Fred wanted to make sure they didn’t slide around while being operated, so they all had very heavy bases. Some of them had nickel-plated brass bases, while others had steel bases. “Fred did not have a full set of fixtures and as a result his bugs did differ in detail, although the design was basically that of Horace Martin’s Vibroplex. Fred had a machine shop at home and made a number of bugs which he sold to his telegraph friends during the 1920s.
Well, there was an old telegraph operator, Fred A Wilcox, who was with the Canadian National Telegraph for many years. 3, Don deNeuf mentions an old Vibroplex with long legs that can be operated upside down.
Here is some information I have gleaned about the Wilcox keys: This very shiny nickel-plated key was made by Fred A Wilcox in Toronto, probably in the 1920s or 1930s, and it has been in my collection since the early 1970s.
