Barbara Blackburn (typist)

Barbara Clay Henley Blackburn (September 25, 1920 – April 18, 2008)[1][2] was an American clerical worker[3] recognized for her claimed fast typing speed using the Dvorak keyboard layout.[4]

Barbara Blackburn
Born
Barbara Clay Henley

(1920-09-25)September 25, 1920
Pleasant Hill, Missouri, U.S.
DiedApril 18, 2008(2008-04-18) (aged 87)
Known forbeing the "world's fastest typist" according to the Guinness Book of World Records

The Guinness Book of World Records included her unconfirmed speeds amongst others in the "Typing, Fastest" category of the 1976[5]–1985[6] editions, where she was listed as able to "attain a speed of 170 wpm" and "maintain 150 wpm for 50 minutes".[3] Blackburn's self-claimed peak speed, in 1985, was 212 words per minute.[7][lower-alpha 1]

Blackburn was popularly recognized as the "world's fastest typist"[9][10] and made media appearances to exhibit her typing speed and the Dvorak layout, notably appearing in a 1985 episode of Late Night with David Letterman[9] and in a television commercial for the Apple IIc.[10]

Typing

Dvorak keyboard layout

Blackburn began typing with the Dvorak keyboard layout in 1938, taking about three weeks to switch to the new layout.[11] She was trained as a demonstrator of the simplified keyboard while she attended Huff Business College in Kansas City.[11][12]

During WWII, according to Blackburn, she was timed by a "Navy girl" to type at 138 wpm on a Royal Standard typewriter with Dvorak keyboard.[11] In 1955 she reported typing 150 wpm.[11] In 1972, Technical Communication reported her typing speed at 150–160 wpm using the Dvorak layout.[13] In 1984, the Chicago Tribune reported her typing speed at 180 wpm on a Dvorak keyboard.[14]

Guinness Book of World Records

Blackburn was included in the Guinness Book of World Records starting in 1976, where she is credited as "Mrs. Barbara Blackburn of Lee's Summit, Missouri"[5] and in the later years as "of Everett, Wash".[6] Her records were accepted into the book without an official test; a Dvorak layout advocate lobbied on her behalf without her knowledge.[3]

According to the Guinness book, Blackburn "can maintain 150 wpm for 50 minutes (37,500 key strokes) and attains a speed of 170 wpm using the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard".[6]

Blackburn's records were removed from the 1986 edition[8] of the book, with Guinness stating that "records on electric and computer-driven typewriters cannot be compared with any accuracy."[8]

Fastest speed

The Associated Press reported Blackburn achieving a speed of 194 wpm in October 1984 using the MasterType typing game.[15] In a January 1985 story in the Los Angeles Times, Blackburn said she had recently reached 196 wpm.[4]

During her Late Night appearance on January 24, 1985, she claimed to have achieved 170 wpm on minute tests, and 200 wpm using a computer.[9]: 1m07s  In her Apple Computer commercial, filmed at the same time as the Letterman appearance,[16] Blackburn says that she can type "nearly 200" wpm using the Apple IIc she is advertising.[10]

In May 1985, the Seattle Times reported that Blackburn said she had "attained speeds of 212 words a minute for a brief time" using an Apple computer keyboard and the Dvorak layout.[7]

Media appearances

Apple IIc commercial

Blackburn starred in a commercial for the Apple IIc, released in 1984, which offered a switchable Dvorak-QWERTY keyboard.[17][10][18] In the commercial, captioned as the "World's Fastest Typist", she explains how she achieved the Guinness World Record for fastest typist at barely 150 words a minute, yet she was able to type nearly 200 wpm on an Apple computer.[10][18]

Late Night with David Letterman

Blackburn was a guest on the January 24, 1985, episode of Late Night with David Letterman.[16] In the episode, Letterman pitted Blackburn against his production assistant Barbara Gaines. He challenged both to type for a minute on an IBM Selectric, copying from The Official Professional Baseball Rules Book. Afterwards, he presented a paper incomprehensible with typos, claiming it was Blackburn's. Letterman then crowned his production assistant, Gaines, the fastest typist in the world. When Letterman asked what happened, Blackburn claimed the typewriter had been tampered with, as it was functional the day before.[9]: 12m34s 

On the January 28, 1985, broadcast, Letterman brought a small panel to figure out what had occurred, implying that Blackburn was a con-artist.[9]: 12m53s  A Manhattan Office Products typewriter repairman had inspected the typewriter and claimed it was in good working order.[9]: 14m20s  The former secretary of the New York State Polygraph Association claimed Blackburn was stressed during the competition.[9]: 15m03s  Finally, a United States Navy lieutenant deciphered Blackburn's typographic errors using a substitution cipher. He explained that the left hand's letters were typed correctly while the right hand's letters had been displaced one key to the right.[9]: 16m06s  A footage replay showed that Blackburn had transferred her hand one to the right.[9]: 17m28s 

Blackburn felt that she lost her credibility in the comedy routine.[16] According to her family members, Blackburn was very hurt by her experience on Letterman and never watched the episode.[19]

Personal life

Barbara Clay Blackburn (née Henley[11]) was born in Pleasant Hill, Missouri.[2] Blackburn worked for State Farm Insurance in Salem, Oregon, until her retirement in 2001. She died in 2008.[20][2]

See also

Notes
  1. Blackburn does not specify over what time period she achieved that 212 wpm peak speed, just that it was "brief".[7] Earlier that same year, in January 1985, she stated that she had recently achieved a new record of 196 wpm, and would be submitting this to Guinness World Records.[4] That figure was never published by Guinness, as Blackburn's record was removed from the Guinness Book of World Records in 1986.[8]

