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THE NATIONAL GRID #7

A patient waiter is no loser:

middle kingdom period of about

Some notes on dots and their

1994-1781 BC.

reception.
By David Bennewith
3.
From early studies of0.

electricity, electricalGood evening. I’m compiling aphenomena were found to travel

text about dots and reading;at great speeds and many

permutations of the [read] dot

experimenters began to work on

presented as text, sound andthe application of electricity

image.

to communications over a
distance.
In 1746 the French scientist

1.

and abbot Jean-Antoine Nollet[CLAP, CLAP, CLAP] / • • •gathered about two hundred

This is Morse code for ‘s’; themonks into a circle — of about

Morse ‘s’ constitutes the same

1.6 km in circumference —visual make-up as the ellipses

and with pieces of iron-wire— a punctuation character thatconnecting them he discharged

denotes an intentional omission

a battery of Leyden jars 1

in text.

through the monks. He observed

Letters and symbols thatthat each monk reacted, forcan be, and are, constructed

the most part, at the same timeof dots (or points) to form

to the electric shock; showing(legible) characters are called

the speed of propagation‘dot-matrix’.

(transmission of electricalcurrent through the monks)
to be very high.

2.
4.
The first true dot writing
system, translated directlyfrom French as ‘Night Writing’,
was invented and designed in
1815 by Charles Barbier, a
The earliest known depiction of

captain in the French army. The

toss juggling is Egyptian, fromcharacters of his Night Writing

the 15th Beni Hassan tomb of an— developed in response tounknown prince, dating from the

Napoleon’s demand for a code

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THE NATIONAL GRID #7

that soldiers could use tomathematics and music.

communicate silently and

The first book in Braille waswithout light at night —published in 1829 with the title

consisted of a 6 x 6 grid which

Method of Writing Words, Music,

included most of the lettersand Plain Songs by Means ofof the French alphabet, as wellDots, for Use by the Blind andas frequently used digraphs

Arranged for Them.

and trigraphs.
As is common with many
military inventions, the Night
Writing system soon found a
use in civil society. In 1821
Barbier brought Night Writing
to the Paris Institute of the

In 1839 B
BrailleI
ill published
bli h dBlind, where it was temporarily

details of a method he had

adopted as a writing system.

developed for communication

A 12-year-old attendee of thewith sighted people (or, thoseInstitute found the system too

who could not read Braille).

difficult to understand and heCalled ‘Decapoint’ the system

set about devising his own,

used patterns of dots tousing the same implement withapproximate the shape of

which he had blinded himself

alphabetic characters. Louis[a stitching awl] at the age ofBraille and his friend Pierre

three. Louis Braille completed

Foucault went on to develop

his system in 1824, aged fifteen.

a machine, called theBraille’s 6-dot system was‘Raphigraphe’ (needle-writer),ingenious in the fact that it

to speed up the somewhat

allowed recognition of letters

cumbersome system. The

with a single fingertip —Raphigraphe was eventually

apprehending all the dots at

to be replaced by a typewriter.

once. These dots consisted of

In part, Decapoint and thepatterns in order to keep theRaphigraphe present asystem easy to learn. Brailledistillation, shift and cross-offered a blind person thepollenation in the construction,ability to be able to both readproduction and recognition

and write, providing enormousof characters in the Latin

benefits in comparison to otheralphabet system — and also

raised alphabet systems ofprecludes the dot-matrix faces2

the day.

Braille later extended his
system to include notation for

we see used today.

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A PATIENT WAITER IS NO LOSER

5.

the Morse code signalling

Not long after the advent ofalphabet — a code in which

Braille, early telegraphy —letters are represented by long

the long-distance transmission

and short signals of light orof written messages withoutsound — visually the equivalent

physical transport of lettersof a dash (long) and a dot— was being developed.

(short) on a thin strip of paper.

The first telegraphs came in

America’s first telegram was

the form of optical telegraphs,

sent by Morse on 6 January

including the use of smoke

1838 across 3 km of wire atsignals, beacons or reflected

Speedwell Ironworks nearlight. These ‘telegraphs’ have

Morristown, New Jersey. The

existed since ancient times.

message read: ‘A patient waiter

In 1833, in Göttingen,Germany, Carl Friedrich

is no loser’.
For its commercial debut in

Gauss and Wilhelm Weber built

America, on 24 May 1844, Morseand used the first electro-

sent the message ‘What hath God

magnetic telegraph for regularwrought’ (quoting Numbers 23:23

communication. The telegraphfrom the Bible) from the Old

connected the observatory

Supreme Court Chamber inwith the Institute for Physics

Washington DC, to the old Mt.

in Göttingen.

