Terratype 8-point Braillewriter

Mechanical Braille Writers

Description: Nagano shisko kiki (Machines for the Visually Impaired) was founded by Keiji Terashima in the city of Mamejima in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Terashima was a retired teacher from the school for the blind in Nagano Prefecture. His Terashima braille typewriter, or the Terratype, was introduced in 1985. It came in two varieties, a traditional six point brailler and this eight point variety. Basic Japanese braille uses the traditional six dot cell, but this is not always satisfactory to represent the hundreds of characters used to write Japanese. One solution was the use of an eight point cell, although it was not widely adopted.

Height: 3.125

Width: 10.125

Depth: 2.75

Date: 1985