1990.19

Hall Braille Writer

Hall, Frank, inventor

Black enameled steel frame resting on steel screw feet, stenciled in gold on bar above keyboard, "The Hall Braille Writer," cast into base of frame, "BN1"; arched bar extends backwards from the front top of the frame to the upward writing embossing head protruding through a slot in the carriage; brass spring tensioning thumbscrew on left of arched bar (screw missing); keyboard has six black-enameled wooden keys with beveled fronts, an oval aluminum space key is mounted in the middle of the keyboard, projecting above and slightly forward of the dot keys, (keyboard shield missing); stamped on the space key, "MADE BY COOPER ENG & MFG CO CHICAGO, ILL."; springloaded aluminum carriage with black hard rubber platen and knurled steel paper roller, wooden platen knobs on both sides, rolled aluminum paper storage tube bolted under carriage; steel levers on both sides of carriage allow knurled paper roller to be raised when loading paper(right lever missing); (toothed nickel-plated carriage release bar missing); carriage return bell screwed under carriage on right; oval aluminum plate riveted to right of top bar, "M.E.I.B. 321".

H-5.906 W-14.961 D-8.661 inches

ca. 1921

Cooper Engineering & Manufacturing Company

Chicago, IL

The first prototype for the Hall Braille Writer was conceived by Frank Hall, Superintendent of the Illinois School for the Blind in 1892. It was created by a local gunsmith and machinist, Gustave Seiber. Hall took the prototype to the Munson Typewriter Company in Chicago, where Superintendent T.B. Harrison and designer Samuel J. Seifreid created six pilot models, delivering them to Hall on May 27th, 1892. Munson Typewriter also made an additional lot of 94 machines for Hall. Harrison and Seifried soon left Munson and began manufacturing the braillewriter full time, along with the Hall Stereotyper and later a tactile mapmaking machine. When the partnership dissolved, Samuel Seifried continued the business until his death in 1912. The Cooper Manufacturing Company took over the braillewriter. When M.B. Skinner bought Cooper in 1921, the Hall Braille Writer was re-designed and continued to be sold until Cooper sold the design, dies, and tools to the American Foundation for the Blind around 1930. AFB assembled a few additional machines from parts in stock, but at the same time was developing its own machine, the Foundation Writer.