HOW THE BLIND MAY READ

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6521, 18 September 1924, Page 7

HOW THE BLIND MAY READ

Selenium, named after the moon, has been found to have a remarkable relationship with the sun. Its atoms (writes Ronald Mac Fie in the Daily Chronicle) like all other atoms, are infinitessimai planetary systems, and consists of particles of negative electricity—electrons—revolving round a positively charged centre, and it has been discovered that light knocks some of the electrons out of their orbit, and sets them free to act as carriers of electricity. Selenium, accordingly, becomes temporarily a better conductor of electricity as soon as light falls upon it, and Dr. Fournier D’Albe, who has just written a fascinating book on the matter declares that so sensitive is selenium to light that its conductivity would detect even a match struck on* the moon.

Making use of this remarkable property Dr. Fournier D’Albe, with the assistance of Professor Barr, has invented a wonderful instrument which enables the blind to read books. A line of print is passed over bars of selenium, and light shed on the bars is modified by the intervening letters. The conductivity of the bars, accordingly varies and a current passed along them fluctuates, and can be used to set up various sound vibrations in a telephone receiver. The sounds are representative of letters and words, and, with a little practice each sound may be associated with its special letter or word. Each letter and word, in fact, sings it own name and meaning as it passes. The invisible changes in the selenium are transformed into sound; light becomes audible; and, as a fairy tale, we see with our ears.

The interpretation of the notes requires, of course, an acute ear and patient practice; but a blind girl, Miss Jameson, has become so expert that she can read at the rate of 80 words a minute, and has read several books from cover to cover. So well has she trained her ear that she can apprehend words and even phrases without requiring to spell them out. And, no doubt, if children born blind were instructed in the use of the optophone during their early yeaz’s, they would acquire even greater facility. In some ways the Braille system may be more serviceable, but the optophone promises to be a great boon to the blind, and it is not impossible that even those with good eyes may think it worth while to learn to read by optophone, so that at times their ears may relieve their eyes.