Texas Instruments Speak & Spell, 1978-1985

01

Artifact Overview

Making an electronic chip that could synthesize speech was a tricky problem. But once the engineers at Texas Instruments solved it in 1978, their first product with their new chip wasn't an assistive device for the vision-impaired; it was a toy. The Speak & Spell was a popular and novel educational toy that pronounced words for early readers.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Educational toy

Date Made

1978-1985

Location

at Henry Ford Museum in Your Place in Time

Object ID

99.222.1

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Plastic

Dimensions

Height: 10 in
Width: 7 in
Thickness: 1.25 in

Inscriptions

front: SPEAK & SPELL / TEXAS INSTRUMENTS / TI 1978 back: A LIBRARY OF CARTRIDGES!.....TEXAS INSTRUMENTS / ELECTRONIC LEARINING AID