Weight of a printing press stereotype plate?

This is a tough ask! Some years ago I was asked to convert a complex Jewish prayerbook I designed and produced to a form that could be converted to Braille. This proved to be a deep rabbit hole, but while down there I learned a good bit about how Braille publishing is produced now (digitally) and how it was done historically. While it’s quote possible that secondary stereotypes (plated from flong, a paper-based mould) were made for long-run publications, the invention in 1893 of a direct-punch stereotype machine, which punched Braille dots into thin copper plates, was sufficient for most publications. You can see a demo of one of those machines here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZcgWt9Zg9w. If you need any further information, such as the weight per square meter of the plates, you can get in touch with Mike Hudson at the Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind: https://thedotexperience.org.

Good luck!

I’m really intrigued about the circumstances of this request. Trying to think of a legal context in which the weight of a stereotype plate would matter. Was one thrown at someone?