A Hymn of Praise to Louis Braille

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

A Hymn of Praise to Louis Braille

Blind people in every land last year raised a Hymn of Praise to Louis Braille, the blind Frenchman who, a century ago, invented an alphabet that can be read by touch. Books in this kind of type are printed in great numbers by the National Institute for the Blind, and by their help blind boys and girls can now go in imagination to see Robinson Crusoe on his island or wander with Alice in Wonderland. As a child Louis Braille had normal sight, and he was as full of mischief as any child. One day he entered his father's workshop, took up a sharp tool, and chopped at a piece of wood. Then the tool slipped, his eye was pierced, and Louis became blind. It must have been a sad day for the parentß when they realised that their boy would never see again. But, <if they had been able to look ahead, they might have found some comfort in the thought that this terrible accident, which plunged their child into life-long J

darkness, would be the means of giving light to generations of blind people. Louis was sent to the School for the Blind in Paris, and there he appears to have worked cheerfully and well. He became a brilliant scholar and a splendid musician. But all his spare time was devoted to the task of finding a, system by -which the blind could read and write. Year after year he went on with his search, and at last, in 1829, his toil was rewarded. First of all he set down six dots in tho manner of six dots on a domino. By removing one or more of these, he found that he could make 63 combinations, enough to give him all the letters of an alphabet, besides necessary stops, signs and contractions. He applied the same system to music, with equally successful results, and it is by means of such dots that blind musicians are able to read music.