Clare Depot in Baltimore. ThisThe first commercial

dramatic message was chosenelectrical telegraph wasby Annie Ellsworth of Lafayette,constructed in Great Britain

Indiana – the daughter ofby Sir William Fothergill Cooke.

Patent Commissioner Henry

Cooke and Charles Wheatstone

Leavitt Ellsworth. The Morse/(a British scientist) patented

Vail telegraph was quickly

it in May 1837 as an alarm

deployed in the following two

system. The telegraph came

decades, and the overland

into operation on 9 July 1839

telegraph connected the Weston the Great Western Railway

coast to the East coast ofin Britain. It ran for 21 km

the continent by 24 Octoberfrom Paddington station to1861, bringing an end to theWest Drayton.

Pony Express.

Simultaneously an electrical

When Morse code was later

telegraph was being independ-

adapted to radio, the dots andently developed and patented

dashes were sent as shortin the United States. In 1837

and long pulses. It was later

Samuel F. B. Morse and his

found that people become moreassistant Alfred Vail developed

proficient at receiving Morse18

code when it is taught as a

THE NATIONAL GRID #7

7.

language that is heard, insteadof one read from a page. To
reflect the sound of Morsecode, practitioners began to
vocalise a dot as “dit” anda dash as “dah”.
On 12 December 1901, Guglielmo
Marconi transmitted the tele-

The most balls juggled is 10, bygraphic signal of the [Morse

Italian juggler Enrico Rastellicode] letter ‘s’ [ • • • / dit(1896–1931).

dit dit] across the Atlantic
Ocean from Poldhu in Cornwall,
England, to St. John’s,

8.

Newfoundland. The first

LED [Light-Emitting Diode]: Oleg

transatlantic wireless test

Losev was a Russian scientist

signal was the letter ‘s’and inventor. In the course of

repeated over and over .

his work as a radio technician

Telegraphy has played ahe noticed that diodes used instrong part in — and has led

radio receivers emitted lightto — the internet and email

when current was passed

technologies we know andthrough them. In 1927, Losev

use today.

published details in a Russianjournal of the first-ever lightemitting diode. Just over 4

6.

decades later the evil American‘Did I feel such a tumultuouscompany Monsanto became thesensation before, as when, allfirst organisation to mass-

alone in the still room, I heard

produce visible LEDs – using

the needles click, and as I

gallium arsenide phosphidespelled the words, I felt all

in 1968 to produce red LEDs

the magnitude of the invention

suitable for indicators. These

pronounced to be practicable

were first introduced in hand-beyond cavil or dispute.’

held calculators designed by– Charles Wheatstone

Hewlett Packard.

9.
‘ … it requires light toilluminate not the text itself,
but the space around the text. ’19

A PATIENT WAITER IS NO LOSER‘ ... it requires light tocaps printed consecutively

illuminate the text itself, notwould not be typographicallythe space around the text. ’pleasing. As you are awarethe letters ‘t’ and ‘f’ are notin alignment with the x-height10.

and needed to be redesigned
to conform to the Roman font
and to carry the dot at thesame visual level as theother letters.’– William Britton, reproducedin ‘Simply a dot’ by Dermot
McGuinne, Visible Language
31.1, 1997

Paul Nougé was a Belgian poet,
instigator and theorist of the
Surrealist movement in Belgium.

12.

Between December 1929 and‘Periods have life of theirFebruary 1930 Nougé createdown, a necessity of their own,

nineteen photographs whicha feeling of their own, a time

were finally published in 1968of their own. And that feeling,with the title ‘Subversion ofthat life, that necessity, that

the Images’. The image ‘A newtime, can express itself in an

way of juggling’ forms a part

infinite variety – that is theof this series. Juggled onreason I have always remained

a flat surface, black dots oftrue to periods.’

diminishing sizes appear like

– Gertrude Steinpunctuation marks.
13.
11.

