Friday, May 6, 2011 — While conducting some light-night prowling around the Internet, I ran across a discussion of the 100th Anniversary Vibroplex Original bugs.
I did pick up some interesting information, and had my memory refreshed a bit. First the obvious …
The 100th Anniversary bug celebrates the 1904-2004 centennial of Vibroplex, the company. It’s first key wasn’t the Vibroplex, but the Autoplex, which was an electromechanical key that required batteries, that made its debut in 1902. The 1904 date was the year that inventor Horace G. Martin received a patent. The public introduction of the key known today as the “Original” was probably May 1905 at a railroad convention in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The 100th Anniversary key was a great idea; it duplicated the early Vibroplex base paint scheme (japanned black with gold carriage striping). If I recall correctly, the keys actually were sold for a premium over the standard black painted base keys; however the company ran into some problems.
The paint on the base was a powder coating, and it was not nearly as durable as the standard base finish. As a result, it was an easy finish to mar while the key was being assembled or handled.
After a period of time, the company announced a price cut on the keys and declared them all “seconds” due to possible scuffs or small marks on the bases. The price dropped to something like $157 — cheaper than the base Original.
ID PLATE PROBLEMS. Another production problem was the stamping of the ID plate. The ID plate was unique to this key, and included a special note that it was a 100th Anniversary key and special serial number. At some point in its production, the vendor for the brass ID plates stopped making them, halting shipment and production of new keys. At some point, the old vendor returned to production or a new vendor was acquired.
On closer inspection, I noticed the ID plate on my new 100th Anniversary key has a very different look to it than one of my late model Vibroplex Original standards. The stamping on the standard Originals of the same vintage is sharp, crisp and clear; the lettering on the 100th Annversary tag is more shallow and less defined … the lettering around the “bug” logo is unreadable on the tag; the address on the bottom line of the tag is not well defined and almost unreadable. Compare the images above … the top image in each photo is of the ID tag on the 100th Anniversary bug; the lower one is a photo of the plate on a Vibroplex Original from the same time frame (2005-2008). Click the images to enlarge them.
I haven’t checked my other 100th Anniversary models to see if the ID tags on those are similar … I have to wonder if the ID tag issue was one of the reasons that new owner Scott Robbin changed the tag to an aluminum silk-screened one after moving the company to Knoxville.
I wonder if Scott (and previous owner Mitch) have kept up with serial numbers over the years? While that info might be considered proprietary, it would be interest info for collectors who want to ID year of manufacture of even these more current keys.