[CW] Re: cootie

[David J. Ring, Jr.]

The cootie and side swiper are both names for keys that are descended from
the Bunnell Double Speed Key.

J. H. Bunnell Co. made a key with a round lollipop finger piece a stiff
armature which was slotted near the far end and a piece of spring steel was
afixed the other end was affixed to a anchoring rectangle of brass mounted
to the key base (similar to their hand keys).  Bunnell called this key a
"Double Speed Key" because they advertised it to be able to send twice as
fast as a up and down hand key.

This key was quite popular, but amateurs discovered they could duplicate the
action by making the entire armature out of spring steel, or out of a
hacksaw blade.

Names for this type of key include:  Sideswiper, cootie, double speed key,
bodeplex, maniflex, and hacksaw key.

73

David Ring, N1EA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Wilder" <bwild at earthlink.net>
To: "Gene Buckle" <geneb at deltasoft.com>; "Roy Koeppe" <royanjoy at ncn.net>
Cc: "CW Reflector" <cw at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 10:19 AM
Subject: Re: [CW] Re: cootie


Unless I missed something about "cootie" keys, the photo looks like
something
I remember as a "side swiper" when I was coming up in ham radio some 55
years ago.
Are they one and the same and if not what is the difference?

Bob. AF2HD