‘All these attempts were‘One of the difficulties facing a

based on the idea of unifying

typographer was the aesthetic

graphics and photography,

effect of placing the dots overso that lettering and pictures[Times Roman] letters which

would become one whole.’

were not designed for this

– Unknown source

purpose [to produce Times
Gaelic]. For easy reading all
dots would need to be on the14.

same visual line. Secondly the‘Formally they’re made up of

dots on a number of lines ofdots; they even have this kind

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THE NATIONAL GRID #7

of dotty printed matrix thing

print- head and generally —about them. You know, the easewhen running the printer aswith which language is madea generic text device — prints

up of these points.’

one line of text at a time.

– Cerith Wyn Evans,

Most dot matrix printers havewww.necronauts.org, 2002

a single vertical line of dotmaking equipment on theirprint-heads; others have a15.

few interleaved rows in order

A dot matrix printer, or impact

to improve dot density.

matrix printer, is a type ofcomputer printer with a print-

The first dot matrix printershead that runs back and forth

were introduced pretty muchor in an up-and-down motion on

simulteaneously.

the page. It prints by impact,1.

striking an ink-soaked cloth

The LA30 was a 30-character-ribbon against the paper, muchper-second dot matrix printerlike a typewriter. However,

introduced in 1970 by Digitalunlike a typewriter or daisy

Equipment Corporation ofwheel printer, letters are drawn

Maynard, Massachusetts.

out of a dot matrix, and thus,

It printed 80 columns ofvaried fonts and arbitrary

uppercase-only 5 x 7 dot matrix

graphics can be produced.

characters across a unique-

Because the printing involves

sized paper.

mechanical pressure, these2.

printers can create carbon

The Centronics Model 101 wascopies and carbonless copies.

introduced at the 1970 National

Each dot is produced by a tiny

Computer Conference. The

metal rod, also called a ‘wire’

print-head used an innovativeor ‘pin’, which is driven forward

seven-wire solenoid impact

by the power of a tiny electro-

system. Based on thismagnet or solenoid, either

particular design Centronics

directly or through small

later made the claim to havelevers [pawls]. Facing thedeveloped the first dot matrix

ribbon and the paper is a small

impact printer.

guide plate (often made ofan artificial jewel such as
sapphire or ruby) pierced with16.

holes to serve as guides forOr, as suggested by a lover,the pins. The moving portion

these early digital letter-of the printer is called theformations — letter

21

A PATIENT WAITER IS NO LOSER

transformations — could be

19.

regarded as the technologicalIn our present arsenal of forms

catalyst, or a reconciliation,

one finds many corresponding

to the present-day digitisation

expressions — the clearestof typefaces for use in[expression of them] inall modern processing andcontemporary architecture

viewing devices.

— all based on the principleof many small units, together
shaping the form. For example:17.

the honey-comb, certain archi-‘When dot matrix printers firsttectural studies by Conrad

came out, my dad picked one

Wachsmann, the geodesic domes

up for our home computer.

of Buckminster Fuller, andWe figured out we could print

Habitat at the Montreal Expo.

a million dots (5000 dots per

No matter which computer aided

page onto 200 pages) and put

system one applies, the cell

the print-outs all over the

principle seems to me a correct

walls of his classroom, so thatstarting point, just as was thehis students could get an idea

papyrus stamp, the goose quill,of what a million was. This wasor the engraver’s tool.

a big idea at the time — toAlthough the cell form is

actually be able to visuallyimportant for the arrangement

see, or hold in your hand,of patterns, I use the expres-a million of something.’

sion ‘dots’ as an example for– Gabrielle Blairconvenience sake. If we compose

www.designmum.com

a classical letterform withthese dots, you will notice that
there is something happening.

18.

The letter cannot be dotted,‘One way representation has

cannot be screened; thatentered design is through theis incompatible with its

gradual stylisation of designs

appearance. In principle

until they become almost

nothing has changed whenabstract, and may come to be

one takes 4000 dots to theregarded as purely patterns

centimeter (cm.) instead ofwhich have lost their original

20. Apparently everything issymbolic meaning.’

in order, but the screening– Anthony Hyman,has been done. It remains a

The Computer in Design, 1973

concealed affront! It is against
the classical letterform.
– Wim Crouwel

22

THE NATIONAL GRID #7‘Type Design for the Computersideration of our alphabet is,Age’, 1969 [Reproduced intherefore, no longer merely

