HELP FOR THE BLIND.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20470, 13 February 1932, Page 5

HELP FOR THE BLIND.

MACHINE FOR READING. VJTROK Od OWS COIBEaPOSiDENT.; LONDON, January 5. An invention, destined perhaps to revolutionise the life of the blind, has been perfected by M. Thomas, a French engineer, who as a result of a wound received during the war lost his sight for six months and has since devoted himself to the discovery of a means to ameliorate the loss of similar sufferers. M. Thomas', invention (writes the Paris correspondent of the "Morning Post"), which he has named the "photo- j electrograpb," enables a blind man to read any book printed in ordinary char- j acters, and thus does away at one blow J with the expense and limitations of printing in Braille. , The photo-electrograph is like a small writing or reading desk, but in place of the usual flap in front is a triple rail with a carriage fixed on it which moves either way at the command of a screw worked by hand. On this carriage any ordinary book is placed and a powerful lamp of special design is projected on to it from above, the light falling with full intensity on to the centre of the page below which is brought directly under it by means of the screw. As the light falls on a group of letters these are instantaneously reproduced in relief by an apparatus on which the reader rests his right hand. Reproduces All Type. Thus, while bringing the book into exact position with his left hand, the blind man can, with his right hand, read the text. It is claimed that the photo-electrograph reproduced perfectly all known type, including llussian, Greek, and Braille, and that a modification of the instrument even permits the reproduction of cursive, so that a blind man with access to it will henceforward be able to read correspondence. The possibility of reading Braille type preserves the value of all existing books for the blind, and even enhances it, since pages printed in Braille can be simply photographed, and then read b;, the blind on s£. Thomas's machine without their having to master a form to which they are not accustomed. The Director of the Hospice National des Quinze-Yingts, founded for the blind by St. Louis, speaks highly of the invention.