BLIND TO READ BY SOUND.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15314, 9 September 1920, Page 6

BLIND TO READ BY SOUND.

NEW YOftK, J«ly 12.-Sailin,g from here on July 21 to visit -Sir Arthur Peuntson m London, Dr. Max Herz, who arrived m the United States recently from Vienna, will demonstrate to Sir Arthur his invention by means'of which the blind or those whose sight, is weak ■can read 'by sound instead of by touch. The invention greatly, impressed a, convention of instructors of the blind just held "im Baltimore, and it is ' believed will soon replace everywhere the Braille or raised 'letter system which long hasbeen, used by the- sightless fdfr instruction and recreation. Tlie aiew method is called typbphonia, and is-, based on a iound alphabet adapted from the Morse telegraphic code with tho dash eliminated and the dot utilised m various •combinations. " < •

..Ihe contents of a book of 200 printed pages, say, or 1000 pages of Braille, can be* .recorded on a "six-inch phonographic disc ut an expense of about 2d, 'and.be reproduced ornUi typophone whicli would cost about £3.

The typophono weighs iess than threo pounds, (und is kept m a- Wooden casa similar to that of a traveller's tyjie- . writer. Like the phonograph, it has a circular disc nine inches m diameter, Above this the smaller record, is placed. Tlie needle is adjusted, the lower disc is tunned,. ami the words of .the fctory are tapped out m code.. ■"..-,' Anyone familiar with tho Morse tele- ' graphic system can. ''read" the bliud •codo easily, arid it can ue learned by a ! novioo m tivo weelca, Avhereas it talies I months to acquire, anything liko proli- | ciency m reading 1 by t.oucli. "ITS AN ILL WIND." Di* "Herz is a member of the faculty of the University of Vienna. ■'Three years ago his sigh*, T^egan to fail, and lie took up the study of Braille. The difficulty he encountered m mastering the system inspired him*- with the idea of the typophone. Dr Herz offers *diis invention free to any institution, that will -undertake to give it to the blind and weak-sighted. He saya that if, out of his own affliction, good can come to the • millions similarly handicapped by fate, the loss of his vision will jiot have been m vain.

Only yesterday the Daily Chronicle rel>orted tne fact that tho King and! Queen it Edinburgh saw the optophone, an instrument '.-which dispenses with "Braille, and enables musical notes to be produced from printed matter, which the blind can roon learn to translate into woyds. That instrument is the invention! of Dr EFourhie~r d'Olbe, and has been adapted hy Prof. BarrJ .