The laptop with the unfolding keyboard

In 1995 laptop makers had a problem. People wanted small laptops and full-size keyboards, and you cannot have both.

IBM's answer was the ThinkPad 701c, and it still makes people gasp. Close the lid and it is a tiny 10-inch machine. Open it and the keyboard unfolds: two halves slide apart and lock together into a keyboard wider than the laptop itself. The mechanism is called the butterfly, and watching it work feels like a magic trick.

It was not a gimmick. The keyboard was a real, full-size ThinkPad keyboard, which is to say one of the best ever put in a portable computer.

The butterfly lived for about a year. Not because it failed, but because screens got bigger. Once laptops were wide enough for a full keyboard anyway, the origami had nothing left to solve. IBM never used it again.

The design was celebrated enough to end up in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Not many laptops can say that.

Collectors adore the 701c, and working ones keep climbing in price. The full spec sheet and owner notes are in the library. If a butterfly lives at your place, add it to your gear. We want to meet it.