Visible Language, Volume 4,a theoretical exercise but

Number 1 (Winter), 1970]

an activity which, on practicalgrounds, it is today bothdesirable and opportune

20.

to pursue with vigour.’A few months ago I swapped a– Herbert Spencer

book for THIS typeface — but

The Visible Word, 1969

my interest in the typeface
preceded the exchange by
a year or so.
Having wanted the typeface

22.
In more recent times a budding

for a while [even trying to

type-designer’s first typeface

sneak it into commissioned

is quite likely to be a dot-work], naturally, I was quite

matrix. This is the case withexcited. This typeface is called

the Dutch type-designer Martin‘Dot Matrix - Text’, and it was

Majoor for example. A printed

designed by Cornel Windlin

receipt with dot matrix

in 1999.

characters brought home by his

To quote Windlin:

father one evening — showing“I set it as a challenge tothe results of his evening’s

myself to create a matrix fontchess game — fascinated Majoor

that had a grid that is a bitwith the realisation that, by

more complex than the usual

using only a few dots, you could

strict dot matrix grid. The idea

produce a letter. Not being

was to create a font that hadallowed, after asking, to havea bit more personality than thethe receipt from his father (itusual results of such

was for his personal archive),

experiments, and that would

young Martin borrowed the

be more easily readable.”receipt and traced it letterfor letter — compiling his first
digital typeface.

21.
‘New media and new techniquesof reproducing the visible

23.

word are providing new‘ You know what I love? Beautiful

opportunities for alphabetic

type. Gorgeous books,

communication as well as

letterpress, ink and the swish

imposing changes in the designof the pen. The flow of thoughtof signs we employ. The recon-communicated through the way

23

A PATIENT WAITER IS NO LOSER

words are placed on a page,a stain,and the artistry and design

the button,

intent hidden behind a

the wheel,

functional form.

a coin,You know what I work with?

the doughnut’s hole,

Yep, that’s right. Grids andremnants of a push-pin,

dots. LCD displays and CRT

pupil of an eye,monitors. ’a row of boulders,– Unknown source

a ball,a drop of blood,a particle,

24.

a pimple,Dot dasha pellet,dot dasha frightened caterpillar ordot dashshielded armadillo,

dot dashetc.

dot dashdot dash, dip flash
dip flash26.

dip flash‘What a spectacle, on somedip flashclear, dark nightfall, from thedip flashedge of Hamstead Hill, when in

dip flash, don’t crasha moment, in the twinkling of

don’t crash

an eye, the design of the

don’t crashmonstrous city flashes into

don’t crashvision – a glittering hieroglyph

don’t crashmany square miles in extent;

don’t crash.

and when, to borrow and debase– Wire,an image, all the evening‘Dot Dash’, from On Returning,

streetlamps burst together

1979

into song!’– Robert Louis Stevenson,‘A Plea for Gaslamps’, in25.

Virginibus Puerisque, c. 1881

These letters might have also
been produced by fire, or bystones placed in an intelligible27.

way on the ground: ‘S.O.S.’ !

‘Distances between points,
relative distances represent

Either a planet,a minimal fact which does nota sun or a star,carry meaning within itself.

24

THE NATIONAL GRID #7

It is unpretentious material,29.

but one may do a lot with it as

Presided-over by them. Those

we have seen. The meaningful

dirty dots. Frenetic electri-

portrait is built of the mostcity from behind with lightmeaningless of elements. [...]

projecting your own [standard]

I use the least associative

message. In this place it says:

and least meaningful elements‘WEALTH TIES QUAKE VICTIMS TO

I know of — the space between

CHCH’; with no exclamation, it

dots. Generally visual images

just loops.

can be conjured by either
densely grouping or thinningout of dots. The dots themselves

So.
What does it say on yourstreet?

do not refer to an outside
reality. As a designer I am
fascinated by the similarity

30.

of some of the dots with a‘Digital face: shadows thatparticular thing, thus gener-

flicker in halves of 0.02

ating a specific meaning.’

seconds’– Peter Struycken– Max Bruinsma,‘The Reader’s Terms’, 1998

28.
On Staten Island at the Hudson-

31.

Fulton pageant in New YorkWhen thinking about these dot[1909] a thousand lightbulbs

characters, certain economies

spelled out WELCOME in 20-foot-of form — and the reproduction

high letters. The Hudson-Fultonof that form — are visible.

