FRANKLIN™ LANGUAGE MASTER

Franklin™ Language Master, retail ~$75.00* (No URL known*)
Manufactured by Franklin™ Computer Corporation (www.franklin.com)
Last updated 03-04-13




This is the Franklin™ Language Master, model LM-2000.

It is advertised to be a dictionary (that part is easy to figure out because it defaults to this mode at power-on!), and also supposedly comes with the following additional features:

o Spelling tools
o Thesaurus
o Crossword helper
o Games including Hangman and Anagrams

However, I have not yet figured out how to access any of these other modes, primarily because I have not had access to its user manual -- I purchased this at a thrift store in 1987 or 1988, and it did not have the manual. For your convenience, I have located it online and have furnished a link to it (stored on my server, not on its original server -- so bandwidth would not be an issue here!) father down this web page.


* This is the "going" price; I do not know what it cost when it was new.

* This product appears to be obsolete, which is really no big surprise considering that the unit on this web page is at least 22 years old.
That's also why it does not look brand spanken new in the photograph directly above.


Size of product w/hand to show scale SIZE



When you turn the Franklin™ Language Master on by pressing & releasing the key at the lower-left of its QWERTY keyboard (the key is labelled "ON/OFF"), the product will default to "Dictionary" mode. At this point, you can type in a word, press the "ENTER" key, and see its definition on the large LCD screen. And if you misspell that word, a list of "correct" words; with each word preceded by a letter will appear instead. Pressing that letter shows the definition (and the correct spelling) for that word.

For other modes, please see the instructional material ("User's manual") that I've furnished directly below this.

User's manual (.PDF format).
File is ~3.899764500947 megabytes (4,095,365 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

To adjust the contrast of its LCD display, press the arrow-up and arrow-down keys located at the lower right of its keyboard; this function is available whenever the "READY" prompt is displayed at the upper right of the product's LCD screen.

When finished using it, press & release the lower-left key of its keyboard again


Here is a quick reference guide as to what the different keys are for.



This product uses 4 AA cells; to change them, turn the unit face-down, slide the battery door off, carry it to a bridge over deep water (the Oakland Bay Bridge would be ideal; however, the Juneau-Douglas Bridge would also do in a pinch here), and throw it over the side so that it goes "blub blub blub" all the way to the bottom of Gastineau Channel with all of the bowling balls that were lobbed over that bridge in the 1950s and 1960s...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

If necessary, remove the used-up old AA cells from the compartment, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.

Insert four new AA cells, orienting them so that their flat ends (-) negatives face the springs for them in each chamber (there are two distinct chambers; load the AA cells in so that the nipple-end (+) positive of one faces the flat end (-) negative of the one above it).

Put the battery door back on, and be done with it.
Aren't you glad that you didn't huck that battery door over the J-D Bridge now?


This is what the Juneau-Douglas Bridge looks like...or what it lookED like anyway before it was replaced in 1976.


And this is what the bridge looks like now.



The Franklin™ Language Master is designed to be used as an electronic dictionary, not as a flashlight meant to be carried around, thrashed, and abused; so I won't try to drown it in the toliet tank, bash it against a steel rod or against the concrete floor of a front porch, let my mother's big dog's ghost or my sister's kitty cats spring a leak (uranate) on it, run over it with a 450lb Celebrity motorised wheelchair, stomp on it, use a medium or large ball peen hammer in order to bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoñata, drop it down the top of Mt. Erupto (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again - candiosity is usually checked with a laser-type device on a platform with a large readout (located at Piñata Central {aka. "Party Central"}), with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; the cannoñata (also located at Piñata Central) is only used to shoot piñatas to piñata parties away from picturesque Piñata Island, and Mt. Erupto is an active volcano on Piñata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analysis, or perform other indecencies on it that a flashlight might have to have performed on it. So this section of the web page will be ***SIGNIFICANTLY*** more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.




A video clip on YourTube showing the Language Master struggling with a simple word.

This clip is approximately 11.000834324536 megabytes (11,102,444 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than fifty five minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

I cannot provide it in other formats, so please do not ask.

It had no definition available for the word "uranate", which means to infuse something with an oxide of uranium; so I selected one of the alternate words choises furnished by the product.



This is what you get when you type the word "uranate" into the
online dictionary (powered by Merriam Webster) on the Franklin™ website.

This shows there is nothing whatsoever wrong with the Language Master
itself; the word simply isn't in the Merriam Webster dictionary.





TEST NOTES:
Product was obtained in either 1988 or 1989, probably at a thrift store just east of downtown Seattle WA. USA.

The Franklin™ Language Master LM-2000 is clearly obsolete (it's at least 22 years old!), but a sufficient quantity of them are still available on the used market as of 05-12-10 {or "12 May 2010" if you prefer}, so having it on this website really isn't just a big {vulgar term for having intercourse} waste at all.


UPDATE: 03-04-13
From an owner of this product comes this {no changes to grammar or syntax were made; name & email address omitted to protect their privacy}:

I saw your website. I can see that 1987 Franklin Computer Language Master LM-2000. Big smile. I still have it like this! When my father did bought it for my Christmas present in 1988. I was around 24 years old. I used playing with this few years. I loved it. Very helpful to learn the right spelling and dictionary. I kept it all the year until stop in around 1993. I took the batteries out of it. Make sure clean it. But I did test putting the batteries in it today. It work!


PROS:



CONS:



    MANUFACTURER: Franklin™ Computer Corporation
    PRODUCT TYPE: Electronic dictionary/thesaurus/spell checker
    LAMP TYPE: N/A
    No. OF LAMPS: N/A
    BEAM TYPE: N/A
    SWITCH TYPE: On/off on keyboard
    CASE MATERIAL: Plastic
    BEZEL: N/A
    BATTERY: 4x AA cells
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
    WATER- AND PIDDLE-RESISTANT: No
    SUBMERSIBLE: NO WAY HOZAY!!!
    ACCESSORIES: None that I'm aware of
    SIZE: 6.950" W, 5.0" H, 1.48" D
    COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: Hong Kong
    WARRANTY: 90 days

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Product was not intended to be a light-emitter, so the conventional "star" rating will not be used.





Franklin™ Language Master *






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