1985 Swedish layout Model F XT with odd stickers inside

[yac]

I've owned this keyboard since 1988 or so, it was the very first computer(IBM PC/XT w/ 10MB HD) i came into prolonged contact with. My dad used to bring it home over summer vacations and needless to say i had a blast with it. Played Sopwith, King's quest and an odd Coca Cola promo disk. Learned to program in Basic, and remember thinking even at a young age how horrible Edlin was. I do remember the elaborate dance one had to do to before moving the computer. Dip switches at the back to set a very low-res mode, special maintenance disk to park the heads.

The computer was phased out at my dads company but he kept the keyboard. It languished for decades, but last year i finally got a Soarer's converter and pushed it into action. The keyfeel is remarkable, probably since it saw relatively little use. Still on the original foam, although the wrangling i did to get it back together did dislodge some of the protruding foam.

I've cleaned the key caps before, but today i decided to just remove top case for a light clean.

Managed to snap a few pics of the beast:

Back sticker #2

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Back sticker #1

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Back plate

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Top view

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What i find interesting is the stickers on top of other stickers seems to indicate this keyboard was reworked, could it have started life as a different layout before getting changed to Swedish a few months after its initial manufacture?

Also i find it notable that a single person signed off on it when it was first manufactured, but it took four persons(each with seemingly their own pen!) to sign off after it was reworked. Has anyone seen something similar before? Photos of the insides of euro layout Model F are rare, or at least i havent found much.

[Mattr567]

Looks sweet! The small alpha legends are unique.

[yac]

Yeah, that is something i have noticed as well, for years i thought it was due to the Swedish characters taking more room, but i've seen many keycaps from this era(albeit on AT Model Fs) featuring the Swedish/Finnish characters and regular large legends, so it is a mystery.

[JP!]

Very nice. I haven't seen any Swedish Model F's before.

[seebart]

Nice, thanks for sharing! The only other time I've seen small alpha legends like that are on my 3178 Terminal Model F 75- key with secondary legends on the alpha keys:

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[yac]

...small alpha legends...

Cool, and thank YOU for sharing that! That is the first picture i've seen of the small alpha legends, and on a German layout to boot.

Do you know roughly when your keyboard was made? DId you ever open it up and if so, what did the stickers inside look like? I wonder if yours too was a rework, and would have two sets of stickers, or if it was QC:d the first time looking like that.

I wonder how the masters for the legends were actually made back in the late seventies/early eighties. Presumably they used typeset masters and from those made dye sub transfer films for the actual keycaps. The explanation for the small alpha legends could be that the original large type lacked the characters needed at the time, and they had to make do with what they had. Comparing my num-pad 2 and the 2 in the top row(large legend vs small legend) by eye i get the feeling they tried to approximate the large font as best they could, but i'm not sure if it's an exact match.

Or it could just be that it would look very crowded with the four glyphs on one keycap with the large legend.

[seebart]

...small alpha legends...

Cool, and thank YOU for sharing that! That is the first picture i've seen of the small alpha legends, and on a German layout to boot.

Do you know roughly when your keyboard was made? DId you ever open it up and if so, what did the stickers inside look like? I wonder if yours too was a rework, and would have two sets of stickers, or if it was QC:d the first time looking like that.

I wonder how the masters for the legends were actually made back in the late seventies/early eighties. Presumably they used typeset masters and from those made dye sub transfer films for the actual keycaps. The explanation for the small alpha legends could be that the original large type lacked the characters needed at the time, and they had to make do with what they had. Comparing my num-pad 2 and the 2 in the top row(large legend vs small legend) by eye i get the feeling they tried to approximate the large font as best they could, but i'm not sure if it's an exact match.

Or it could just be that it would look very crowded with the four glyphs on one keycap with the large legend.

According to the sticker on the back this 3178 was manufactured 1983. I did open the keyboard once when I got it but I cannot remember what stickers / labels were inside. I'd say in the case of my terminal keyboard the small alpha legends are due to the layout. In your case the small alpha legends seem rather curious. I have not idea how the keycaps were manufactured.

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[Mr.Nobody]

I'm curious about the symbol on the right side of "P"

[depletedvespene]

I'm curious about the symbol on the right side of "P"

“Å”?

[pixelheresy]

Very nice! Yeah, I rarely find anything genuinely vintage here in Sweden... so very impressive!

When even a very stock, blue-label Model M goes up on Tradera, it's bid on like crazy.

[yac]

Yeah, and i stupidly threw away a Model M with Swedish layout a few years ago, knew i should've held onto it. Oh well, live and learn.

[macboarder]

Fascinating! The secondary US legends are a nice bonus. And I suppose the [§ ½] key wasn't invented back then.

[Mr.Nobody]

I'm curious about the symbol on the right side of "P"

“Å”?

Oh, it's just an A with a circle atop it to indicate tonnation or accentuation maybe, I thought it was a special symbol of some sort.

[Craweth]

I'm curious about the symbol on the right side of "P"

“Å”?

Oh, it's just an A with a circle atop it to indicate tonnation or accentuation maybe, I thought it was a special symbol of some sort.

No, it's a letter in the swedish, norwegian and danish alphabets.