1990.24

The Minerva

Mahler, Marie Antonie

Rectangular black enameled aluminum case resting on four red rubber feet; fixed flattened-arch steel diebox on back; brass and steel paper carriage with two red rubber paper roller covers, sawtooth carriage bar, scrolled brass paper storage tube for 5" wide paper; six round cylindrical celluloid keys on front, set at angles in front top of case, ivory space bar with steel key arm protrudes from front middle of keyboard; gold letters on the top read "Minerva, Gesetze Geschützt"; in gold below keyboard, "Leipziger Hochscul-Lehrmittel Werkstatt Fur Blinde."

H-2.25 W-6.5 D-6 inches

ca. 1930

Deutsche Zentralbücherei für Blinde zu Leipzig

Leipzig, Germany

The Minerva is a small adaptation of the conventional writing machine, intended for children's use, invented in the 1920s by Toni Mahler, the technical director at the Deutsche Zentralbücherei für Blinde in Leipzig, Germany, and patented there in 1931. It is one of the few braillewriters attributed to a female inventor. Mahler was the niece of DZB director Marie Lomnitz-Klamroth and joined the staff as a librarian in 1916. The DZB was founded in 1894.