Mechanical Memory Key stores your data with the precision of an Antide Janvier timepiece

Listen up, steampunkers: Have you been having a hard time finding an appropriate USB thumb drive to wear on a gold chain next to your pocket watch? Artype's 16GB Mechanical Memory Key is a handcrafted beaut, with materials that include Purpleheart for the case and twenty-six rubies. When this device is drawing USB power it glows green from beneath the gears, taking you back to your days as a hacker during the reign of Queen Victoria. Sadly, the device pictured above has already been sold, but at $165 a pop we're sure this particular artisan has plenty more of these guys in the works. Two more glamor shots for you after the break.

[Via Boing Boing]

[SDariesII @ Jun 8th 2009 11:28PM]

What transfer speed did they have back in that age?

[CJ @ Jun 9th 2009 1:28AM]

Depending on the gearage, anywhere between 1:1 and 1:5

[Patriks7 @ Jun 9th 2009 7:28AM]

60 seconds per minute?

[OneLove @ Jun 9th 2009 10:02AM]

looks like an almond.

[Ken Klassy @ Jun 8th 2009 11:30PM]

That's pretty sweet!

[General_Trelane, (retired) @ Jun 9th 2009 7:28AM]

The first one is damaged..

Can you find it?

AHAHAHAH marvelous!

[bagbozo @ Jun 8th 2009 11:30PM]

I'm not going to lie that looks intense.

[N00d13s @ Jun 8th 2009 11:32PM]

Would be cooler if gears turned while reading/writing.

[ben @ Jun 8th 2009 11:40PM]

Would be cooler with apple logo.

[amos @ Jun 8th 2009 11:41PM]

Agreed but that would require a motor which means that you would have a magnet right next to your memory.

[StammesOpfer @ Jun 8th 2009 11:46PM]

Not a problem with flash mem its is electronic not magnetic.

[solmar @ Jun 9th 2009 12:18AM]

It wouldn't be a problem to put in a micro motor to drive the gears. The USB port provides enough juice for that. However, you wouldn't be able to leave the gears exposed as it is now, or there would be tons of problems, like getting something stuck in them while they're moving, getting something stuck in them while they're *not* moving, shifting the gears out of position, etc. etc. You'd have to change it to have a clear acrylic cover over the gears, and that would increase cost and size (and complexity) significantly. You'll also have to actually put some thought into gear choice and placement... if you look closely the gears for this one don't actually mesh together at all.

[iKrolm @ Jun 9th 2009 2:43AM]

Wha'd be cooler would be if it could store 16GB mechanically in the gears. No go on that one either though.

[tikiwk @ Jun 9th 2009 7:33AM]

StammesOpfer,

I would have thought it would... they call it Electro-Magnetism for a reason, right? Magnetic fields alter electronic pathways.


On another note, right now, it's just some steam punk pile of poop... they would have won some serious award if they made the USB drive round or square and made it into a real chronometer. Watch, for those that don't know what that means. Heck, I wouldn't mind a pocket watch that had a USB drive in it.

[sam @ Jun 9th 2009 9:46AM]

@iK: Well, that's a little unrealistic. However it would be really cool if they did make a working USB thumb drive using gears that stored, say, 16 bytes. (If you store data with gear position, say a single little gear could store 16 different values perhaps represented by binary black/white coloured dot sets on the flat part of the gear, you need 32 little gears to store those 16 bytes.)

Of course, technically this would be a bit silly since (a) 16 bytes is not much use to anyone, (b) it would have to somehow simulate the rest of the filesystem since filesystems don't fit in 16 bytes, (c) the electronics on this thing would obviously be doing a lot more real work than the gears would.

But it would still be pretty neat. :) And, actually, might have an educational purpose - just to show how incredible it is that electronics can store so much data in such a tiny space.

[jclay34 @ Jun 8th 2009 11:46PM]

I think I seen Wyatt Earp with one of these things.

[Badger_badger_badger @ Jun 8th 2009 11:47PM]

A gentleman's flash drive.

[Maztec @ Jun 8th 2009 11:52PM]

If the gears don't move, what's the point?

[Darius @ Jun 9th 2009 12:02AM]

To look ridiculously badass, of course.

[hemmy @ Jun 9th 2009 12:06AM]

nice. very, very nice.

[Vwampage @ Jun 9th 2009 12:09AM]

I think all of my flash drive based dreams came true.
I might actually buy one, it's depressing that I'm even considering it, but GEARS!

[benhc911 @ Jun 9th 2009 12:11AM]

am I the only one to think... 165$ holy crap that is less than I expected!

Not saying I would buy one, but when I started reading the article I expected it to be one of those usual 'luxury' products that don't bother to advertise their price.

[Badger_badger_badger @ Jun 9th 2009 1:22AM]

Well it's about $150 more than a regular 4gb flash drive so...

[Samo @ Jun 9th 2009 5:55AM]

@Badger_badger_badger: and yet, the price isn't that far off from the current prices of 32GB flash drives...

[Barbaric @ Jun 9th 2009 10:13AM]

Well, not me. If the gears moved, I would think it worth the $165. But just as decoration, I dont think its worth much more than a regular 16Gb USB drive. But everyone is entitled to there own opinion. After all, value of art is a subjective quality.

[benhc911 @ Jun 9th 2009 10:21AM]

Well... as I said, I don't exactly plan on buying one! I was just shocked that the price wasn't somewhere in the neighbourhood of 500++. 165 for a 16 gig usb that was handcrafted with such detail... that isn't too unreasonable.

[edgar wong @ Jun 9th 2009 10:46AM]

I thought exactly the same thing. I was going to guess 400-600.

Very nice craftmanship

[Joshua Walters @ Jun 9th 2009 12:12AM]

I would have figured it to be significantly more expensive. At that price, I can see myself owning one of those in the not so distant future.

[brie @ Jun 9th 2009 12:48AM]

Wow! This is something Robert Conrad would have had in the TV show The Wild Wild West. NOT the Will Smith version. Robert Conrad pants were much tighter.

In September of 1965, a new television show hit the air on Friday nights on CBS, and in the process confused those who attempted easy categorization. Was it a Western? Was it a spy thriller? Perhaps it was a SciFi fantasy show...

[ehru @ Jun 9th 2009 1:11AM]

was he black?

[webterractive @ Jun 9th 2009 4:21AM]

This is the type of USB key the Dos Equis guy would have.

[Jake @ Jun 9th 2009 12:40PM]

"I don't always use sneakernet, but when I do, I prefer a ridiculously overpriced pseudo-mechanical walnut memory stick. Stay porny, my friends."

-jp

[tekd @ Jun 9th 2009 4:25AM]

lol finally something to do with all those spare mechanical watch parts I have from breaking all of my mechanical watches =(

[superhobo @ Jun 9th 2009 7:05AM]

Where do you hang it from?

[Eric @ Jun 9th 2009 10:25AM]

why would you spend so much just to save your files?

[adven2rous @ Jun 9th 2009 11:44AM]

with the cap on, it looks like a pinched off turd.

[tstrub @ Jun 9th 2009 1:45PM]

adven2rous, have you been eating watches again?

[guy943 @ Jun 9th 2009 1:57PM]

DO WANT.

[seanR @ Jun 9th 2009 9:35PM]

i wd probably get one if they lower the price just a bit :[