Object size: 12.0 x 42.0 x 33.5 cm
This is an Olivetti ET Personal 55 typewriter produced in Singapore during the 1980s, which the donor Kelvin Tay won at a company dinner and dance lucky draw in 1990. It was a portable electronic typewriter that used daisy wheel printing, which allowed users to change fonts. It was also able to erase and automatically align text. This model was designed by Mario Bellini, a long-term collaborator with Olivetti.Manufacturing was a key component of Singapore’s economic development post-independence, generating 26% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as of 1990. Olivetti opened a factory producing electronic calculators and typewriters in Ayer Rajah in 1980. However, the factory closed in 1995 due to rising costs of production in Singapore and a fall in global demand for typewriters in favour of computer word processors.
