Our object this week
is a humble wooden workstand, made and used here at the American Printing House
and painted a nice industrial gray. Historic photographs show similar
custom-made tables in a variety of shapes and sizes used as work stands in a number
of processes around the building. In this picture of the stereograph room
where embossing plates were made, you can see a table much like this one in the
left foreground. These tables are an endangered species around APH
today. A few years ago our production department installed a Kaizen construction area where
our production staff can put together special purpose tables and materials
carts in a jiffy from metal tubes and particle board. I guess you could
say that these old work tables were the Kaizen equivalent of their day.
In the second photo, probably
from 1950 or so, office manager Jane Kent guides a group of well-dressed ladies
on a tour of the stereograph room at APH. A transcriber sits in front of
a stereograph, translating braille onto metal embossing plates.
Micheal A. Hudson
Museum Director
American Printing House for the Blind
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