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Bradly A. Fiske thought that this reading machine was a good way to help readers get rid of their reading eyeglasses offering them a more convenient way to enjoy book reading by making them more compact.
Admiral Fiske invention consists of a small machinery, a lorgnette that has mounted a magnifying lens for one eye, a comfort shield for the other eye and a small rack to hold the reading subject.
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Below I m attaching single page article from the June 1922 issue of Scientific American. Page 407, Volume 126, that describes the Fiske Reading Machine.
“The instrument, consisting of a tiny lens and a small roller for operating this eyepiece up and down a vertical column of reading matter, is a means by which ordinary typewritten copy, when photographically reduced to one-hundredth of the space originally occupied, can be read with quite the facility that the impression of conventional printing type is now revealed to the unaided eye. The device is only six and one-quarter inches long, one and seven-eighths inches wide, one-quarter of an inch thick, and weighs five and one-half ounces.”
Fiske filled for a US Patent United States Patent that was published back in 1937(No.2080172).
In my opinion no other device, neither Kindle nor iPad can replace the feeling that someone has when reading books using his/her hands. There is no better thing than having a wall full of books on your apartment, no digital device can reproduce those feelings and thats a fact.