Vintage keyboards and typewriters from a road trip

vivalarevolución · 13 Sep 2016, 03:35

Recently I took a road trip through the middle part of the United States, mostly Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska (I have a thing for grasslands). Unexpectedly, I stumbled upon a few keyboards and typewriters in a small town musuem and in an underground salt mine. Below are some pictures, with some captions to explain what is going on. Also included are other pictures that give more background on the places where I found the typing machines.

Museum of the High Plains; McCook, Nebraska

This museum was more a collection old junk donated/salvaged by locals rather than an actual museum, but there was some interesting stuff.

Spoiler:

Strataca Underground Salt Mine; Hutchinson, Kansas

This salt mine actually was quite interesting, the company converted a dormant portion of the still-active salt mine into a museum and tourist attraction. The dormant portions of the mine also serve as a long-term storage facility that is well protected from the elements on the surface. An original IBM System/38 5381 console was down there in the storage exhibit, with what seemed like a beam spring keyboard (I didn't touch it to test). The movie industry also extensively uses this storage facility, as you will see in some of the photos.

Spoiler:

vivalarevolución · 13 Sep 2016, 03:55

Bonus post! Another stop on the road trip was at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa, our 31st president from 1929 to 1933. Hoover received a statue of Isis from the Belgians for leading the effort to stave our mass starvation in that country during and after World War I. I figured this might be of interest to any European history buffs on the forum. While largely having a reputation for failing to respond to the Great Depression, Hoover actually led many humanitarian efforts during his lifetime.

Spoiler:

terrycherry · 13 Sep 2016, 04:34

Very good museum visited. The Tandy 1400 keyboard having some slider over membrane. Don't know what's that.
Yes, it's not the first laptop, it just made from 1987 laptop.

It's clicky. The click sounds like the Hi-Tek 725series black clicky variant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooHBTMD59tY

vivalarevolución · 13 Sep 2016, 04:38

Interesting! That battery pack reminds of the old RC cars we used to race around in the yard...

Touch_It · 13 Sep 2016, 08:23

Cool. You were in my neck of the woods. Live a few hours east of McCook.

seebart · 13 Sep 2016, 14:02

Nice, thanks for sharing. I love how they have that Tandy sitting right in the middle of those ancient typewriters.

vivalarevolución · 14 Sep 2016, 00:42

Touch_It wrote: Cool. You were in my neck of the woods. Live a few hours east of McCook.

You're in Lincoln, right? I thought you may have mentioned that in a different thread. I have been there a couple times, great city. I passed by Lincoln this time, was tempted to stop, but my destination was further west.

vivalarevolución · 14 Sep 2016, 00:43

seebart wrote: Nice, thanks for sharing. I love how they have that Tandy sitting right in the middle of those ancient typewriters.

Yea, let's just say the organization of the museum was very random.

Touch_It · 14 Sep 2016, 06:02

vivalarevolución wrote:
Touch_It wrote: Cool. You were in my neck of the woods. Live a few hours east of McCook.
You're in Lincoln, right? I thought you may have mentioned that in a different thread. I have been there a couple times, great city. I passed by Lincoln this time, was tempted to stop, but my destination was further west.

Pretty close. Grand Island. It's about 90 miles west of lincoln on I80. Lincoln is a really nice city. Sometime I'll have to go to McCook. I have family close to it. Also that beamspring looks awesome.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

vivalarevolución · 15 Sep 2016, 03:21

Touch_It wrote:
vivalarevolución wrote:
Touch_It wrote: Cool. You were in my neck of the woods. Live a few hours east of McCook.
You're in Lincoln, right? I thought you may have mentioned that in a different thread. I have been there a couple times, great city. I passed by Lincoln this time, was tempted to stop, but my destination was further west.
Pretty close. Grand Island. It's about 90 miles west of lincoln on I80. Lincoln is a really nice city. Sometime I'll have to go to McCook. I have family close to it. Also that beamspring looks awesome.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gotta love a place called Grand Island in the middle of Nebraska. The Platte River is to blame, I presume?

I tried to sneak the beam spring under my jacket, but it didn't quite fit.