too. The sound of typing on them is so very relaxing.
These don't sound like the typewriters in movies. :D
When in word processing mode (meaning, you type everything in its memory and then print),
they sound more like "klack TAPAKATAPAKATAPAKATAPAKATAPAKA PRRRRRRRRRRRRR TAPAKATAPAKATAPAKATAPAKA"
Almost anything is more satisfying than MX blues, they make a really terrible noise. ALPS and their derivatives (Matias most recently) wipe up the floor with them. Additionally, this dell laptop keyboard I'm presently typing on is more tactile.
wait till you have one automatically typing, those are just deafening.
As someone who was born at the very start of the 90s, surprisingly, I've used several mechanical keyboards but always loved the idea of an electronic typewriter. That said, I never got to use one and certainly never saw one as nice as this. That keyboard is an absolute beauty. I have an AJAZZ AK510 brown switch keyboard because of IBM beauties like this. I can't afford a model M so it's similarishness in style still makes me happy!
That is a super nice typewriter. Since it essentially has a PC keyboard, it would feel pretty natural to type on for anyone.
It would be really interesting to see a video of that typewriter working as a printer.
I believe there are videos out there showing them being used as a printer via serial connection... they're fairly quick
I actually just finished mine tonight
Here you go th-cam.com/video/eIltAb1GCQc/w-d-xo.html
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ We still Clean, Service, Repair & Sell these Wheelwriter Typewriters in 2019
One of the Best electric typewriter ever made
Long live the Typewriter
I just received my ThinkPad T41, it us just like new and the battery still works perfect. I am so amazed of this laptop, it may not be as fast as newer ones but it sure is better. Nothing gets in your way while using it! Thank you for inducing me into the world of old computers.
~Written on a clicky T41 Keyboard
I still own a few of these and newer Wheelwriter under the Lexmark Brand for nostalgic reasons. This particular Model has an option as you can see on the keyboard keys to activate the Printer commands. Even the best laser printers can't compete with the printed type of an impact printer.
Great typewriter--my favorite daisy wheel typewriter. I love the IBM Selectric too. And I actually repair and service both of them. Thanks for the video!
Used one of these, a few times, when I was a kid. This typing sound is so nostalgic...
Love the Steve Benway reference! Technically speaking you could do graphics on that typewriter so long as it was made up of ASCII characters. I find it cool how you can move the page around with the arrow keys as I've only seen typewriters with a roller before.
I was the last class in my high school to learn typing on a typewriter. It happened to be one of those Wheelwriters. They were sure built like a tank, and worked great. Next semester everything was swapped out to computers.
I have quite a few typewriters, but only one full size electronic which is similar to that and probably ran alongside it as a competitor when new. It's an AEG Olympia Compact i ("i" probably meaning "intelligent") which is slightly more basic in the sense that it has no lights but it has various settings for CPI (all on the same type wheel), bold, underline, electronic tab settings etc... It also uses a daisy-wheel style set-up and a carbon ribbon cartridge. I've been using my manuals a lot lately, but really should get the old AEG out sometime and put it back into use again, and maybe make a TH-cam video of it. As a side-note, I'd love to work in an office where typewriters are still at least partially used. Here in the UK no such offices exist, even the most basic ones have laptops or desktop computers.
The text printed is so crisp and sharp.
These items are when the "Name Brand" meant a quality product was usually always guaranteed.
I remembered those old good days when you typed that checking-characters line ... Typewriters and Telexes . This IMB typewriter was the best typewriter all over the world . 👍
I have a Wheelwiter 30 with a LCD display. Great machine!
That put a smile on my face :D
OMG! That sound of typing is eargasm! That's why we love mechanical keyboards!
Nice Steve Benway reference!
i learned how to "blind touch type on one of those . (blind touch type is where the instructors cover the letters and you have to know where the letters are by not looking at the keys )
I learned how to type on a fully mechanical typewriter. I still remember the iconic "ding" sound from the bell that indicated that you've reached the end of the page and you had to push the sled back which also scrolled up the page. Good times.
Nice Video !!
I still service these here in Phoenix. IBM's & virtually every Typewriter made.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10:37 Now, THAT was exciting! Looking forward to seeing that video!
Both my old Elementary and High Schools used to have the same exact IBM typewriters and they continued to used them even well into the mid-2000s (they mostly used those IBM typewriters for envelopes).
Nice save, I have some kind of affection for old IBM selectrics, even though this is a wheelwriter, might pick on up some day.
Nice find!. Same typewriter I used in my high school typing class a looong time ago. It was a great machine to use.
There is something about that lamp that just warms the cockles of my cold heart.
Excellent video, Thank You! That typewriter is in great condition.
If you ever need any help with this machine, we still repair and service them where I work, so I can get you an answer to any questions about taking it apart or how to fix something, let me know.
Where?!? I have an Actionwriter that works great (although I only have one font) but I still cannot possibly imagine any company actually using them today. Even all the people I know who collect typewriters don't really go newer than Selectrics.
