vintage typewriter keyboard for computer

Still, he's got the pocket protector optimism of an old school IBMer. Since the start of the year Muyskens has laid off a third of his workforce and things look grim. KASTE: Just the industries that are taking the biggest hit in this recession. We sell into banks, we sell into large retail. But in the last few months those big customers have stopped buying. It makes customized keyboards for banks, hospitals, even tire shops. KASTE: So, like other American manufacturers, Unicomp has retreated to niche markets. Now, I can tell you, I mean I can buy a keyboards from the Far East vendors today for three bucks. MUYSKENS: We put two dollars worth of medical insurance in every keyboard we sell.

KASTE: Price is everything in consumer electronics, and there's no Muyskens is ever going to undercut his Asian competitors. MUYSKENS: The Office Depot of the world, or the Best Buys of the world, they won't stock our product because our product is $69 product. The trouble with Model M is they rarely break down, and Neil Muyskens says he's having a hard time getting the attention of potential new buyers. But those guys just don't make Unicomp enough money. That old school-industry is still alive in this converted furniture factory and it has the appreciation of certain aging nerds. Machines, and springs, and switches that had to be assembled just so and were built to last. This is what American computers used to be.

KASTE: That's the robotic super typist that rechecks the keys' response times to within a fraction of a second. When Collins is finished with the keyboards, it's time for the pneumatic fingers. You got to click it in, and when you click down you hear it clicking? COLLINS: No, it's not picking on(ph), put the button back on. Bonnie Collins checks the new keyboards, making sure every key produces that distinctive metallic ping. If you don't hear it clicking then it's not really good. BONNIE(ph) COLLINS (Employee, Unicomp): So you hear the the clicking in it? But with buckling springs, the feel is everything. They're quiet, cheap, and good enough, but there's not much for your finger to feel on its way down. Most keyboards today use rubber domes, little mushy blisters under all the keys. MUYSKENSIEGEL: We manually insert the magic if you will and that is a what we call pivot-plate assembly, the magic. And most important, Muyskens still puts a spring under each key. It really is the exact same keyboard, except for updated electronics and a USB plug. He founded Unicomp in the mid 90s to try to keep making the Model M's using IBM's old moulds and tools. KASTE: Neil Muyskens is an electrical engineer who used to work at that IBM plant.

NEIL MUYSKENS (Electrical Engineer, Unicomp): This building started as a furniture factory back in the 40s. That kind of manufacturing is long gone to China. Not at the former IBM plant, which once upon a time produced millions of keyboards a year. They're still cranking out new Model Ms here in Lexington, Kentucky. KASTE: The end of the line? Not quite yet. The M was the last computer keyboard that still tried to feel like a typewriter. Since then connoisseurs have come to the conclusion that the Model M was the best keyboard ever, certainly better than the mushy cheapness that standard issue today. KASTE: IBM stopped making these in the early 90s. CHERYL LOWRY (Technical Writer, Microsoft): People tend to stop in the hall and look in and say, wow, that's an old school keyboard because it's fast and it's clattery, and people haven't heard that in 15 years. This one belongs to Cheryl Lowry, a technical writer at Microsoft. KASTE: That's the IBM model M, a tank of a keyboard whose distinctive racket once reverberated through the offices and computer labs of the land. MARTIN KASTE: If you're 30-something and slightly geeky, this might be music to your ears. NPR's Martin Kaste reports that a tiny company is making what some fans call the one true keyboard. If you're like me, you probably spend hours typing on your keyboard - working, reading, googling.

Vintage typewriter keyboard for computer