BRAILLE CENTENARY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 104, 2 April 1929, Page 2

BRAILLE CENTENARY.

HISTORY OF GREAT INVENTION.

The centenary of the invention of the Braille system of embossed printing, which opened a new epoch in the teaching of the blind by touch, occurs this year, states, a London.journal, and the event is being marked by a. special effort, in which the co-operation of all musicians is being sought to raise funds for the publication of literary, scienti-, lie, religious and musical works as yet inaccessible to the blind.

The credit for the first, really successful attempt to educate the blind belongs to a Frenchman, A r alentin Hauy. By the use of embossed paper he taught a blind beggar boy to"read, and, encouraged by this success, extended his efforts, with the most beneficial results. He not only produced the first printing in raised characters, paving the way for a development which reached its ultimate triumph in Braille’s wonderful invention , but it was due to his labours that the Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles was founded in Paris. An important change was introduced by a French officer, Charles Barbier; who substituted embossed dots fpr embossed line's, and at the same time invented the slate for writing. It was really upon - this system that Braille constructed his own great plan, perfected in 1829.

Braille, who was born at Conpuray, about 23 miles from Paris, had become blind as the result-of an accident. Ho was a pupilj and afterwards -a profes«>r at the Institution Nationale des Teunes Aveugles, and carefully studied all the methods of teaching the blind based upon the use of arbitrary characters. He found that Barbier’s discovery most closely approximated to his own conception of what was required, and by reducing the number of dots and effecting- other changes, he evolved the system which lias made his name world-famous. -