Jan. 27, 2011 — I’ve avoided browsing eBay for most of a week until I couldn’t stand it anymore — I had to see what was new for sale in the CW key listings. I was shocked — quite literally — by what I found.
At right is the Holy Grail of CW keys, the Martin Autoplex. The Autoplex was the precursor of inventor Horace G. Martin’s Vibroplex. The impetus behind Martin’s desire to make CW keys was due to his own afflictions; he had developed a “glass arm” — repetitive motion injury in today’s parlance.
The Autoplex made dits and dahs automatically using an electromagnet that was very similar to that used in a landline telegraph sounder. I’m not sure yet how the key functioned, but the key made the characters the correct weight and speed. It had to be a pretty noisy affair! The Autoplex shown is on eBay, and is the later style key of all-metal construction; the early Autoplexes featured bases made of wood.
In Martin’s day, a good operator who worked a straight key would eventually work himself out of a job; with the injury of the repetitive motion of the key, pain would eventually force the op to retire. For Martin, this hit him by the time he was in his late 20s or early 30s. An automated key with a side-to-side motion would allow him to go back to telegraphy if he chose to (he left telegraphy and started a business offering supplies and wiring of offices, etc.).
I don’t recall ever seeing an Autoplex on eBay; they aren’t only rare, but rarely seen for sale anywhere. The Autoplex was well-received (Martin was a well-known high-speed telegrapher at the time), but it had its issues. For starters, it required batteries that the operator or his employer had to provide. Secondly, it was a very complicated mechanism to operate and maintain. There are no reports that I’ve read of how robust a machine it was.
The Autoplex was first built in 1902; Martin received a patent for it the following year. The key was in production until 1905, when Martin began producing the Vibroplex. The company at the time was not called “Vibroplex,” it was simply the name of his next key. The key was superior to the Autoplex in design and ease of operation. The Autoplex faded into obscurity; those that exist today are in high demand.
The key up for auction on eBay will be way, way beyond my price range, but that’s ok. I’ve seen the photos and I’m tickled just to have gotten better views of the key for my photo collection. Right now the bidding is up to nearly $900, and I have no desire to try to explain why I couldn’t live without a 100-year-old CW key that cost a grand-plus-plus-plus. It’s nice to dream about, however! 😉