> Didn't IBM golfballs come in a range of colours?

The first successful electric typewriters, made by IBM in the 1930s, were matte black, consistent with the glossy black & gold trim standard on typewriters since the very first in the 1870s. This was quite similar to contemporary sewing machines, to which there's an early connection.[0] But black really seems to be the colour scheme of the second industrial revolution, considering the The Model T, a stereotypical steam locomotive, or a ship like the Titanic.

Grey Became The New Black for typewriters in the late 1940s, and the IBM Model A of 1948 was produced exclusively in a particular shade of dark beige. The 1950s quickly saw a broad spectrum of bright colours; it was 1952 that the IBM's pastel palette was established by the Model B, but photos of surviving examples show that off-greys were still the majority of sales. Saturated colours had caught on by the time of the the Selectric in 1961. Photos of the three generations of Selectric depict the gradual onset of the beige trend in the next decades; the remarkably swift technological progress of the 20th century meant that by the time the last of these typewriters were produced simultaneously to the IBM PC for four years until 1984. In this context, the explanation for the ThinkPad's success that comes to mind isn't exactly good-looking design--if anything, that would be the TrackPoint instead of a black color scheme, as IBM already had made several black laptops.[1]

(Unsurprisingly considering the reputation of businesses using outdated machines) Two more generations of IBM typewriters actually came after the Selectrics. The later Electronic Selectrics and Wheelwriters were off-white and obsolete upon release, but still found their uses in certain offices. By then, IBM's typewriter division had become its own company, Lexmark, which then turned to making printers. Despite being late to the market, Lexmark managed to pull off an industry-changing move of its own: this time, not with clever engineering, but rather by inventing ink cartridge DRM. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[0] https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/modelb/modelb_infor...:

> The influence of the sewing machine division of Remington & Sons showed clearly in the Model 1. While the typewriter itself looked remarkably like present-day machines, it was mounted on a stand similar to a sewing machine table; moreover, the carriage was returned by means of a foot- treadle, and Remington's first advertising billed the "Typewriter" as a machine "the size of a sewing machine, and an ornament to an office, study or sitting room." Continuing, the advertising declared that "it is certain to become indispensable in families as the sewing machine."

[1] among them, the PS/55 Note Model T22sx amusingly shares the Microsoft Surface's silhouette https://thinkwiki.de/Datei:Ps-55-note-t22sx.jpg

PS: You can own a Selectric for surprisingly little. Seems like the prices online have already begun to increase, though shipping was never really feasible considering that they're miniature mechanical computers. Most will need an oil change and tuning after all these years, and ironically, a couple of parts subject to high load are plastic and prone to breaking over time. But admiring the engineering and the delightful repair manuals[2] is half the fun, and it's somewhat more reasonable than having a project car, at least.

[2] Repair video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hVM7AaW3HA / Adjustment manual https://www.marklin-users.net/cookee_nz/hobbies/IBM/IBMSelec...