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At this time considerations regarding the mechanics of printing for the blind were interjected into the type question. So far, embossed Roman letters known as linetype, and New York Point had been printed with movable type from which stereotype plates were sometimes cast. In England braille books had been printed from metal sheets punched out on a rugged braille writing frame with a heavy stylus and mallet. The author at one time bad the privilege of shaking hands with Mr. John Ford who had, over a period of thirteen years, punched out the entire Bible by this method.

Modern printing for the blind may be said to have begun in 1892 when Frank H. Hall, superintendent of the Illinois School for the Blind, demonstrated his recently developed braille typewriter before the American Association of Instructors of the Blind at Brantford. This device tremendously speeded up the writing of braille. A good writer with a slate and stylus can seldom write more than ten to twenty words a minute, whereas a proficient braille typewriter operator may, with a reasonable amount of practice, write two or three scores of words per minute.

From the development of a braille typewriter for writing on paper it was only a step to the development of a more powerful machine for embossing on sheets of brass, zinc or iron. This machine was called the braille stereotypemaker and was exhibited at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The printing process was simple. The embossed metal sheets were covered with tough, heavy paper about twice the thickness of ordinary book paper, and upon this was laid a rubber blanket. The whole combination was then inserted in a press, and pressure applied. When the paper was removed, it was covered entirely with braille printing.

With the advent of Hall's stereotypemaker Mr. Allen set up a braille printing shop in his school in Philadelphia and several other schools followed, notably the Illinois School for the Blind. Embossed braille plates from these schools were sometimes deposited with the American Printing House for the Blind so that books could be made from them and sold to the various schools who wished to purchase them.

For many years a feud had raged between the sponsors of American braille and of New York Point. This feud, which was of such vital importance to the blind readers, became the basis of a bitter, personal controversy between seeing leaders on either side. One who had not witnessed the heat which was engendered by the debates on the so-called type question cannot realize how bitter these discussions could become. A superintendent of a school for the blind, who had originally favored the use of New York Point in his school, after considerable study switched over to the use of braille. When he came to the national convention of instructors the following year, he found that some of his old New York Point associates refused to sit next to him at the luncheon table. In the light of this feeling on the subject, one can easily imagine the exultation among the braillists at the appearance of Frank Hall's braillewriter since it was impracticable to write New York Point on this machine.

Years later Mr. Wait, in telling the author about the Brantford convention, said that after examining the braillewriter he realized that New York Point was doomed unless an equivalent machine for writing his type could be perfected. He therefore went to work on this problem, and within a few months produced a typewriter for writing New York Point, which was christened the Kleidograph.

Mr. Wait further said that he had no sooner announced this machine than he had another surprise awaiting him, the braille stereotypemaker. Anyone who has had the experience of developing rather complicated mechanical appliances is amazed at the shortness of time that was required for adapting the Kleidograph to embossing on metal sheets. This extended the life of New York Point for another generation. We sometimes mourn the waste of time and money in this prolonged type dispute. However, it was not without its blessing. The competition between the backers of the two systems stimulated the development of improved appliances which might otherwise have been long delayed.

The advocates of the two rival systems worked hard at raising money from private as well as public sources to build up libraries in their favorite types. To Mr. Wait, who had labored for more than thirty years to perfect New York Point and who at one time had seen nearly every school for the blind in the United States using it as its official code, the controversy became very personal. Had New York Point survived, his name would have gone down in history alongside that of Louis Braille. As it turned out, he is today remembered as a very able and relentless leader among educators of the blind who died a disappointed, embittered old man. One of his greatest disappointments was the adoption of braille as the official system to be taught in the New York Public Schools.