deskthority

To commemorate the 3rd Annual Deskthority Awards, I'm going to completely take over the Photos & Videos column on the frontpage

While I haven't been actually able to date this "keyboard". The Teletype Model 28 KSR Keyboard was first introduced to the military in 1951! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletype_Model_28)
It is 1KRO (you that's the purpose of the ball bearings you can see in one of the pics), truly mechanical, uses a motor to achieve speeds of around 100 WPM, and can easily be made USB compatible (once I replace a few gears, and figure out the best way to power the motor).

I'm actually not quite sure what to call these switches yet...as there is only technically a couple micro switches and special highspeed rocker switch.

Conveniently has the patent numbers right on the frame
US2605366
US2607848

A keyboard with a motor - not the kind of thing you can take in to work and look inconspicuous typing on.

or imagine having a bluetooth version of this on a train..
great stuff !

This is exactly why I don't like the name "mechanical" for keyboards. Cogs, gears, sprockets, cam shafts, motors = mechanical! And what an awesome beast it is. I could see this one becoming your showpiece, Professor. For public demonstration.

The keys themselves look a lot like a Teletype (or similar) machine at the little tech museum I know. I'll pop in and take some pictures. But they'd never let me take it apart in an afternoon!

Let's call the our 'normal' keyboards semi-mechanical.

The keyboard with its cylindrical keys looks similar to early computer keyboards.

Wow, really an outstanding find!

If the keyboard works again, you should definitely shot a video

How far do you have to push to register a input ? It looks like you have to bottom out, so that the fork of the key can hit the arm underneath it. I doubt that anyone could achieve 100 wpm with this keyboard.

I might have something very very similar to this in our basement at our office...
I am workign with marine and offshore electornics and some 500 years ago (give or take some years) our clients used similar setups to send telex message via satelites. The units had a punchcard reader on the side of the keyboard. I remeber it was a bit ackward to type on thou

[Edit] No, seems like the warehouse gnomes have thrown away the terminal this summer. Stupid people...

I'll have to check but I don't think you have to press all the way to actuate. Since I'm missing some parts, I don't know how fast it can react to presses. But the printing module can do ~100 WPM with the motor that I have.

This same keyboard was used almost exclusively for the military during the 1950s for transmitting data.