These is a cool bit of kit
These were my Days in Servicing Electronics.
Man have I have been taking word processing for granted.
I was watching a compilation of Japanese Sharp commercials from the 70s through to 90s the other day and the penny dropped for me on the "ELSI" name they went for their calculators. ELSI is the L and C in LCD. So ELSI Mate is like LCD Mate. And has the wonderful novelty of actually using more characters than the original acronym. It reminded me of the shortening of world wide web to www actually lengthens the amount of syllables when spoken.
OHHH I used to have this electronic typewriter! I played with it while my dad worked
Gee I remember having one of those in my school:-)
My school believe it or not still have this same exact model typewriter in the library!
Good video. Nice typewriter!
We had an elderly secretary at my job who had a typewriter like this on her desk, and she refused to give it up when we began to remodel the office. However we did eventually manage to pry it away from her.
Buickman88 why didnt you simply gift it to her instead of a gold watch?
I really enjoy your videos. Keep doing them!
That famous line, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."? :P
Thanks a lot for this video, it is truly a fine business machine.
Nice one. I may be tempted to get one and make a teletype style terminal for my GNU/Linux systems, but oh my - this thing is gonna go through paper like a minigun! :)
Really nice! You should do a video hooking it up to a computer. I had a Mac plus with a brother daisy wheel printer when I was a kid. I loved watching it type out long docs like a ghost writer.
A few Months ago I picked up a Selectric I and Selectric II from an older Customer of the Place I worked. She wanted to throw them out to the Trash, her Husband used to service Typewriters in a big Company.
The Selectric II actually works, but always prints the next Charackter to the chosen one, the Selectric I doesnt work at all. Only Motor Noise. I hope to get them to work.
I love Typewriters.
It's actually 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'.
Never lived up to the fame of Selectric 2, but still a nice machine.
good to see a video always here early love your videos
Nice to see that it can be used as a printer... Most likely IBM assumed that if you were in an office using one of their PCs with a word processor, this would allow you to print from that. Nice to know. Although I'm sure that Microsoft would support this with Notepad, and older versions with DOS would obviously use this with EDIT.COM and probably QBasic for program code.
Thats a cool machine, Man.
My high school had these for use in their business and typing classes.
Neat. Apparently that parallel port option is pretty rare. If I had one I'd totally reverse engineer it
Mr Benway pops up everywhere these days!
So I do ;)
Strange forces are at work! ;-)
The batteries were there because the typewriter would retain the current line in memory for correction..
I sold these devices in Australia in the late 80s early 90s, they were the best typewriters in the world. Canon made typewriters too, but they were all plastic..
I want THAT for my museum!
I have one, but mine is french and a bit older. I had to clean it, the mechanism was going all over the place because there was so much friction, grease made it go as new. I also learned (while dismantling mine) that these have 8088 in them with roms, so this is just a pc in a type writer.
My aunt still uses a typewriter she's bought in the early 80's.
Wow! Nice piece.
Still have my IBM Selectric II which was 3,500 dollars when I bought it new. Great machines but hard to get service nowadays.
the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs:))) nice work my frend:)
Very nice video! :)
You sound very happy in this video! Hope you're doing well!
I'm tired of repairing Ibm series engines,,, greetings from indonesia
great video vwestlife. my mother had an IBM electric typewriter but it was a golf ball type (I unfortunately broke it !)
i had an earlier model from IBM with the "ball head", and it featured a 10 digit block. the device came used from an accouting department. from the dirt on the keycaps they seemed to have used it as a calculator on steroids. but since it had no display (apart from some leds) i am not sure if it could calculate.
I was given a Saisho CP 900 cassette player/clock radio that had a 9v backup battery as old as that.When I pulled it out, it pulled the 9v clip broke with the contacts still stuck to the battery!
There's my keyboarding class classic
You can buy a capsense board from orihalcon and convert those IBM Wheelwriter Model M BS keyboards.
You should cover it. Dust is a typewriters worst enemy.
I do have a cover for it.
It would be awesome to actually see your Thinkpad (or any other modern PC with printer parallel port you have) to print using the typewriter! It'll be great if you make a video of it printing from a PC.
I have a similar typewriter. It's the IBM Quiet Writer 7.
IBM engineer - I need to find something for this voice synthesiser to do on the show room floor!
Executive - Have you finished swapping out the Daisy wheels?
IBM engineer - The what?
Executive - Daisy, the Daisy wheel. Give me the answer, have you done it?!
VW Estlife, you still use the typewriters at work?
Yes.
Yay! I love your videos man!
I thought that you were going to demonstrate the printer function. I just want it to see how many pages per minute it can do, working like a printer. Still, I think is cool that still has compatibility with modern operative systems.
People should remove the batteries even if they don't use that feature.
I thought I remembered seeing somewhere that at least some of the wheel writers could be set to store an entire typed line without printing so that it could do dual justification by printing the whole line out at once. Is that one of the features of this model?
Man, I really wanted to see how fast a PC would push that pinwheel. Oh well, great video anyway!
