The Original Golfball Typewriter?

[Dave Hughes]

I spotted this for sale at an auction recently.

At first I thought it was just a rather unusual very lightweight typewriter.

It has a rather nice brass nameplate with the make "Blick" Displayed.

Click picture for a better look:




But, once I started looking at it to see why it was so lightweight, I noticed that there were no levers, each with a couple of characters on, but the keys operated a black drum, with letters on.


Blick - The Original Golfball Typewriter?

Has anyone else seen one?

[listohan]

I spotted this for sale at an auction recently.

At first I thought it was just a rather unusual very lightweight typewriter.

It doesn't look as if the carriage does not move back, nor the "golfball" move in the opposite direction.

[Dave Hughes]

Correct, the carriage seemed to be seized up and very much to the left, and you are right the golf ball doesn't seem to get very close to the roller or paper.

It was in quite poor condition, I didn't bid on it, but thought it was an interesting example.

[M K Digre]

This looks like an example of a Blickensderfer 5  portable, first produced in 1893.  Paul Robert has a nice write-up of this on his web site, The Virtual Typewriter Museum:

http://www.typewritermuseum.org/collection/brands/index.php3?machine=blick5&cat=ks

His post on the later Blickensderfer 7 has an animation of the type wheel striking the platen.  You can clearly see the inking roller inking the type wheel as it pushes the roller out of the way:

http://www.typewritermuseum.org/collection/brands/index.php3?machine=blick7&cat=ks

From his patents, it is evident that the inventor, George L. Blickensderfer, was obsessed with saving weight to make his typewriter as portable as possible.  The type wheel and platen are both hollow and molded from hard rubber.  The example you saw at the auction also had an aluminum frame, although both this and the QWERTY keyboard were options.

After cleaning and lubrication, this typewriter would probably still work.