Historical information

Braille hand frames and styluses were the primary way to produce Braille for over a century. The stylus was used to make a separate indentation for each dot, and the hand frame to keep dots within the same cell. Braille rows are produced from right to left. The process was very time consuming. Volunteer transcribers for the library could take an average of ½ hour to produce one page of Braille using this method. For example: “Oliver Twist” required approximately 600 sheets equating to 300 hours of work!
Various metal hand frames accompanied by a metal stylus with wooden handle. Some include a wooden slate, which was used to make the system portable as a firm base was needed to sustain puncture pressure. The frame can also be slotted into both sides of the slate, thereby ensuring that the lines of Braille were straight across the page.

Transcribing maths was an extremely complex task and a metal grid was utilised to reproduce graphs and diagrams.

Physical description

1 wooden hand frame with metal grid and metal and wooden stylus, 1 metal maths grid with metal pegs in metal container inside a brown suitcase and numerous sheets of Braille paper

Inscriptions & markings

T.C. Coughlin
5 doz sausage rolls
Wilmington Southend
is written inside the lid of the suitcase