References
  1. "Barbara Clay Henley Blackburn (September 25, 1920 - April 18, 2008)". The Statesman Journal: 21. April 22, 2008.
  2. "Obituary of Barbara Clay Henley Blackburn". Legacy.com. Retrieved June 26, 2023.
  3. Viets, Elaine (September 28, 1977). "Guinness Records: A Bid For Immortality Through Trick Or Feat". The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. pp. 1, 20A. Retrieved June 26, 2023. She never had any contact with the Guinness people. She says her name got in the book after Philip Davis, a Dvorak advocate who has exclusive rights to the keyboard, wrote a letter to the editors describing her skills. ″I saw the letter he sent, and that's the last I knew until my son came running out of the house.″ A Guinness editor said the book accepted information sent in by an official organization – in this case the Dvorak advocate. If Mrs. Blackburn writes to the editors, they will send her a certificate acknowledging her record, they said.
  4. Larsen, Dave (January 10, 1985). "Battle of the Typewriter Keyboards: Dvorak Design Offered as Alternative to QWERTY". Los Angeles Times. pp. V1, V20. Archived from the original on June 26, 2023. Retrieved June 26, 2023. Her record is maintaining 150 words a minute for 50 minutes (37,500 strokes). She said she recently reached 196 w.p.m., and is submitting that for the next edition.
  5. McWhirter, Norris; McWhirter, Ross, eds. (1976). Guinness Book of World Records 1976. Sterling Publishing Co. p. 485. ISBN 0-8069-0014-8. Mrs. Barbara Blackburn of Lee's Summit, Missouri, has sustained speeds of 170 w.p.m. using the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard (D.S.K.) system.
  6. McWhirter, Norris, ed. (1985). Guinness Book of World Records 1985. Bantam Books. p. 467. ISBN 0-553-24805-7. Mrs Barbara Blackburn of Everett, Wash can maintain 150 wpm for 50 min (37,500 key strokes) and attains a speed of 170 wpm using the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard (DSK) system.
  7. Duncan, Don (May 20, 1985). "Typists are Turning to Seattle Man's Invention - Faster Keyboard Gains Converts 50 Years Later". The Seattle Times. Retrieved June 26, 2023. Blackburn, who is in the Guinness Book of Records (150 words a minute for 50 minutes)[...] On an Apple, she says, she has attained speeds of 212 words a minute for a brief time.
  8. McWhirter, Norris, ed. (1986). Guinness Book of World Records 1986. Bantam Books. p. 469. ISBN 0-553-25454-5. Records on electric and computer-driven typewriters cannot be compared with any accuracy.
  9. The Great Typing Controversy on Letterman, January 24 and 28, 1985, archived from the original on August 16, 2022, retrieved August 16, 2022
  10. Apple IIc - Barbara Blackburn (1984), archived from the original on August 16, 2022, retrieved August 16, 2022
  11. "A New System of Typing Has Both Friends and Foes". The Kansas City Times. November 23, 1955. p. 8. Retrieved June 28, 2023. Miss Barbara Henley, of Howard Mouldings, Inc., began using the new system seventeen years ago in an experiment with the Dvorak system. "The ease of typing and accuracy are astounding," the Kansas Citian said. "And it only took me about three weeks to switch over in 1938."
  12. "Not New to Her". The Pleasant Hill Times. Pleasant Hill, Missouri. October 15, 1945. Retrieved June 29, 2023. Mrs. Allsup (the former Barbara Clay Henley) is a secretary in the law offices of Chilcott, Walter, Couch, & Myers, Kansas City, and has used the Dvorak keyboard since she was in business school. At that time, when it was first brought out, she was trained as a demonstrator.
  13. Parkinson, Bob (1972). "How to Increase Your Typing Productivity". Technical Communication. Society for Technical Communication. 19 (4): 9–11. ISSN 0049-3155. JSTOR 43151168.
  14. Swanson, Stevenson (May 30, 1984). "Quirky qwerty, delightful Dvorak". Chicago Tribune. p. 2. The nation's fastest typist, Barbara Blackburn of Salem, Ore., who blazes away at 180 words a minute, learned on a Dvorak machine.
  15. Written at Tarrytown, New York. "Grandmother, 64, from Oregon sets her third world speed typing record". The Columbia Record. Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press. January 5, 1985. Retrieved June 28, 2023. This past October, using the software program, Mastertype, published by Scarborough Systems of Tarrytown, and a Dvorak keyboard, she broke her computer speed mark by typing at a rate of 194 words a minute.
  16. Bledsoe, Gloria (January 29, 1985). "Typist isn't laughing about late-night humor show". Statesman Journal. Salem, Oregon. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  17. Porter, Jon (October 14, 2022), iOS 16 quietly added native Dvorak keyboard support, delighting weirdos like me, The Verge, retrieved June 28, 2023
  18. "APPLE II COMPUTER: BARBARA BLACKBURN". paleycenter.org. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
  19. Lynn, Capi (November 16, 2011). "Salem woman once held record as fastest typist". Statesman Journal. Salem, Oregon. pp. 1A, 2A. Retrieved June 28, 2023. Blackburn was a good sport in front of the cameras, but her family remembers how hurt she was by the stunt. [...] "My mother never watched that show," Pulvers said. "After everything she did and what happened, she never watched it. She was devastated."
  20. "Dvorak, August (1894–1975)". HistoryLink.org. Archived from the original on August 8, 2022. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
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