Continuous Ribbon Window Blinds : Jacob Rabinow

Rabinow invented this labor saving vertical blind system. Vertical blinds don’t gather as much dust as horizontal ones. Rabinow’s zigzag version of the vertical blind had the added advantage of being washable in the washing machine. The blind consisted of one long ribbon of cloth that could be removed, washed, and replaced to its original position. It could also be replaced by attaching a clean strip of cloth to the end of the old non-rectangular windows. It could be changed to fit the season, with light reflecting blinds in the summer and heat-absorbing ones in the winter.

However, Rabinow’s efforts at marketing the blind met with resistance. The blind looked different. Rather than looking like a series of a parallel slats, it zigzagged, thus diverging from the traditional pattern that people were accustomed to. He also encountered another familiar roadblock to the inventor. To market an invention to a manufacturer, an inventor must find someone in the same business who is not tooled up for and making a competing product. This is difficult and at times impossible.

Objects :
Continuous Ribbon Window Blind