Career as inventor

The structural diagram of Hall's standardized version of the typewriter, disowned by Christopher Latham Sholes

Hall traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin originally to take up a position as an academic administrator but soon detoured to continue his research in Braille and commercial typewriters. He was present at a typewriter exhibition by Christopher Latham Sholes and saw the first prototype in January 1867. He compared the technical specifications of his earlier prototypes of the Braille writer and say modes to fashion it into a commercial type writer. He was introduced to Christopher Latham Sholes by Carlos Glidden and along with Samuel W. Soule began construction of what would be contested as the first commercial type writer in the United States. In 1868 their typewriter was debuted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to critical acclaim. Hall stood by the begin and overall function of the typewriter while Sholes, Soule, and Carlos Glidden soon disowned the machine and refused to use, or even to recommend it. It looked "like something like a cross between a piano and a kitchen table."^[7]

The working prototype was made by the machinist Matthias Schwalbach, but later standardized by Hall. The patent (US 79,265) was sold for $12,000 to Densmore, Yost, and Hall who made an agreement with E. Remington and Sons (then famous as a manufacturer of sewing machines) to commercialize the machine as the Sholes and Glidden typewriter. Hall would go on to take his standardized version to Aurora, Illinois where a new position in academia was awaiting him.

After seven successful years in Aurora, he was asked to head the Sugar Grove Industrial School, a work-and-learn agricultural school nearby. Hall spent twelve years as head of the school. From his work around Aurora and Sugar Grove he learned the value of experiential learning and began to lecture at teachers' institutes around the country, challenging the "learning by rote" forms of education dominant at the time. For a short time he became superintendent of schools in Petersburg, Menard County before moving back to Aurora.^[8]

Career as administrator

Hall's most distinguished post in academic began in 1890 as Superintendent of the School for the Blind in Jacksonville, Illinois, despite his lack of training or experience with education for the blind.^[9] He was a quick study, visiting several schools for the blind on the east coast, and quickly decided that blind students required vocational and experiential learning much the same as any student.^[8] A political power shift in Illinois from the Republican party to the Democratic party caused Hall to lose his post. From 1893 to 1897, during the governorship of Democrat John Peter Altgeld, Hall served as superintendent of the Waukegan schools.

When the Republicans returned to power in 1897, Hall was reappointed to his post at the School for the Blind. He remained at the school until 1902.^[8][10] Hall's work led him to advocacy, most importantly persuading Chicago school administrators to create the first public school day class for blind students in 1900. This created an alternative to segregated boarding schools for the blind.

Hall was an advocate of integrating farming and agriculture into academic and studious life. He served as the official Illinois state delegate to the Farmers' National Congress in 1908 and the National Farm Land Congress in 1909, and was a member of the National Conservation Commission.^[8]

Hall Braille Writer

Early 1800s model of the Hansen Writing Ball used by Hall as a template

Print setter used as an ink carrier in the 1800s

On May 27, 1892, while working as superintendent for the Illinois Institution for the Blind, Hall unveiled the Hall Braille Writer.^{[11][8][12][13]} The typewriter is recognized as the first successful mechanical point writer. Modeled on typewriters of the time, his invention revolutionized Braille communication.^[12] Prior to his invention, Braille was not widely taught by teachers of the blind, because teaching Braille involved writing boards on which a student had to push one or more of six Braille character points in reverse.^[14] The Hall Braille Writer, along with Hall's advocacy, helped make Braille the dominant form of written communication for the blind. He never patented the machine because he thought profit would sully his work with the blind.^[13][8] The Hall Braille Writer was manufactured by the Harrison & Seifried company in Chicago, Illinois.^[15] It was manufactured for 10 dollars and sold for 11 dollars.^[14] Distribution of the machine has been found in library collections as far away as Australia and China.^[8]

Stereotyper

Hall invented several other tools used for Braille communication, most notably a stereotyper used to make typeset plates for printing Braille books. He unveiled this device at the Chicago World Fair.^[13] Other inventions include an apparatus for skimming milk^[16] and co-invention of the stereo typewriter.^[12] A Jacksonville gunmaker named Gustav A. Sieber often helped Hull with the engineering of his inventions.^[8]

Helen Keller, beneficiary of the Hall Braille Writer

Chicago World Fair

He also co-founded the stereo typewriter which produced copies faster and cheaper, a derivative of the inventions by Rasmus Malling-Hansen, in 1893.^[17]

At the Chicago World Fair, Hall was displaying his latest invention, the stereotyper, when Helen Keller famously approached him and publicly hugged and kissed him, drawing gasps from the crowd as such an occurrence was against social structure at the time. In the book Devil in the White City, Erick Larson retells the emotional story of Hall meeting Helen Keller at the Chicago World Fair in 1893. According to Larson, when Helen Keller learned that Hall was the inventor of the Braille typewriter she used, she hugged and kissed him. Larson added that retelling the story always brought Hall to tears.^[13][8] She was later integral to the establishment of the practice buy learning multiple codes in order to read and write.^[18]

Publications