Have you ever seen a Braille Micrometer

[Farmall]

While not truly Blacksmithing, many of us do have a machine tools as well, so I thought this august group would appreciate it.   Friend of mine found it at a tool sale and bought it for me..  While I am getting older and needing stronger glasses, don't need this yet!  I would have like to have met the fellow that had this made - would love to see what he/she produced with it!

[Frosty]

Wow, that is VERY cool! Have you figured out how to read it yet? A set of gauge blocks and a little time should do it. EXACTLY how big was that stalactite?

Frosty The Lucky.

[teenylittlemetalguy]

mark this under "tools I never thought I would ever see". that is amazing. 

[Farmall]

Frosty, short answer is no, I haven't figured it out yet, but I think it reads to 4 significant digits, i.e., 1.312 or 1.476 based on the fact that there are only two sets of Braille numbers on the dial.  The third number is obviously the number 1, since it is a 1 to 2 inch micrometer, and the 4th number would come from counting the number of complete revolutions of the dial before setting the last two.   This means that you would have to start from 1.000 every time it was used in order to count the revolutions until the last two numbers were needed.

Teenylittlemetalguy, I agree - I never thought I'd see a Braille micrometer, but it's not as scary as seeing Braille keys on a drive through ATM - I hope I'm BEHIND them!

 

Like I said, would have loved to have seen it in use with its original owner.  I got it from a friend in England who found it at a boot sale and knew I had to have it!

[Charles R. Stevens]

I always thought the "do not touch" sighn in brail was bit of a "to little, to late" myself. 

I remember reading some where (when I was a kid) that blind peaple where used to inspect ball bearings back in WWII. I could certainly see where their improved tactile sense would also be applicable to crankshafts and such. 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

A Google search for Braille micrometer pulls up several hits. 

I am thinking that the bottom rail may be used as a home position to read it by. 

 

[Frosty]

I'm thinking it reads to 4 decimal places my older mics click on the inch and you read from there with the least worn one you can feel the detent click on the inch.

That's just surmise of course.

Frosty The Lucky.

[John B]

Part of my apprenticeship was in an inspection department, and I was privileged to work alongside a totally blind gentleman called Tom who used one of these amongst other unique tools in his toolbox,

A lot of his time was spent on inspecting and sometimes grading items within a certain range of sizes, the micrometer being initially set to a slip gauge or Jo block, and thus he could measure items of each size within the tolerances allowed, sort them into grades, or reject them for further work or scrapping.

His other speciality was in surface finishes 

He was pretty good at telling you what sizes small things were without the aid of calibrated measuring tools too,  he would select the appropriate size of calibration block which was then checked by a visually sited person against the drawing/blueprint and route card as normal proceedure, Invariably Tom was correct in his choices. 

[Farmall]

John B, thanks for that.  The micrometer did come from England.   My friend was living near Royal Tunbridge Wells at the time he found it and sent it to me.  He was also successful in finding me an Adept No. 1 Metal Shaper - it's a hand operated shaper with a 4-inch stroke.  You can read about it here ->  Adept Shaper Information

I sent him a number of tools from the US he was looking for.  Was able to deliver them in person a number of times.  Quite an interesting fellow - he meticulously restored an RAF Humber which now resides at the Museum in Duxford.  I was able to drive it around his property before he delivered it to the Museum.