Nice typewriter! What's even nicer is that you can still buy the ribbons for these... although I bet if you couldn't, you could get a cartridge for another model that is still in production and thread in the ribbon into your old cartridge... that's usually what you gotta do with manual typewriter ribbons, since the reels vary, but the ribbon is always the exact same size. Are you gonna keep it set up so you can quickly type things out, or label things that you wouldn't be able to label with a computer printer? Or maybe even hook it up to one of your vintage computers? Also, when you run out of ribbon, you have to go through it and see what's been typed on it in the past. lol. Nice calculator too! Yea, the dollar store ones... even the less crappy ones in the stationery section in other stores are total junk. I bought a Radio Shack EC-4075 calculator on eBay because it does time calculations... it has been extremely useful to me, but it didn't come with its pleather case, so I slapped a slip case together with some scrap denim to protect it from dust and scratches. OOH now you have a wall mounted rack for holding 8 tracks! That's awesome. it can go beside your wall-mounted cassette rack.
you can do ascii graphics on this via the LPT port.
It's not a walkthrough, playthrough, review, anything like that, it's just me typing a comment BADLY so you can see what it looks like.
me and my family used to have about 3 typewriters i think 2 ibms and 1 brother
I found a WheelWriter Series II, Model 3 in our school library. There was another one (identical) in storage, and I wanted to make an offer on it but I wasn't willing to take the risk - plus it had a note that said "stuck carriage return." Our school district bought them in 1989-ish, and the librarian still uses hers from time to time to make book labels. (I've used it a couple times - she gets angry when I use it as she thinks the ribbons are no longer sold.) I wonder if someone can make a video showing the planar boards (there is one in the back by the power supply and one under the mechanism itself) to see what type of ICs it use.
I don't know if IBM/Lexmark is still making ribbons for the Wheelwriter, but I know for a fact that you can still get aftermarket ribbons (including the correction ribbon) for it.
Lexmark doesn't, as Lexmark has pretty much stopped supporting these older typewriters. (Although there is some evidence, although it may be outdated, that Lexmark may still make newer Wheelwriter models.) Lexmark spun-off of IBM in 1991, and took over their typewriter, printer, and keyboard business that year. The Selectric and Wheelwriter models, as well as the Quietwriter models (Quietwriter is the same chassis but with a non-impact print head), were made in IBM's state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Lexington, KY.
hello! My old smith corona word processor I got from a family member happens to be a
similar system. do you happen to know if the locking mechanism for where the fontwheels go are replacable/fixable? It broke ages ago but I'd love to eventually get it repaired thanks much
(I know the SMith Corona has a very different system. internet says it's part of their h series typewriters, but i'm trying to find out if i can get it fixed)
Bought a Wheelwriter 2 today for $40 at habitat
Very nice typewriter. I wonder if the keyboard comes of? Perhaps it could be used with a PC.
❤
UPDATE: I had my library (where I work) buy a used IBM Wheelwriter 3.
I had my library bought a used machine because I knew the IBM machines were workhorses. The machine they had before was a cheap Brother brand - it broke even when new. I wanted a REAL typewriter so I went online to look for a used business model. I think in 2003 when we bought the Wheelwriter it was still a bit pricey, I think $325, but I felt it was a worthwhile investment. At the time we bought six ribbons and six correction tapes and I think we have only used 3 or each in 13 years. I just dust it out once a year and wipe down the bars the carriage rides on with synthetic grease, and that all it needs to work like a champ.
I am gonna try to use your station with nextradio :P
Did you manage to score any spare ribbons for this also?
Now, if only they had a Selectric laying around for you to take home!
I have a printer exactly like that one... N the belt mechanizim have cut it self... I really don't where I can get the belt
I'm 14 and I know what a typewriter is!
I used to service these things, great machines. Preferred the Olympia machines though. A proper beast is a Brother Em1 a scary machine to work on, linear carriage.
What data were the memory backup batteries meant to retain? Were they to retain data like tab stops and margins and things like that?
Yes.
Who did the daisywheel typewriter first? I have a brother electronic typewriter that can write on floppies and also accepts a CRT monitor that I inherited from my grandfather.
Primer maquina de escribir electrónica de IBM que intentaba destronar a la IBM selectric , igual la velocidad de escritura no pudo superar a la selectric
"were moving clears stuff into new building oh no we have this junk left over man i don't wanna do a dump run and we can leave it, i know lets have vwestlife have it he's always a sucker for cheap free eletrical items, hay we got you something!"
i would persume that's how you got this
that calculate is not as old as my TI-1250 with red LED display which was made in USA in the 70s and it still works
Are you sure that the cubby unit wasn't used for storing the multiple print wheels for the typewriter?
No, you could fit hundreds of print wheels in that rack, and nobody would ever need that much!
Not even in the office supply room for use with all the typewriters in the facility?
At that point it would be kinda like printer cartridges or something in a modern office. You still wouldn't need them often enough to be worth taking out of the box before you needed them.
I have a Olivetti Lettera 32 which is simlar to this but it doesnt have a printer function