Celebration, as well as being a

Compared to the varied

representation of the discovery‘skeleton’ structures normallyof America and its industrial

required for alphabetic

development, gave the publiccharacters — those mosta spectacular taste of whatfamiliar to us in daily writing

an electrified landscape might

and reading — a shift and an

be like.

alternative in the construction– Extracted from chapters 6of dot characters is apparent.

and 7, David E. Nye, American

This shifting suggests

Technological Sublime, 1994,

substitute opportunities for

MIT Press

the making and viewing ofthese characters and therefore slightly adjusts the25

A PATIENT WAITER IS NO LOSER

transmission and reception

and writing technology in ourof their messages.

daily lives.

Concerning typefaces: A dot

Generally, these are thecharacter’s assembly usuallycharacters that became arelies on the duplication of

conveyance of information ora single form within a grid

instructions in daily society:structure — a structure that

Destinations, services,

is either created or prescribed .

warnings, encouragements,

This assembly, when compared

temptations, time andto skeleton characters — andtemperature, economic

the embellishments that theyweaponry... implying themselves

are subjected to when formed

forthright, dot characters

into typefaces [a consequence

operate without theory — theirof reference, expression,presence is accepted as anaesthetics, decoration,

empirical fact.

function, intention and

And yet, over the generations

exclusivity] — means the formal

since their introduction into

connotations intrinsic to dot

objects and systems, the dot

characters are greatly

characters are being refinedminimised. The dots simply

to the point of invisibility toconcatenate to uniformthe human eye. To those objects

characters.

that already exist and continue

Further, as carriers andto show messages up to thetransmitters of information,

present day, like containers

dot characters might wander

turning into repositories,

closer in meaning and intention

a sensation of ambiguous

to something like an ideogram —immateriality becomes bestowed

symbolising the idea of a thing

to their characters. Glowing

without indicating the sounds

even into the daylight, theirused to say it. This is because

uncomplicated, functional,

the production and reception ofultra-binary-ness — which goes

dot characters are bound up in

rudimentarily unnoticed — must

relatively recent technologies ;affect reading. Reading words

they carry a tactility,

constructed of dots is different

tangibility and a certain sensefrom reading words that areof implied abstraction that isconstructed of lines.

as familiar as it is ubiquitous.
This familiarity mimics — and,in a strange way, performs —quickly changing ideas andrelationships towards reading

26

THE NATIONAL GRID #7

ENDNOTES:

Frenken, Jo

1. A Dutch invention that stores

Hogeschool voor de kunsten,static electricity between two

ArtEz

electrodes on the inside andHyman, Anthonyoutside of a jar.

Internet, the

2. Notably, Haüy’s raised letter

Kassenaar, Sandra

method and Johann Wilhelm

Lengerer, Achim

Klein’s Sting writing system.

Lüthi, Louis
Majoor, Martin
Marmatakis, Vasilis‘A patient waiter is no loser.’

Moholy-Nagy, Lazlois a growing collection ofMorse, Samuel F. B.

notes and observations that

Nougé, Paulwas first carried out, in an

Nye, David E.

audio presentation format,

Siegel, Arthurat ‘Scriptings #8’, organised

Smith, Davidby Achim Lengerer, Amsterdam,

Spencer, Herbert

Netherlands, 25.10.2009.

Stein, Gertrude

Consequently it was re-edited

Stevenson, Robert Louisand re-presented at ‘Bold

Struycken, Peter

Italic’, organised by Michaël

The National Grid

Bussaer, Ghent, Belgium,

Typeradio.com

4.3.2010 and ‘Different Ground’,Typografie, Werkplaatscurated by Roman Gornitsky,

Typophile.com

Saint Petersburg, Russia,

Van der Velden, Daniel

11.4.2010.

van Eyck Academie, Jan
Visible Language
Wheatstone, Charles

CREDITS.

Wikipedia

References, inspirations

Willey, Karen& thank you.

Windlin, Cornel

Amsterdam, Public Library

Wire

Bennewith, MarkWyn Evans, Cerith

Braille, Louis
Brown, Ian
Bruinsma, Max
Brunner, Laurenz
Buchanan, Ruth
Bussaer, Michaël
Elliman, Paul
Fontblog

A PATIENT WAITER IS NO LOSER

Reference images from the ‘A patient waiter is
no loser’ slideshow.

79

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