Lieutenant Muller operating his stenographic machine. The ten keys are shown clearly at the right
A Blind French Soldier Invents a Stenographic Machine
Lieutenant Muller, a Frenchman blinded in the war, has invented a machine for blind stenographers. It promises to simplify the work of teaching stenography to men who have been deprived of their sight, thereby providing them with a means of earning a livelihood.
The machine is constructed for a phonetic system of stenography. The signs are expressed by raised points, each sign representing an entire syllable. The keyboard is divided into two parts, five keys for the right hand and five for the left. Thus the initial consonants of the syllables are written with the left hand and the final consonants with the right hand. One motion writes a syllable. As no distinction is made between certain consonants, such as T and D, F and V, Ch and J and other combinations of consonants such as Br and Pr, Pl and Bl, Cr and Gr, each consonant does not have to be indicated. The Muller machine has ten consonant signs, fifteen vowel signs and three final consonant signs which make, altogether, twenty-eight signs.
The usefulness of the machine is greatly enhanced by its size and weight. It is small enough and light enough to be carried in a valise. The paper is fed through the machine from a large roll. The signs are embossed on the strip of paper by the pressure of the keys. When the blind man wants to read his notes all he has to do is to pass the paper tape which has unfolded from the reel, through his fingers.
Lengthening the Period of the Comb's Usefulness
Keeping the comb in a sanitary condition is not so easy a task as it would seem. Merely washing it with soap and water has little effect. A reliable comb-cleaner is needed. The cleaner shown in the accompanying illustration is the invention of A. Abraham, of Rockford, Ill. Its strings are of steel, covered with twisted brass wire, which is just rough enough to scrape the sides of the teeth and the intervening bottom spaces, without making the teeth themselves rough. The framework is finished in various styles. Some of them are nickeled, some are finished in copper and some in oxydized brass.
