From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008) [foldoc]:
bucky bits
/buh'kee bits/ 1. Obsolete. The bits produced by the CONTROL
and META shift keys on a SAIL keyboard (octal 200 and 400
respectively), resulting in a 9-bit keyboard character set.
The MIT AI TV (Knight) keyboards extended this with TOP and
separate left and right CONTROL and META keys, resulting in a
12-bit character set; later, LISP Machines added such keys as
SUPER, HYPER, and GREEK (see space-cadet keyboard).
2. By extension, bits associated with "extra" shift keys on
any keyboard, e.g. the ALT on an IBM PC or command and option
keys on a Macintosh.
It has long been rumored that "bucky bits" were named after
Buckminster Fuller during a period when he was consulting at
Stanford. Actually, bucky bits were invented by Niklaus Wirth
when *he* was at Stanford in 1964--65; he first suggested the
idea of an EDIT key to set the 8th bit of an otherwise 7 bit
ASCII character. It seems that, unknown to Wirth, certain
Stanford hackers had privately nicknamed him "Bucky" after a
prominent portion of his dental anatomy, and this nickname
transferred to the bit. Bucky-bit commands were used in a
number of editors written at Stanford, including most notably
TV-EDIT and NLS.
The term spread to MIT and CMU early and is now in general
use. Ironically, Wirth himself remained unaware of its
derivation for nearly 30 years, until GLS dug up this
history in early 1993! See double bucky, quadruple bucky.
(2001-06-22)
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
bucky bits
/buh'kee bits/, n.
1. [obs.] The bits produced by the CONTROL and META shift keys on a
SAIL keyboard (octal 200 and 400 respectively), resulting in a 9-bit
keyboard character set. The MIT AI TV (Knight) keyboards extended this
with TOP and separate left and right CONTROL and META keys, resulting
in a 12-bit character set; later, LISP Machines added such keys as
SUPER, HYPER, and GREEK (see space-cadet keyboard).
2. By extension, bits associated with `extra' shift keys on any
keyboard, e.g., the ALT on an IBM PC or command and option keys on a
Macintosh.
It has long been rumored that bucky bits were named for Buckminster
Fuller during a period when he was consulting at Stanford. Actually,
bucky bits were invented by Niklaus Wirth when he was at Stanford in
1964--65; he first suggested the idea of an EDIT key to set the 8th
bit of an otherwise 7-bit ASCII character). It seems that, unknown to
Wirth, certain Stanford hackers had privately nicknamed him `Bucky'
after a prominent portion of his dental anatomy, and this nickname
transferred to the bit. Bucky-bit commands were used in a number of
editors written at Stanford, including most notably TV-EDIT and NLS.
The term spread to MIT and CMU early and is now in general use.
Ironically, Wirth himself remained unaware of its derivation for
nearly 30 years, until GLS dug up this history in early 1993! See
double bucky, quadruple bucky.