Bunnell 'Leg' Morse Key

[Ham4CW]

I've had this key for a few years now. It has a lovely lightweight crisp action, but is difficult to mount due to the 'legs' which were intended to be screwed through the operators desk to prevent the key from moving about. Later versions did away with the legs, but the keys were otherwise identical.

I also have a copy of the Bunnell catalogue from 1891 that these keys were featured in.

 

[foggycoder]

You must have a particular fondness for this key as you use it for your avatar...

 

[Ham4CW]

You must have a particular fondness for this key as you use it for your avatar...

Ah, you noticed!

I'll be honest, I was after an image to use as an avatar and this one just happened to be sitting in a folder on my desktop. Plus it's easy to make out the form of the image even when shrunk down so that was another plus for it.

I've got the 'legless' version of this key too, they're great little keys. The feel of them is very similar to the Altai High Speed Morse Key, but then it is built in a very similar way. The main difference is that the Bunnell keys use a very thin contact point (they might be platinum or something similar?), whereas the Altai ones use a pressed out top contact which is much wider and rounded, and a circular stubby post bottom contact.

The only down side to these Morse keys is that they need to be screwed down if you wish to operate them one handed, else they will tip up as you try to press the key to send.