In practice, most braille users do not employ grade 1 braille they use grade 2. Grade 2 is a shorter form which makes reading and writing braille much faster. It can take several months to learn to read and write in grade 2 code. A competent writer of braille has a speed advantage over the person who writes in conventional text, whether hand-written or typed, since braille is a faster recording medium than either of them. Writing Braille by hand is accomplished by means of a device called a slate that consists of two metal plates hinged together to permit a sheet of paper to be inserted between them.
Some slates have a wooden base or guide board onto which the paper is clamped.
The upper of the two metal plates, the guide plate, has cell-sized windows under each of these, in the lower plate, are six slight pits in the Braille dot pattern. A stylus is used to press the paper against the pits to form the raised dots. The Perkins Brailler Braille is also produced by special machines with six keys, one for each dot in the Braille cell. The first Braille writing machine, the Hall Braille writer, was invented in 1892 by Frank H. Hall, superintendent of the Illinois School for the Blind. A modified form of this device is still in use today, as are later, similar devices.