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Comment by aidenn0 | Hacker News Reader

Were Daisy-wheels ever used in typewriters, or was that just a printer thing?

We had a Brother (I think) typewriter with a daisy wheel, it had a 16 character LCD panel so you could preview what you were typing and catch mistakes before it printed, but also had built in correction tape to erase mistakes. We had a couple wheels in different typefaces.

But I still preferred the Selectrics at school, that kerchunk with each character typed gave it a good feel and I could type much more accurately than the brother where the printing was disconnected from the typing.

They were produced by the million by Smith Corona for electronic typewriters and “wordprocessors” in the late 80s/early 90s. Those things had the worst fucking keyboards imaginable https://youtu.be/R2rhOUk-dsM

Back in the early 1990s I typed my papers on a Smith-Corona typewriter with a daisy-wheel (Smith Cornoa called them "printwheels" but same thing.

Yep, I had one, might still have it somewhere. Most of my friends had the Triumph Adler Gabriele which had a RS232 serial port and could be used as printer, but mine definitely did not and was a pure electronic typewriter without display and any interfaces.

The rural high school I went to had these instead of computers until 1996 or 97.

I believe there were many daisy wheel typewriters, but I (correctly or incorrectly) tend to associate them with true electronic typewriters as opposed to electric ones. IBM Wheelwriters and such.

There were a lot of early typewriters that experimented with interchangeable type wheels, shuttles, and sleeves. Hammond and Blickensderfer are two of the better-known brands among collectors, but here's a whole list: https://www.officemuseum.com/typewriters_single_element.htm

Amazing! Isn't there also a single element one that uses an inverted cylinder with the type on the inside?

In general, I'm discovering what a deep rabbit hole I've dug myself into. Last weekend I was trying to decide between a Corona Silent, a similar-vintage Remington I haven't yet identified, and an SCM Corsair. Looking for a nice portable contrast to a Selectric that isn't fatiguing to use.

Edit: Re. that first point, believe I was thinking (somewhat backwards) of the 1878 version of the Malling-Hansen Writing Ball: https://www.officemuseum.com/typewriters_hansen_writing_ball...

If you're looking for a typewriter with a light touch, the Olivetti Lettera 32 and Underwood Universal are some of my favorites. I love my Remingtons, but all of mine (all of which are 1940s models) are pretty heavy.

Electronic ones, yes. I have a couple of AEG/Carrera ones with daisywheels.

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