KBK update for Tuesday, 5th November

I placed a photocopy request from the Linda Hall Library for the 1972 article “Focus on Keyboards” in Electronic Design magazine (ED1972-FOK), which I received a couple of days later. As is always the case with such endeavours, there is no huge breakthrough, but only little morsels of progress. Sadly most of the series covered are not named, including Licon’s ferrite core switches (depicted as the original tall type, advertised as Series 550).

However, there were some surprises. Two Stackpole switch series are mentioned. One is a “flying magnet” type referred to both as “Stackpole Magsat” and “Stackpole/Magsat”. Although it is depicted as having a “magnetic satellite”, Magsat filed the patents (GB1370447 and CA936900) and they also patented a torsion spring type similar to a Stackpole type. The other Stackpole type is a calculator switch called “LO-PRO”, which is likely the name of Stackpole torsion spring whose first patent was filed in October 1972.

The article also names Controls Research Corp’s concentric spring switch—supposedly the switch in the MCM/70—as the “Bi-Pac”.

Some other series names, such as those from Maxi-Switch and Oak, are already known from advertisements of the time.

A little bit of progress. Nowhere near as much as expected, but a tiny step forwards.

View within the updates for 2019

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