First post of a series describing the morsekeys I got from the estate of PA3BCB Gerard. I bought a box full of keys as I wrote before in one of my posts. The plan is to restore and clean them one by one and then make at least one contact with each of them.
At the left the J.H. Bunnell Triumph steel lever key. Date of manufacturing unknown but I guess it is somewhere between 1920-1950. The circuit close switch for telegraph use is missing or was never there? The wooden board is grey and stamped CAKU 26032, the same number is engraved in a aluminium plate around the cord. The cord was old and insulation gone and connector was a 6,3mm jackplug. I decided to replace the cord and jackplug for a smaller 3,5mm one which I use here in my station. It was time to clean everything...
A fun procedure and a lot of work to clean and polish everything using an old toothbrush and some brass polish. The result is a nice and shiny key.
At the time I was ready with the key I was on a short vacation. So I had no transmitter brought with me and if I did I wouldn't have the time to test it. It took some weeks before I was able to finally make a short video from the key in use making a contact. It is not the best ever video but it gives an impression. Personally I think the key is working very well, it feels good and is very light in use. However if you don't like the "clicking" sound it makes this is not the key for you ;-).
Watch me working SX20RCK on 17m.
I've been searching for information about this key on the internet. I found that J.H. Bunnell & Co does still exist and even has a own website:
http://jhbunnell.com/bunnellcohistory.shtml
Jesse Bunnell is the inventor of the steel lever key. An interesting article about the history of the Triumph key can be found here:
https://www.telegraph-history.org/bunnell/
I got another J.H. Bunnell key which doesn't have a steel lever. It might be older. It is slightly different apart from the lever which is brass on this model. It also has another knob and is not mounted on a wooden base. This will be the next project. So if you have any other information about this "older" key, please let me know.
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