Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-12-27
Speed winner
ON TYPEWRITER
VISITING HERE
H. O. Blaisdell, Former Inter.
national Champion, is at
Waterh0uSe Co.

Ii. O. Blaisdell, known far and
wide in the typewriter business as
one of the fastest men that ever man
ipulated the keys, is in Honolulu for
brief visit, and while here will give
demonstrations of his speed and
and skill He is with the Underwood
Typewriter Company. with headquar-
tiers in New York City. and has come
to Hawaii for the Waterhouse Com
pany, local distributor for this popu-
lar machine.
Blaisdell held the speed champion
ship of the country for two success
siye years, 1910 and 1911, giving up
the contest game to represent the
Underwood company. He spends a
large part of his time travelling about
the country, demonstrating for steno-
graphers, clerks and others whose
professions involve frequent use of
the typewriter To win the cham,
pionship he made remarkable rec
ord, averaging lis words of new ma.
terial" per minute for an entire hour.
When ii is understood that All aver
age stenographer win take down 50
UT OU WOIuS u uiuutS,' dhiu mat vi
copy which is. often very largely
familiar, the speed of the contest
ants in this countrywide tourney
may be realized The lis words. fur
thermore. is met" that is. after n
deduction of five for each error. It
means 37,005 strokes, or hitting the
keys 10 1-2 times per second.
BlaisdelPs story of how he trained
for these competitions and the condi.
tons under which the best tests are
carried out is in itself very interest
ing. He trained with all the care an
athlete would use in preparation for
a polevault or a quarter-mile dash,
in fact, with more care as to condi-
tioning which would steady the
nerves and make the striking of keys
matter of automatic perfection.
He worked for years to get up the
required speed and develop the neces-
sary accuracy. The contests are for
pOesession Of thee International troa
ply, put UP by the typewriter cons
panies who Jointly participate in the
tourney The trophy is valued at
$1,000. <ssssi = as'e Dssl ~ 20
For many years competitors who
used the Underwood machine have
won these contests-in fact the I'm
derwoods has won with such regulari.
ty that 1t has demonstrated its abili-
.ty IN speed and .clearness as, the
-bestf says Blaisdells Year after.
year the Underwood leads the field
and lin these contests our Tepresen.
tatiyes win by an- average Of ten, to,
20 words per minute better than the
others. Miss Owen, who has just, won
the 1915 championship, uses an -Unr,
defwood She maintained ansayerage
of 136 words per minute for the full
hour, making only AZ mistakes. When
it is considered that five marks are
deducted for such flaws fas q blurred
letter or bad spacing, or for the omis.i
sion Of even a comma IN following
the copy, it viii be realized what
wonderful record this is"
While in Honolulu Blaisdell is CIV.
ing demonstrations at the office of
the Warehouse Company, Young
hotel building, one public demonstra-
ton being given from 1890 to 100
today and another at the same hour
tomorrow Stenographers and others
interested are invited to attend. He
will answer questions regarding
for increasing speed, care of
the machine, etc.