Editing Cherry M7 (section)

==History==
[[Cherry catalogues]] C-73 and C-74 describe the design as having "provided highly reliable keyboard switching for several years". Catalogue KB79-2 (assumed to be from 1979) notes that the design has "provided highly reliable keyboard switching for nearly 10 years". This gives an introduction date of 1969 or 1970. US patent 3715545, filed on the 18th of June 1971 describes the momentary switch, and US patent 3770923 filed on the 14th of January 1972 describes the alternate action version.

By the Keyboards and Switches Catalogue 1982, the various part number prefixes (M41 to M71 in catalogue KB79-2R) had been consolidated under Serie M7, with all part numbers now beginning M7. Where the second digit had largely been '1' (M41 to M71), instead the first digit was held at 7, and the second digit now ranged from 1 to 8 (excluding 2). At least one trend remained, that of alternate action switches having 8 as the fourth digit (e.g. M73-0800, M76-0890). Grouping the series at M7 meant that "M" was now a generic prefix, used not just for M7 but also the then newly-introduced [[Cherry M8]] and [[Cherry M9]] switches (along with the seemingly undocumented [[Cherry M10]] and [[Cherry M11]]).

The switch design went through at least two generations of external design, and the internal mechanism also saw at least one change in design.

[http://www.google.com/patents/US3849621 US patent 3849621] from 1974 depicts what could be an illuminated version; the design differs from the illuminated types found in the catalogues however.