2017.7

Boston Braillewriter

Black enameled, cast steel frame resting on four rubber feet; a round carriage spring is mounted onto an "ear" on the lower left side of the frame; arched diebox is screwed onto top of frame with four machine screws, a nickeled-plated carriage release lever emerges from a slot to right of front of arch; seven steel key-arms emerge from front of a tinplate panel screwed to the front of the frame, the six braille keys have rectangular wooden key-pads arranged at a slight fan, in the middle a space bar protrudes a little farther than the braille keys and has an oval, nickel-plated pad; there is a rubber pad mounted under the keyboard on the frame to deaden sound; in gold on the keyboard panel, "BOSTON BRAILLE WRITER"; carriage frame and its hardware are nickel-plated steel, movable carriage rests on two steel bars mounted to frame; from front to back, carriage mounts a toothed carriage bar with an eleven position margin pin set at left, a nickel-plated brass paper storage roller with knurled knob on left, a two roller steel paper roller (the lower roller has a ribbed section in the middle and the top roller has a red rubber sleeve in the middle) with a knurled knob on right and paper release levers on both sides, and a steel bar on the back with a wheel on the bottom which engages with the carriage bar on the frame; an adjustable carriage return bell is mounted on that back frame bar as well.

H-5.375 W-13.25 D-8.5 inches

ca. 1910

Perkins Institution, Howe Memorial Press

Boston, MA

In the 1909 issue of the Bulletin of the American Library Association, p. 218 is this statement: "Three new typewriters for embossing have recently been invented…" One was the Boston Braillewriter from the Perkins Institution, South Boston, Mass. It is not thought that many of these machines were actually manufactured. Page 17 of the 1910 Perkins Annual Report states that the printing department (the Howe Press) had sold 26 Braille writers over the "past three years."

Museum Purchase, 2017.7