The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-10-28
fALKING BOOKS OF MANY KINDS
 LENT TO BLIND
Federal Government Helps Produce Machines and
 Disc Records
BY JOHN ABBOTT fUnlted Press Stan COrrespOndent)


 eUnlted Press Stan Correspondent
 Sacramento, Cal, Oct. 28.-(UP)
 The California state library, fur thering Q WPA project, is enabling hundreds of blind persons to read with talking books.
 From the librarys department fol the blind, considered one of the finest in the United States, are dis tributed to blind persons in the California Nevada area the ma chimes and records to those who cannot afford to purchase the equipment.
 Called the greatest boon which modern Scence has brought to the sightless, the original books were designed and manufactured by the American Foundation for the Blind in New York. Since then the Federal government also has un- dertaken production of the machines and records under the direction ot the Library of Congress.
 To date nearly 800 machines which resemble @ portable phono- graph, have been distributed ir this area.
 Books Sold at Cost To those who cannot afford t6 buy them, the talking books are made available by the government free of charge. The Foundation sells the books at cost.
 The talking books came into ex- 1stence because of the fact that only 26 per cent of the 125,000 blint persons in the United States car master Braille or other embossed types with proficiency. The talking book thus comes as an "open ses- anne" to adult blind whose finger lack the requisite isensitiveness oi touch.
 Trained readers, the majority oi them men, read the books into recording machines and the re. sulting discs are sent along witt the machineS for a two-week per iod.
 The machine itself, however, may be kept by the applicant, after h' has been properly registered witf the Federal government which re- tains ownership of the books.
 Famous authors have recorded their works on the 12-inch discs similar to photograph records, fol the pleasure of the sightless. By means of the reading machine which is equipped with slowly revolving turntable, each book reads itself aloud to the listener, who car adjust the tone and volume as de- sired.
 The talking books-under an agreement with publishers, may not be used by seeing persons.
 Choice Vastly Greater
 A wide range of literature, much more modern than the outmodeo Braille texts in most instances awaits tn choice of blind persons
 Authors who have made record ings for the device include Alex ander Woolcott, Dr. John H. Fin. ley, Dr. Raymond L. Ditmars, Dr Harry Emerson Fosdick, Lymar Beecher Stowe and Rep. Kent E Keller.
 Detective stories, the Bible Shakespeare. "Alice in Wonderland and "The Christmas Carol" are in. cluhed in the list of 100 titles which may be borrowed from the 27 dis tribu.ing points throughout the country, of which the California li- brary Is one.
 Additions are made each week by the Library of Congress. The titles for 1897 include "'The Story of My Life" Helen Keller's autobiography Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Mort te the Orient" and Margaret Aver Barnes "Years of Grace"
 Tn fact no person gifted with sight has 6 more varied choice. Blind per. sons may choose from Francis B. con, Clarence Days "Life Witt Father" stephen Vincent Benet William Beebe. Robert Andrews Miliikan and others.
 Various Topics Covered
 Something from the best in his- tory, science. philosophy, econorn- tcs--nearly all the facets of the Eng fish written word has been re. corded.
 Innovations and experiments gradually are expanding the scope of this new humanitarian service; for example, in recording "John Browns Body" the poetic work oi stephen Vincent Benet, the record CTS were successful in the introduc- ton of character reading and music Various speakers assumed different parts, and to create the proper at- nosphere an orchestra played John Browns Body" "Dixie" and other airs.
 Each side of a record plays for 1B minutes. The average book length is IS double discs, thus the blind listener Is afforded seven and