A few other characteristics came to mind that also help set it apart: I don't know if it was the first, or not, but something that might not be immediately obvious to some is that the Selectric had ...

Introduced in 1961 by IBM, the Selectric was the first typewriter to use a golf ball-like type element that moved across the paper, rather than moving the paper carriage past the individual character ...

Metal plating doesn't have much strength. If a plastic ball would be flattened, as I expect, a plated plastic ball would collapse just about as fast. Plus, I think you can only plate things that ...