2003.98.1

Prototype of a braille writer with wooden base

Maxey, George, 1897-1977

Braille writer is attached with 2 screws to a rectangular wooden base. A paper label glued to the top right of the base has the alphabet in braille with letters also handwritten in pencil. The writer consists of a roller with a black plastic knob at left end, a half drum to hold paper, a paper bale with the right end bent to form a handle, and six braille keys with plastic tops that move along a smooth rod at the front of the machine and along a notched rail along the middle of the machine. The museum has 3 of his prototypes. See also accessions 2003.98.2 and 2003.98.3

ca. 1930s

Item was given by the daughter of the designer, George Maxey, who was born in Burr Oak, IN in 1897 and died in Seattle in 1977. Maxey received a degree in chemical engineering from Wabash College in Crawfordville, IN, in 1919. He was a veteran of WWI and WWII and worked as an engineer for Webster Brinkley in
Seattle and as a design engineer/precision machinist in the Aeronautical Department of the University of Washington. He had friends who were braille users and began developing braillewriters in the 1930s to help them.