Yesterday, I attended a fairly impromptu keyboard meetup in Exeter, UK to represent IBM. I didn’t want to take a suitcase with me for all the train commuting I had to do within a day, so I took what I could fit into a particularly large backpack. This meant no Model B(eam spring) keyboards, but I managed to fit two very cool buckling spring keyboards and a bunch of buckling sleeve keyboards (I opted to give them priority since they’re far less well-known and experienced). Blahaj attended so the table was of course on brand.
The keyboards:
- IBM 4704 Display Station Model 100 Function Keyboard (1983ish Model F buckling spring keyboard)
- IBM Wheelwriter 5 Keyboard Assembly (1984 Model M buckling spring keyboard)
- IBM Numeric Keypad for IBM PS/2 L40SX (1992 Model M3 buckling sleeve keypad)
- IBM PS/note 182-series Keyboard Assembly (1992 Model M6 buckling sleeve keyboard)
- IBM ThinkPad 355-series/360-series Keyboard Assembly (1994 Model M6-1 buckling sleeve keyboard)
- IBM RANPOS Keyboard (2001 Model M9 buckling sleeve keyboard)
Overall, it was a very good day with cool people and I got a very positive reception to these keyboards! Shout out to Mechanical Keyboards UK patrons Alvi and Shaoty for organising this!
