Geeking it Up: The IBM Model M

The plant where I used to work had a lot of computer equipment in service that should have been retired in the late 90s. (Frugality wasn’t the biggest reason, although it was a factor. We simply had a lot of software and equipment that would only work with old PCs.)

My boss was a pack rat. Even when we did stop using an old computer, if it still functioned, or some parts of it still functioned, he put it in a store room. Periodically we took a swing at going through all this old junk to separate out the really junky junk from the possibly still useful junk.

It was through such herd thinning that I acquried a perfectly servicable IBM Model M keyboard. My boss, undoubtedly reasoning that new keyboards could be had on the cheap from Walmart, wanted to throw it away. But, I rescued it. It made the trip from Vernon when I moved, and now it’s sitting here on my desk at school.

The Model M, if you don’t have the time or interest to read the Wikipedia entry, is an old battle axe of a keyboard. Besides possessing the heft to fend off zombies in the coming apocolypse, its distinguishing feature is a “buckling-spring” key design. Unlike those of most modern keyboards, the Model M’s keys are each backed by an actual metal spring. In the words of Wikipedia, this provides a pleasing “tactile and auditory feedback”.

IBM no longer makes the Model M. A company called Unicomp purchased the rights to make Model M style keyboards back in the 90s. They now sell them for exhorbitant prices to geeks who either can’t do without or want one as a vanity item.

Mine is the real deal, though. Part Number 1391401, manufactured on 11/19/1991.