Keyboard Builders' Digest / Keyboard Spotting
CPT Phoenix Jr
The elusive CPT Phoenix Jr word processor keyboard spotted by u/catsontuesday.
Published May 11, 2022
This elusive weirdness is a CPT Phoenix Jr. A word processing terminal with a A4-page sized portrait CRT and an almost fully symmetrical keyboard.
Saw this pop up on eBay but it was quickly bought up – catsontuesday.
Indeed, it seems they quickly disappear from ebay but @Foone has a good Twitter thread on this model with photos of previous listings.
The CPT Phoenix Jr was manufactured by CPT Corporation in the early '80s. The company was active from 1971 and discontinued operations in the mid 1990s as demand for their products declined with the proliferation of personal computers.
My favorite part:
The plastic for the gray keys was color-matched to dust collected in an office windowsill by the departments VP so that the keys would not easily show dirt. (source)
Here are some more photos of a specimen donated to Museums Victoria.
And catsontuesday has a typing test here.
Published on Wed 11th May 2022. Featured in KBD #78 (source).
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