What is the oldest keyboard in your collection?

vometia · 24 Aug 2016, 04:46

fohat wrote: But there were no punch cards. Programming literally meant plugging and unplugging literally hundreds (thousands?) of patch cables for each new computing run.

I think Colossus (1943?) used paper tape for its data input, and I'm not sure what was used to punch that; but yeah, programming such as it was probably involved nasty things like soldering and wire-wrap!

rootwyrm · 24 Aug 2016, 13:36

It often surprises folks, but I don't really have many "old" pieces. Keyboards are for typing on, not for putting under glass. I'm weird like that I guess. Probably the oldest is my 1394540 at 1990, but I do have a complete provenance on it.

citrojohn · 24 Aug 2016, 14:45

Well, the ZX81's from about 1983... if that can be called a keyboard.

Of keyboards not hard-wired to a computer, a 1997 NMB.

Ratfink · 24 Aug 2016, 16:22

citrojohn wrote: Well, the ZX81's from about 1983... if that can be called a keyboard. Of keyboards not hard-wired to a computer, a 1997 NMB.

Yeah, I don't think I could call a microwave oven keypad a keyboard, so I don't think the ZX81 has a keyboard.

rootwyrm · 24 Aug 2016, 16:32

fohat wrote:
elecplus wrote:
Although I believe 2 computers were built before I was born, so maybe I am mistaken. ENIAC used punched cards for input though, not a keyboard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC No fohat, I don't think I am younger than you are.
Apparently there were a number of electronic computers built in the 1930s and 1940s, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer but ENIAC was the first in the US. Great book, too: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/720730.Eniac

But there were no punch cards. Programming literally meant plugging and unplugging literally hundreds (thousands?) of patch cables for each new computing run.

I was born in mid-1952.

If we want to get super-technical about it... the first teletype (which is what TTY derives from) was actually developed in 1855. Not 1955, 18. It was based on a piano keyboard. The two-way nature of teletype (aka TELEGRAPH) made it optimal for use with computers. The first keyboard inputs were literally juryrigged Teletypes speaking Baudot.

vometia · 24 Aug 2016, 16:45

citrojohn wrote: Well, the ZX81's from about 1983... if that can be called a keyboard. Of keyboards not hard-wired to a computer, a 1997 NMB.

Put some springs and hammers on it and you have a Model M.

I'm not sure I ever actually used a ZX81: I remember the ads at the time and they kinda put me off computing for a bit, at least until my maths teacher's enthusiasm persuaded me to give the subject another look. She suggested I get a VIC-20, which shows how long ago it was, but at least it had a proper keyboard!

zslane · 24 Aug 2016, 19:34

rootwyrm wrote: Keyboards are for typing on, not for putting under glass.

I feel the same way. I'd only make one exception...

rootwyrm · 24 Aug 2016, 20:52

zslane wrote:
rootwyrm wrote: Keyboards are for typing on, not for putting under glass.
I feel the same way. I'd only make one exception...

You still can't have my one-owner IBM M13. I type on that too!

Hypersphere · 25 Aug 2016, 00:39

I have a Hall Effect Honeywell that I think dates from the mid-1970s and an IBM Beam Spring from circa 1979. If we were to count typewriters, I had a Royal from the mid-1950s (but I no longer own it) and some IBM Selectrics from the 1960s -- I still have the type balls and keycaps, but the typewriters went to the recycler. I have some unidentified terminal keyboards that are probably from the 1970s. So, I did not count the typewriters and cast my vote for "before 1980".

mike52787 · 25 Aug 2016, 13:19

My current oldest board would be my XT, the 5150 it came with has late 1982 dates on it, and the board is dated early 1983.

citrojohn · 25 Aug 2016, 23:24

Ratfink wrote: Yeah, I don't think I could call a microwave oven keypad a keyboard, so I don't think the ZX81 has a keyboard.

The microwave probably has more processing power than the ZX81.

My grandfather (the original owner) bought a sheet of rubber domes that sat on the ZX81's membrane, which made the feel different but not better. Shouldn't complain really - I believe the major performance-related accessory for the ZX80 was a pint of milk...

vometia · 26 Aug 2016, 07:48

citrojohn wrote: My grandfather (the original owner) bought a sheet of rubber domes that sat on the ZX81's membrane, which made the feel different but not better. Shouldn't complain really - I believe the major performance-related accessory for the ZX80 was a pint of milk...

Was that one of the very many contrivances to (usually unsuccessfully) avert the wobbly Rampak problem, or an early venture into liquid cooling?

citrojohn · 26 Aug 2016, 10:56

vometia wrote: Was that one of the very many contrivances to (usually unsuccessfully) avert the wobbly Rampak problem, or an early venture into liquid cooling?

The latter - one of the chips (graphics?) was prone to overheating, and coincidentally the case above it had a flat bit just the size of a pint carton of milk. If you added cocoa to the milk you ended up with a hot drink as well as a faster computer. Actually, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the flat part of the case had been put there deliberately.

Ah yes, those Rampaks! To be honest, I never really got far enough on the ZX81 to need the Rampak. I was too busy wondering who thought it was a good idea to put backspace on Shift-0...

hoggy · 02 Sep 2016, 22:54

I used my zx81 enough to put a dent in the shift key. I gave that one to a friend when I was still at school, but I picked up another 81 about 10 years ago. So, that's my oldest at the moment.

OleVoip · 02 Sep 2016, 23:58

I used to own a Continental typewriter, made ~1930 by Wanderer Werke, Germany, which once was my great-grandfather's. It sports glass keytops with chrome rims. Now it is with my sister, though.
Currently, my oldest keyboard is that of my TVI912 terminal from 1979. I bought it as it reminded me of my early years of computer programming in front of a similar Hazeltine. In 1981, we got a Tandberg and I immediately fell in love with its Siemens STB keys, with their futuristic keycap style and the first silent tactiles I experienced.

vometia · 03 Sep 2016, 15:18

OleVoip wrote: I used to own a Continental typewriter, made ~1930 by Wanderer Werke, Germany, which once was my great-grandfather's. It sports glass keytops with chrome rims. Now it is with my sister, though.
Currently, my oldest keyboard is that of my TVI912 terminal from 1979. I bought it as it reminded me of my early years of computer programming in front of a similar Hazeltine. In 1981, we got a Tandberg and I immediately fell in love with its Siemens STB keys, with their futuristic keycap style and the first silent tactiles I experienced.

Stirred a few memories there: I remember my grandfather had something very much like a Continental typewriter, though I'm not sure if that was the actual brand. It looked quite similar though, keys and all, and it was quite definitely the non-portable type: it weighed an absolute ton. It looked like it should've been steam-powered, if only steam power had been invented when it was made.

He stuck with it well into the '80s as he was none too impressed with electric typewriters for being too enthusiastic ("they run away with you", I think were his exact words: he wasn't a technophobe by any means, being a keen player of video games down the arcades, but he liked his old typewriter).

And the TVI912 was usually the preferred terminal when I was at college: you had to be in early to get on a VT100 clone, the Volker-Craigs were weird and cranky and the ADM3a terminals looked kinda small and brown. So the TVI912 it was, usually. I remember absolutely nothing about how good its keyboard was (or wasn't), though. It's probably a reasonably safe bet that they were spherical with nice big legends in the middle of the keys where they should be!