| Artist |
Maxey, George, 1897-1977 |
| Date |
ca. 1930s |
| Description |
Braille writer is attached with 2 screws to a rectangular wooden base. A paper label glued to the top right of the base has the alphabet in braille with letters also handwritten in pencil. The writer consists of a roller with a black plastic knob at left end, a half drum to hold paper, a paper bale with the right end bent to form a handle, and six braille keys with plastic tops that move along a smooth rod at the front of the machine and along a notched rail along the middle of the machine. George Maxey, a design engineer, designed prototypes of braille writers as a personal endeavor to help blind people. The museum has 3 of his prototypes. See also accessions 2003.98.2 and 2003.98.3 Metal is rusted; left key is mostly missing and parts of remaining keys are missing; label has darkened. |
| Dimension notes |
4 x 12 x 7 1/2 in. |
| Material |
Metal, plastic, wood, rubber |
| Object ID |
2003.98.1 |
| Object Name |
Braillewriter |
| Provenance/History |
Item was given to the Callahan Museum by the daughter of the designer, George Maxey, who was born in Burr Oak, IN in 1897 and died in Seattle in 1977. Maxey received a degree in chemical engineering from Wabash College in Crawfordville, IN, in 1919. He was a veteran of WWI and WWII and worked as an engineer for Webster Brinkley in Seattle and as a design engineer/precision machinist in the Aeronautical Department of the University of Washington. He had blind friends and began developing braille writers ca. 1930s to help blind people. |
| Subjects |
Aids for the blind and visually handicapped.
Braillewriters.
Mechanical writing.
Prototypes. |
| Title |
Prototype of a braille writer with wooden base |
|
