6 



Popular Science Monthly 



©B 



Lieutenant Muller operat- 

 ing his stenographic ma- 

 chine. The ten keys are 

 shown clearly at the right 



A Blind French Soldier Invents a 

 Stenographic Machine 



1IEUTENANT MULLER, a French- 

 ^ man blinded in the war, has in- 

 vented a machine for blind stenographers. 

 It promises to simplify the work of teach- 

 ing 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 pho- 

 netic system of 

 stenography. The 

 signs are expressed 

 by raised points, 

 each sign repre- 

 senting an entire 

 syllable. The key- 

 board is divider! 

 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 cer- 

 tain consonants, such as T and D, F and 

 V, Ch and J and other combinations of 

 consonants such as Br and Pr, PI and 

 Bl, Cr and Gr, each consonant does not 

 have to be indicated. The Muller m.a- 

 chine 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. 



The cleaner will not be out of keeping 

 with the prettiest dressing-table articles 



Lengthening the Period of the 

 Comb's Usefulness 



KEEPING the comb in a sanitary con- 

 dition 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 il- 

 lustration is the invention of A. Abraham, 

 of Rockford, 111. Its strings are of steel, 

 covered with 

 twisted brass wire, 

 which is just rough 

 enough to scrape 

 the sides of the 

 teeth and the in- 

 tervening bottom 

 spaces, without 

 making the teeth 

 themselves rough. 

 The framework 

 is finished in vari- 

 ous styles. Some 

 of them are nick- 

 eled, some are 

 finished in copper 

 and some in oxy- 

 dized brass. 



