Long before Kindles and iPads became popular, Ruiz Robles, a teacher, created her Mechanical Encyclopedia to help lighten her students’ textbook load. By Cindy Shmerler This article is part of ...

was invented by a woman named Angela Ruiz Robles. The reader, which she named the Mechanical Encyclopedia, according to the Daily News, operated on compressed air. Text and graphics were contained ...

Ángela Ruiz Robles invented her Mechanical Encyclopedia in 1949 – some half a century before the advent of Kindles, Kobos and Nooks. Her main goal was to reduce the weight of books in students ...