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Mechanical Enterprises Inductric

Contents

Overview

Inductric was a series of ferrite core inductive keyboards that began life at Mechanical Enterprises. Inductric was described briefly somewhere within Evaluation Engineering in Volume 20, 1981 (the limit of Google Books deigns to permit anyone to know):

Two MEI keyboard products are Sabrecoil (introduced two years ago as a standard product for the low-cost, high-volume keyboard market) and Inductric (introduced in February 1980 for the custom high-quality solid state keyboard market in quantities of 1,000 and up).

So far, only a single example is known from MEI’s stewardship of the product line. By 1982, Inductric had passed to Keytek.

US patent 4300127 “Solid state noncontacting keyboard employing a differential transformer element” filed by Victor M Bernin—a former ITW employee—in September 1978 is marked on the PCB of a Keytek-made Falco keyboard. There is another relevant patent from Victor Bernin, US patent 4494109A “Noncontacting keyboard employing a transformer element”, filed in January 1981. With both patents filed by Bernin personally with no evidence of ownership by either MEI or Keytek, the explanation of the transfer remains unknown.

Examples