That machine was the reason why IBM was so slow about getting into adaptive 
devices.  It was developed by an IBM employee in his garage in Lexington Ky 
and he convinced the company that it would solve all of the problems of the 
Blind.  It sold for over  $600 which was a lot for that in the mid sixties. 
IBM lost so much money on that project that they didn't want to hear about 
blind people again ever!


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob - KA5ETA" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2008 5:22 AM
Subject: Re: good old brailler


> Years ago I had a chance to see a typewriter that had been made into a
> Braille writer.  I believe that it started life as a IBM typewriter that 
> is
> as far as the keyboard goes.  You type the words as you would on a
> typewriter but the carriage moved from right to left.  You had to turn the
> paper over and then the Braille could be read from left to right.  That
> thing was very loud..  I think that it was to be use by a sighted person 
> for
> transcription.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kevin Kwan" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2008 6:35 AM
> Subject: Re: good old brailler
>
>
> well what exactly is an electric brailer for? Besides hooking it to a
> computer. At school I saw an electric brailer printer hooked to the apple.
> That thing was loud. Then there was a regular brailer hooked to the apple
> and it was used for scribing, but that stuff is old.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "John Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2008 7:08 AM
> Subject: Re: good old brailler
>
>
> Is the electric one the one that looks like a regular brailler but has the
> box on the site to hook up to a computer, with the switch on it? If so, I
> had one in school we borrowed when one of ours broke, never gave it back
> either, but anyway, I used that one like a manual one. I'm not sure if
> that's what that was or if this was some sort of add on kit, we borrowed 
> it
> with no cables or anything so we could only use it like a manual one.
> Actually, that was the old style so that had to be some sort of add on 
> kit,
> I don't know, I'd bet that school still has it since the person with the
> connections to borrow that one is long gone to another part of the country
> and I visited her at school about a month before she left and it was still
> there then. It was a 6 month borrowing that went to, actually middle 
> school
> too so it was probably 7 years at least they had the thing that I know of
> and it's probably collecting dust somewhere now still with in the schools.
> I'd sure hope they learned to use the computerized stuff, I'd hate to 
> think
> of a poor teacher brailling everything out like they did for me.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Walt Sebastian" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2008 6:42 AM
> Subject: Re: good old brailler
>
>
>> Hi Guys,
>> When I lived in Florida, a man in Orlando repaired them at no cost except
>> if
>> he had to order parts.  I went to the Miami area and took my Perkins with
>> me
>> to run the medium speed CW net.  The man said, if he knew that was what I
>> wanted, they had one.  I am glad I took mine.  The one they had didn't
>> work.
>> I learned that his wife bought if at a yard sale for $15.  When I left,
>> they
>> gave me the brailler.  I took it to the man or Orlando and he had to 
>> order
>> a
>> main spring, a $6 item.
>>
>> His wife was a professional Braillist and used an electric Perkins.  One
>> day
>> while I was there, I had the opportunity to try it out.  Physically, it
>> looks like any other Perkins, except for the switch on the right side.
>> Oh,
>> btw, it is much noisier than the manual version.
>>
>> Walt
>> WA4QXT
>> New London CT
>> [log in to unmask]