Picht stenographic Braille typewriter

Author: Oskar Picht, German typhlotechnician and designer

The year of production: 1909

Dimensions: width 20 x height 26 x depth 31 cm

Material: wood and metal

Donor: Blind Museum in Levoča

The author and inventor of a stenographic braille typewriter was also Oskar Picht, a German typhlotechnician and designer of several types of typewriters for the blind, the director of Institute for the Blind in Bromberg and Berlin (area of Steglitz).

The first producer of Picht’s typewriters was Joseph Ruppert firm in Berlin which he cooperated with in development of his first typewriter.

From 1909 the stenographic braille typewriter was produced by a machine factory and mechanical workshop named Bruno Herde and Friedrich Wendt, founded in 1869 in Berlin 14 with the seat in 72, Sebastian’s Street. 

The principle of typing on the stenographic braille typewriter is the same as on the Picht’s braille typewriter by using the six keybuttons and the spacing bar in the middle. The stenographic braille typewriter does not use a braille paper, but the text is embossed on a narrow paper line from a paper reel.