Frank Haven Hall

Frank Haven Hall (February 9, 1841 – January 3, 1911) was an American inventor and essayist who is credited with inventing the Hall braille writer and the stereographer machine. He also invented the first successful mechanical point writer and developed major functions of modern day typography with kerning and tracking.

Born in Mechanic Falls, Maine he served in the Union Army's Maine Volunteers during the American Civil War. After the war he attended Bates College in Lewiston before initiating a teaching career. From 1862 to 1867, he taught at private and public schools throughout the greater Illinois area. While in Illinois, he held the political offices of postmaster, township treasurer, and clerk. He also owned and operated a general store, a lumberyard, and a creamery. In between his teaching and business interests he began to pursue a career in invention. Hall focused on experimental typefaces, typesetting, type design, and display configurations with ink on paper and metal placings which subsequently led to his first invention: the Hall Braille writer. He publicly announced his invention in May 1892 and unveiled it at the World's Columbian Exposition in October 1893.

His furthered development of the Hall Braille Writer revolutionized Braille communication by dramatically speeding up the rate by which one could produce Braille characters. His research and development in the tactile writing system used by people who are blind or visually impaired, has been hailed as "the most innovative development of communications for the blind in the 19th century."