Miss Portable = the Blick
Small, light, portable, cheap, exchangeable type ... the Blickensderfer 5
that comes onto the market in 1893 is light years ahead. This is apparent the
moment it is put next to a cumbersome, conventional machine of its day. The
Blick is certainly being awarded the 'Golden Palm' for the first portable
typewriter.
 Portable
Travelling salesmen and small and medium-sized enterprises, all greet Blicks
curious typewriter with open arms. It has a huge breakthrough in 1896. Its
secret? It replaces all the separate type bars that a
Remington has, with one central wheel. Much cheaper with less parts that can
break down. The evidence? Countless machines that, like
mine, excellently endure the ravages of time.
International
 At
least a hundred exchangeable types, with characters for foreign languages such
as Greek, ensure international success. Moreover, the typists can see what
they are typing - something that is still impossible on the conventional
machines such as the Remington,
Smith Premier or Yost.
The letters on the type wheel are inked by ink cushions. The result? Sharper
results than with a ribbon. The disadvantage? Having to ink the cushions often.
Self-willed keyboard
Blickensderfer is also stubborn in other areas. His machines are all given
their own keyboards that bring the most often occurring letters closest to the
typist. The lower row reads as 'DHIATENSOR'. With his 'scientific keyboard'
Blick turns up his nose at the 'universal' QUERTY keyboard.
 Yet
later, he has to give in to QUERTY users who do not want to switch. Blick
delicately asks them to sign a form. In this they state that they "have been
warned that the universal keyboard is less efficient ..."
Aluminum chassis
Blickensderfer keeps on improving his machine for decades and reduces its
weight with the aluminum versions. This is the
material with which a competitor builds the first portable machine with type
bars in 1906: the Standard Folding. This
makes it very difficult for the Blick.
Tied up in knots
Blickensderfer dies in 1917, after which the management in no time
get tied up in knots. Because, however brilliant, the
Blick has one great disadvantage: it is not equal to machines with type bars as
regards speed. The inconceivable happens: the Blick company neglects the
brainchild of its own inventor and invests in the rival: a machine with type
bars.
Ten years later, Remington buys the production line of the defunct Blick and
produces a clone of the Blick 5: the Rem-Blick. Read on>
The Blick 5 (right) and
its thirty years younger brother, the Rem-Blick, at
last reconciled:
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