Appeal for info on IBM UK made Model Ms 1985-1990 with "Model G" stickers

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sharktastica

31 May 2024, 19:20

Hello! As part of an upcoming Admiral Shark's Keyboards report on the various uses of "Model G" on IBM Model Ms, I'm appealing for information from anyone who has a Model M that was:
  • Made in the United Kingdom
  • From 1985 to 1990*
  • Is an Enhanced Keyboard variant (101-104 key)**
  • Has a sticker like or similar to the three examples shown below
If you have one of these stickers or something similar, I'd like to know what their host keyboards' 'outside' part numbers and date of manufactures are, and some evidence of there being a "Model G" or a prominent "G". I've seen these stickers shared on DT before (I did as much research as I could before asking, of course), but I found nothing beyond similar to the three examples shown and I didn't find much commentary on them, so I thought I'd do one last appeal here (and have also done on /r/modelm and several Discords) for anything different before I wrap this up. There are only a handful of part numbers on these stickers that are shared between keyboards destined for entirely different systems and languages, so any other part numbers found would be a great to document. That said, do post if you have something similar/the same.

(*I have strong visual accounts for all of 1986 to Q2 1987 already, so anything before or after is especially appreciated.)
(**I have strong visual accounts for IBM 316X and 319X terminal Enhanced and PC/XT and PC/AT Enhanced Keyboards already. Any examples of these on Industrial, RT PC, 3151 or PS/2 Enhanced Keyboards would also be appreciated.)

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You're welcome to check IBM UK keyboards that are either newer than that and/or are a different variant (like 122-key), but I strongly suspect they won't have these stickers. For 122-key Model Ms (for example), it may have very similar stickers saying "1A" instead. "1A" and "G" are commonly used in 5250-style IBM InfoWindow documentation to indicate Converged Keyboard and Enhanced Keyboard respectively, but I've also found evidence (to a lesser degree) of their use in 3270 (1A and G) and RT PC (G only) documentation as well. I'm present reviewing a bunch of IBM announcement letters and scans by bitsavers to find out as much as I can.

To be honest (and to be clear I don't state as a fact), I get the hint that "Keyboard/Model G" was only supposed to refer to Enhanced Keyboards and maybe IBM wanted to take what would become Model M Converged Keyboards in a different direction/designation, only to be unified into "Model M" sometime before general production? Both production Enhanced and Converged Keyboards I've seen from very close to their host system's announcements bore "M" at introduction, so if this was the case, it was sorted out before launch and some documentation wasn't updated and these older designations were just carried forward for a short while by IBM UK (and documentation writers into the 2000s). But that's just a theory, a Keyboard Theory...

Cheers!

modelf

01 Jun 2024, 00:23

Hey what would it take to get unbanned on Reddit (r/modelm and r/modelf)?

User avatar
hellothere

01 Jun 2024, 03:08

I have a couple Model Ms lying about and I'd love to help. If you don't hear from me, please message me in Reddit or here.

Here's a question: what about buckling spring typewriters?

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sharktastica

01 Jun 2024, 04:50

hellothere wrote:
01 Jun 2024, 03:08
I have a couple Model Ms lying about and I'd love to help. If you don't hear from me, please message me in Reddit or here.
Thank you!
hellothere wrote:
01 Jun 2024, 03:08
Here's a question: what about buckling spring typewriters?
Funny enough, I have way more photos of the bottoms of Actionwriter/Wheelwriter/Quietwriter keyboard assemblies than the insides of Enhanced Keyboards in my archive, but none have "G" anywhere. To be honest (and digressing), such keyboards made by IBM Netherlands have their own 'mess' of supposed "M" designations (like what DT Wiki cites as a "model" of Wheelwriter keyboard; an example; another example) that as you can see doesn't appear to make sense on the surface (the same part number can have different ones, different part numbers can have the same one, no relation to amount of keys/layout, some have two etc.) I presume they're actually something overall unrelated to model.

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hellothere

04 Jun 2024, 03:01

Sorry. Nothing over here.

User avatar
sharktastica

14 Jun 2024, 00:39

hellothere wrote:
04 Jun 2024, 03:01
Sorry. Nothing over here.
No worries. Thanks for looking anyway!

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