Blickensderfer typewriter

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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. Therefore, it was much smaller, lighter, and cheaper than the desk typewriters. It 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. The first production model was the No. 5. The first known aluminum typewriter was made by Blickensderfer as was the first electric typewriter. The manufacturing plant was located in Stamford, Connecticut, and the typewriters were distributed worldwide.

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

There were at least two layouts for the non-alphanumeric symbols[1][2]. There were also versions with the QWERTY layout[3] and other layouts [4][5].

[edit] Literary References

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

[edit] References

• Milton, Richard (2004). Portable Typewriters - blickensderfer. Retrieved Aug. 19, 2006.

• Blickensderfer, Robert, and Robert, Paul. "The Five Pound Secretary". 2003

v • d • e Keyboard layouts
QWERTY based	QWERTY  · AZERTY  · QWERTZ
Alternative layouts	Dvorak  · Colemak  · Maltron  · Svorak  · Plum
Non-Roman	Hebrew  · Urdu
For mobile devices	FITALY
Historical	Blickensderfer (DHIATENSOR)  · HCESAR

v • d • e Typewriters
Manufacturers	· E. Remington and Sons  · IBM  · Oliver Typewriter Company  · Royal Typewriter Company  · Smith Corona  · Underwood Typewriter Company
Models	· Blickensderfer typewriter  · Hansen Writing Ball  · IBM Selectric typewriter
Inventors	· James Densmore  · Carlos Glidden  · Rasmus Malling-Hansen  · Henry Mill  · Christopher Sholes  · Samuel W. Soule
Elements	· Platen  · QWERTY  · Typebar