About Lutheran Braille Workers, Inc.
Lutheran Braille Workers (LBW) was founded in 1943 when Helene Loewe Koehler responded to a plea from Mr. Fred Graepp for Braille Bibles for blind pastors in Germany. She learned Braille from Mr. Graepp by correspondence, keeping them and her Braille manuscripts in a shoe box under her bed.
Helene’s brother, Norman Loeber, created a Braille press using rollers from their mother’s ringer washer.
Helene sought the assistance of the Ladies Aid Society of Trinity Lutheran Church, and this became the first of nearly 200 Braille and Large Print Work Centers.
Today, the Braillo machine produces 1200 sheets of interpoint Braille per hour and 400 characters per second. It is able to print jobs without the cost of zinc plates.