Comptometer - Parts
I sincerely regret that on Auust 22, 2007, I found it necessary to close off any further postings here. There has always been a certain amount of offensive and/or obscene 'graffit-e' requiring periodic culling, a burdensome and time-consuming task. And, since early 2004, a huge increase in trival (albeit well-meaning) posts have added considerable clutter. Now web-crawlers seem to be at work, sniffing out postable pages and leaving promotional messages with irrelavant links. This has just become too much trouble to monitor and maintain.
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Non-color-matched keytops are a common condition since keystems for same-digit rows were identical on models F thru J, the bulk of F&T's production history. And, as Ray Mackay recalls...
| "In the technician's tool case we carried an assortment of keytops. It was not unusual where one had been lost to replace the missing key with one from a different model. In some cases we even put a wrong number keytop on, if we did not have the correct one, as operators rarely looked at the keyboard. Some customers even stuck modifiied toilet seat buffers on keys rather than replace, and pay, for a service call." |
Altho its common to refer to keys and keytops as if they were the same, its worth noting that repairs were often done by replacing the combination of keytop and keystem. This was particularly true if the keystem had been bent severely, a frequent mishap with the corner 9-keys. However, keystems are malleable and can be straitened and refitted (see Repairs page).
All of these circumstances have left us with examples from those days when shoebox Comptometers were true data processing workhorses and the niceties of matched keytops took a back seat to getting a machine back "on the line". If your machine has mismatched keys, a posting here might well turn up another collector with a similar problem where an exchange can be effected to mutual benefit.
Warning...
| "Keystems were interchangeable for F, H and J and probably the ST-models. They appear to be interchangeable also for B and C-models as well (gotta check on this). I dont know about the A-model but I'd think not. Wooden-cased and E-models are absolutely unique and, of course, nothing is known yet about the rare D-models." |