Perkins Brailler

A braille machine is a technical aid, write Braille or Braille to the blind and severely visually impaired people.

A braille machine has only six or eight Typewriter keys is often a space bar and several function keys. If no space key is available, the space step is initiated by pressing any other key light, so that there is no embossing. By chord attack on multiple keys, the individual letters are displayed.

Distinction

Basically (for writing on Braille paper ) and stenography distinguished ( with roller strips ) between sheet-fed presses. These machines allowed blind negotiation stenographers fast typing.

There are purely mechanical and electric braille machine. The first were developed in the 1880s; previously been exclusively written with Braille slate and stylus. Due to the small size, light weight and special versions for special paper sizes (such as index cards ) come Braille panels are still used - similar to pen and notepad not been replaced by the typewriter.

The Perkins Brailler

The most widely used today mechanical braille machine is the Perkins Brailler, named after Thomas Handasyd Perkins, the promoter of Samuel Gridley Howe founded by Perkins School for the Blind: a simple typewriter for writing braille. Each of the six buttons corresponds to one of the six points of Braille, which is read and written by blind people. In addition to these six keys that can be pressed simultaneously or individually and so characterize the different letters and characters in the braille paper, are located at the front of the machine, a space key, a backspace key ( one character ) and a line feed. The line return transport is like a typewriter for black font manually with another key.

Laterally knobs are for further transport of the paper on which the text is embossed. The sheet of A4 is so completely at first rolled into the machine and then re-issued in writing by line line.

Except braille paper can for example also describe self braille sheet with the Perkins Brailler. With it, however, only six- dot Braille can be written.

Others

To write eight- dot Braille ( Braille euros ), the electrical Elotype is nowadays mostly used.