The Portland daily press., 1894-07-18

misunderstanding Account of Nov
city In the Printing Line-Funds to Garry
on the Work.
The only Bible published in the point
alphabet to be used by the blind has been
printed in Louisville. 1t consists of 1889
pages, is in II volumes and was turned
out by the printing house for the blind,
which is an annex of the Kentucky Insti-
tute For the Blind. The II employees of
the printing house were engaged on the
work for about 10 months.
Of course this is not the only Bible that
can be read by the blind. Those thus
afflicted have been reading Bible for the
past 40 years, but it was published in
what is known as the line alphabet. The
sne alphabet and the New York point al
phabet differ from each other very greatly.
The former is made up of the Roman let
tiers enlarged and raised on the leaves of
the book, SO that the blind reader may
know them by following their outline with
his fingers. Every school child can read
books printed in that way But with the
New York point alphabet it is different
Each letter is represented by different
number of raised dots arranged in fixed
POololOli. ooidilGO w oCOOiAst tA1OoiA
cd is the easier to learn and is always
taught before the line method. 1t may
seem queer that the Bible published 40
years ago did not come out in the point
language, but that was because only the
line alphabet was known then.
That any sort of a Bible for the blind
came out at all is due to a bequest of $40,
900 made to the American Bible society by
wealthy woman of New York city. 1t
was made permanent fund for printing
Bibles for the blind. The first work was
published in Boston, where the only pub
fishing house for the blind in America
was situated. All the printing of Bibles
for the blind was done at Boston up to
1883. when the second American printing
house for the blind was established at
Louisville.
This was done by a special act of con-
gress. The bill authorizing the act was
first introduced by Mr.. Henry Watterson
in 1876 and was finally passed through
both houses in 1879 through the efforts
of Mr.. Albert S. Willis, who was then the
representative from this district. One of
the provisions of the law is that the ma
tional treasury pay an annual subsidy of
| $4,000 toward maintaining the publish
| ing house here. The state of Kentucky
was not to be outdone, SO in 1883 it
bought the present sight of the publishing
house adjoining the Kentucky Institute
| For the Blind, on the west, and had erect
ed three story brick building. Since then
| this western branch of the publishing
| house has been turning out textbooks
| and religious literature, both in the line
and point alphabets, in large amounts.
| During all this time the Bible fund had
| been growing, so it was concluded to
have a new Bible, done in the point alpha
bet, published. The western branch of
| the American Publishing House For the
| Blind was the only house that could do
| the work, so orders were sent to Superin-
| tendent Hunboon to begin on the volumes
| at once. The four girls who do the type
| setting began their part of the work April
| 2S, 1898. AS soon as one page was set up
| it was carried into the molding room and
| an impression taken. The page was then
ready to be cast. 1t was carried down
| stairs and placed in the stereotyping ma
| chimes A thin coat of tin foil was then laid
over the mold and light pouring of
metal made SO as to melt the tin, foil into
the mold. Another pouring was then
made to fill in the blank spaces between
! lines and reinforce the back. A piece of
| IOolSE I'LL UllG S1Zt VI Uu6 page
| was then laid over the back of the thin
| metal impression and another light pour
| ing made to make the two adhere. When
| this had cooled off, the workman had q
| true copy of the page on a very light fexi-
bile plate of stereotype All the rest Of the
| 1889 pages were treated in the same way,
and on Jan. 80, 1894, the day the last page
was set up, the last page was also COM
| pleted
The work of printing was then begun.
The leaves are necessarily very heavy, and
Of course can be printed on only one SIDE
Four sheets or pages were printed at a
time. When the pages were ready for bind
ing, six Of them were grouped together and
| stitched with wi ire. The inside edge of
each sexto is bound by cloth lined card
board guard. This is made necessary by
the thickness of the leaves and the con-
slant handling by the reader. When these
sextOs are bound together, they make a
| volume varying in thickness of from three
to four inches The New Testament is in
| cluded in three volumes, the Old in eight.
| All of them are bound uniformly in Rus
sian calf. On the back of each volume are
the words Holy Bible in the point alpha
bet and alss in ordinary print. The books
| of the Bible included within the volume
are also indicated in the same way.
| The whole work of printing the first
set of this Bible cost just So, 000 The cost
of binding is actually 81 volume. It
may seem that for the blind to have this
Bible in their homes is an expensive lux
ury. But this is not the case. Provision
was made that the sacred library might 60
into every home at really very small out
lay of money. The interest on the bequest
nearly half century ago has grown SO
that that books can be sold to the blind at
really less than the cost of the binding
The whole set is sold at 81, and the New
Testament alone can be secured for SIS less
These Bibles are being sent out to all the
schools for the blind in the country
| through the American Bible association.
1t is expected that they will eventually take
the place of the line Bibles not only in the
schools, but in every household where
there are any educated blind who may care
to read the Scriptures.
Among the other work in the New York
point alphabet turned out exclusively by
the publishing house here in Louisville are
the international Sunday school lesson