Birmingham age-herald., 1894-07-27
FOR BLIND READERS.
BIBLES AND LESSON LEAVES PRINTED
 IN THE POINT ALPHABET.

A Great Work For the Benefit of the Un-
 fortunate-InterestingA Account of a Nov city In the Printing Line-Funds to Carry
 on the Work.
 g- Tho only Bible published in the point alphabet to be used by the blind has been printed in Louisville. It consists of 1, S39 pages, is in Il 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 line alphabet and the New York point al- phabet differ from each other very greatly. The former is made up of the Roman let ters 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 position. Strange to say, this second meth od is the easier to learn and is always taught before tho line method. It may seem queer that the Bible published 40 years ago did not como out in the point language but that was because only the line alphabet was known then
 That any sort of Bible for the blind came out at all is due to a bequest of $40, GOO made to the American Bible society by a wealthy woman of New York city. It was made permanent fund for printing Bibles for the blind. Tho 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 ut Boston up to 1883, when the second American printing house for the blind was established at Louisville.
 This was done by special act of con- gress. The bill authorizing the act was first introduced by MT. Henry Watterson in 1876 and was finally passed through both houses in 1879 through the efforts of MT. Albert s. Willis, who was then tho representative from this district. One of the provisions of the law is that the na- tional treasury pay an annual subsidy of $10, 900 toward maintaining the publish ing house here. The state of Kentucky was not to be outdono, so in 1888 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 1t was concluded to have 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 Huntoon to begin on tho volumes at once The four girls who do the type setting began their part of tho work April 28, 1893. As soon as one page was set up it was carried into the holding room and an impression taken. The page was then ready to be cast. It was carried down % stairs and placed in the stereotyping ma chine 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 tho blank spaces between lines and re-enforce tho back. A piece of ordinary roofcr's tin the size of the page
 
 metal impression and another light pour ing made to make the two adhere. When this had cooled off, the workman had 8 true copy of the page on a very light 1exi- bile plate of stereotype. All the rest of the 1889 pages were treated in the same way, and on Jan 23 1894, the day the last page was set up, the last page was also con- plotted.
 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 tho pages were ready for bind ing, six of them were grouped together and stitched with wire. The inside edge of each scxto is bound by cloth lined card board guard. This is made necessary by the thickness of the leaves and the con- stant handling by the reader. When these scxtos are bound together, they make a volume varying in thickness of from three to four inches Tho 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 also in ordinary print. The books of tho Bible included within the volume are also indicated in the same way
 Tho whole work of printing the first set of this Bible cost just $3, 900. The cost of binding is actually $1 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 go 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 $7, and the New Testament alone can be secured for $5 less. These Bibles are being sent out to all the f... l. s., l.1, ,f..xr