Platinum Mac Plus keyboard with darker spacebar!

[Snial]

Amazingly I've only recently noticed this. My Platinum (I think) era Mac Plus's keyboard's key caps all seem to be the same colour apart from the space bar which is noticeably more beige/brown! I don't mind, but it's curious. Perhaps this was the very keyboard where they switched colour scheme, but this key was left over ;-) !

 

[LaPorta]

This is actually fairly common. The space bar was made of different plastic (same with the Mac Portable, etc.). They change colors.

 

[cheesestraws]

What @LaPorta said. This the case on a lot of keyboards: the space bar is made of a plastic with different physical properties and, as such, it changes colour faster.

 

[Fred1212]

Looks like one I have

 

[Phipli]

The spacebar had fire retardant added while the other keys didn't, likely due to its higher mass.

 

[Snial]

The spacebar had fire retardant added while the other keys didn't, likely due to its higher mass.

Looks like it was effective - it's never caught fire ;-) !

 

[Phipli]

Looks like it was effective - it's never caught fire ;-) !

Extremely! 100% effective so far.

Given it might have a 40 year design life, you might want to sell it on soon though, before it catches fire.

 

[demik]

Different plastic for the space bar indeed. Usually the plastic is the same as the enclosure. ADB Keyboards also do this

Mine for reference:

 

[Snial]

Extremely! 100% effective so far.

Given it might have a 40 year design life, you might want to sell it on soon though, before it catches fire.

LOL! But oh my goodness, I think @Durosity has lots of Mac Plusses, the whole house could ignite any year now ;-) !

Different plastic for the space bar indeed. Usually the plastic is the same as the enclosure. ADB Keyboards also do this

Mine for reference:

I see what you mean and c'ést tres cool! At UEA in the late 80s we certainly started off with similar Mac 512kB keyboards, i.e. without the numeric keypad nor cursor keys. It's a bit odd to see special accented characters when it's possible to get accents with option+e/`/u/i/o, vowel and I never realised that French AZERTY keyboards also had 'M' on the 3rd row. It also look like you have a control key when my Plus keyboard doesn't have that. PS. I'm using the PI 5 right now, so accented chars are a challenge AFAIK. No, I've found it: right-Alt+;, vowel gives acute accent. right-Alt+j, vowel gives grave; right-Alt+:, vowel gives umlaut; right-alt+apostrophe, vowel gives hat; right-alt+shift apostrophe gives upside-down hat; right-Alt+=, letter gives çedilla.

Merci, J'ai appris quelque-chose !

 

[Phipli]

LOL! But oh my goodness, I think @Durosity has lots of Mac Plusses, the whole house could ignite any year now ;-) !

It's OK, he lives so far north it probably never gets warm or dry enough for anything to be a fire hazard.

 

[cheesestraws]

It also look like you have a control key when my Plus keyboard doesn't have that.

Does it not? Mine do!

 

[Snial]

It's OK, he lives so far north it probably never gets warm or dry enough for anything to be a fire hazard.

I think they've run out of coal in Newcastle too, he's safe!

 

[Snial]

Does it not? Mine do!

Indeed not!

https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?attachments/macpluskbdbrownspacebar-jpg.65908/

 

[cheesestraws]

oh I just realised I was looking at my 128/512 keyboard, like @demik's above, which definitely does have a control key but it's not the same keyboard as that. I'll check the Plus kb later.

 

[Durosity]

LOL! But oh my goodness, I think @Durosity has lots of Mac Plusses, the whole house could ignite any year now ;-) !

Given the current cost of heating, burning down the house could be the most economical way to keep warm this winter

 

[Daniël]

The spacebar had fire retardant added while the other keys didn't, likely due to its higher mass.

It's not so much that, as that the spacebar is ABS, whereas the other keys are likely PBT or something similar. PBT doesn't oxidize the same way ABS does. PBT is difficult to mold into oblong shapes without warping, thus ABS is frequently used for spacebars.