Accession No

4529.249

Brief Description

Texas Instruments Speak & Spell electronic learning aid, by Texas Instruments, Italian, 1980 (c)

Origin

Italy

Maker

Texas Instruments

Class

computer technology; games

Earliest Date

1980

Latest Date

1982

Inscription Date

1978

Material

Plastic

Dimensions

Length 253mm; width 177mm; thickness 33mm

Special Collection

Francis Hookham Collection of Hand Held Electronic Calculators

Provenance

Donated by Francis Hookham in 1987. Donated to Francis Hookham on 01/02/1982 by Texas Instruments.

Inscription

“Texas Instruments” (front, top right, on screen)
“Speak
& Spell” (front, bottom left)
[Texas Instruments logo] (front, bottom right)

Description Notes

Orange Texas Instruments Speak & Spell, with orange, yellow and red keys.

Fluorescent display.
Rear panels give power supply details and patent numbers.
A copyright date in the front is 1978, two on the rear are 1978, 1980. There is a speaker to the left of the screen. The aid features a series of word games with speech.

This model has a membrane keypad, rather than the protruding plastic keys of the other model (4529.209), and do not travel at all upon being pressed.

References

Events

Description
Speak & Spell had five built-in learning games: Spell, Say It, Secret Letter, Mystery Code, and Word. Spell is the classic word spelling game, wherein the participant must spell ten words after hearing them "spoken" by the unit. The Speak & Spell also had the ability to expand its vocabulary using expansion modules that plugged into a slot near the battery compartment. One such expansion module was a tie-in for the toy's notable appearance in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and asked young spellers to try such words as "geranium" and "extraterrestrial."
- - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speak_&_Spell_(game)

FM:41959