Blickensderfer typewriter

A Blickensderfer 5 typewriter

The Blickensderfer Typewriter was designed by George C Blickensderfer (1850-1917) in 1893. It was originally intended to compete with Remington desk typewriters, but ended up being known for its portability. Blickensderfer's typewriter contained only 250 parts compared to the 2,500 parts of a standard typewriter. It was much smaller, lighter, and cheaper than other typewriters. It also featured a type wheel that was easily removed to change the typeface.

Another feature of the Blickensderfer Typewriter was its modified keyboard layout. The bottom row of keys contained the most commonly used letters, DHIATENSOR, to increase efficiency, a keyboard layout originally devised by James Bartlett Hammond to avoid the problems of typebars jamming that had caused Christopher Sholes to invent the QWERTY layout.^[1]

The first known aluminum typewriter (marketed as the Blickensderfer 6 or the "Featherweight Blick") was made by Blickensderfer as was the first electric typewriter. The company's manufacturing plant was located in Stamford, Connecticut, and the typewriters were distributed worldwide.

Models

Model 4

The model 4 was a capitals-only brother of the model 5, probably intended for use by telegraphers. It used a two-row typewheel and a single shift (for figures). Today it is very rare.

Model 5

The first widely successful production model was the Blickensderfer 5, introduced at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Production of the 5 did not get seriously underway until 1895-96. The 5 was one of the first truly portable typewriters with a full keyboard; it came with the DHIATENSOR keyboard as standard, with a QWERTY keyboard available on request. A sample of the earliest Blick 5s were sold in France as the Dactyle.

Model 6

In 1906 Blickensderfer introduced the Blickensderfer 6, which was in fact a Blick 5 with an aluminum frame. The aluminum version also appeared as the Blick Featherweight and as a regular Blickensderfer 5.Model 6 image

Model 7

The Model 7, first offered in 1897, became the deluxe version of the basic design. Some were assembled in the United Kingdom for sale there.

Blickensderfer Electric

The Blick Electric was a revolutionary machine when it was first introduced in 1902. It had all the familiar characteristics of the manual models, plus a QWERTY keyboard as standard and all the advantages of later electric typewriters including a light key touch, even typing and automatic carriage return and line spacing. The machine was powered by an Emerson electric motor mounted on the rear and switched on by turning a Yale key on the side.[1] The motor ran on 104 Volt 60hz AC electric current [2] which was not yet widely standard at the time. (See War of Currents)

The machine is not believed to have been widely marketed and only three are known to survive. [3]

Model 8

The Blickensderfer 8 of 1908 was the first Blick to boast a tabulator system, even though tabulators had been around for some time. The tabulator used large nickel-plated levers placed on top of the machine, making it easy to operate. The typewheel head had also been altered, and was now made from two castings instead of one, which allowed easier access for repair and adjusting of the mechanism.

Model 9

The Model 9 was similar to the Model 8, but featured a folding ink roller arm.

Technology

The type cylinder, like the later typeball of the IBM Selectric typewriter, was easily removed, allowing users to select among fonts. Striking a key turned the cylinder to the appropriate orientation while inking the type as it tipped downward to strike the paper. Holding the Cap or Fig keys shifted the cylinder along its axis to use either the middle row, for capital letters, or the upper row, for special characters.

Layouts

The DHIATENSOR layout is shown below (with alphanumeric characters only):

There were at least two layouts for the non-alphanumeric symbols[4][5]. There were also versions with the QWERTY layout[6] and other layouts [7][8].

The Dvorak letter layout has most of the consonants of its home row in DHIATENSOR order: D H T N S. The Dvorak R is in the neighboring far row, between T and N.

Literary References

DHIATENSOR keyboards were mentioned briefly in the 1998 novel Distraction by Bruce Sterling, as a logical evolution of a QWERTY based tech culture.

Notes

1. ^ Howells, John (2005). The Management of Innovation and Technology. SAGE. pp. 73–74. ISBN 076197024X. 

References

• Milton, Richard (2004). "Portable Typewriters - Blickensderfer". Archived from the original on 2006-03-29. http://web.archive.org/web/20060329051251/http://www.portabletypewriters.com/portable_typewriters_blickensderfer.htm.  (via Internet Archive)
• Blickensderfer, Robert; Paul Robert (2003). The Five-Pound Secretary An illustrated history of the Blickensderfer Typewriter. The Virtual Typewriter Museum. ISBN 90-74999-05-0.