The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-01-24

ical slate or chart, in 1907, but it died
when he did. a maker Of nautical in
struments in Liverpool brought out
something similar in London about the
same time, but it apparently received no
encouragement, for nothing, except the
mere mention Of it as an ingenious
fancy" was ever heard of it again.
Eauy was really the Gutenberg of the
art of printing raised characters. His
idea was the line idea-the printing
of script in raised lines. He knew moth
ing of points - 1t was not until 1919
that this plan was thought of. Captain
Charles Barber, a French artillery Off
Ger, saw how difficult it was for even
the most sensitive fingered blind man to
distinguish the difference between Ro-
man letters, many Of whose outlines are
very much alike. The thought came to
Captain Barber in a dream, it is said,
that, instead of the Roman letters, he
would substitute raised points or dots,
and these should be so placed as to rep
resent the SO principal sounds of the
French language. He made them by in
denting a thick sheet of paper with
blunt stylus OF peg. This was the foun-
dation Of the point system. 1t was en-
tirely phonetic.
The Brail1e Method.
In 1885 Louis Braille of Paris, who
had been blind from childhood, i'm
proved on Barbier's idea He invented
the Braille slate, which is in use to this
day. Its bed is of sheet brass, which is
marked horizontally with shallow
grooves, about one-tenth of an inch
apart This is fitted into a wooden
frame. Across the bed is stretched
narrow strip of brass, divided into rec
tangular cells. There is a peg at each
end which fits into holds in the frame,
and the strip can be moved up and down
the slate at pleasure. It is the guide for
the pupils fingers. When he wishes to
write, he takes short, blunt piece of
wire, which is fitted into a handle Git
looks like a shoemaker awl), and pricks
the letter into the paper, without break
ing it, through the rectangular cells,
working from right to left. When the
paper is taken out and turned over, the
points or dots made by the blunt stylus
are read from left TO right. just as ordi
nary print is read.
Braille's writing frame was as lmpor-
tant an addition to the making of en-
DOSSGO C4c1dCISIS as lA0 SLSLSOlN ping
foundry was to the art Of printing from
types. 1t did not attract as much atten-
ton at the time of its first appearance
as it did in later years.
The systematic education of the blind
began in the United States about 1880.
The first institution was opened in New
York in 1882 and the next in Philadel-
phia in 1888. In the latter the late James
G. Blaine was at one time a teacher
Boston followed Philadelphia, and the
superintendent went to Europe to study
the methods of institutions Of a like
character there
The superintendent of the Boston
school apparently knew nothing of the
point system. If he did, he did not be-
lieye in it, for his pupils studied raised
lines, instead of the punched up points
1t was an angular sort Of Roman char.
acter and became known as the Boston
letter The Philadelphia institution had
| line letter of its own. New York adopt
ed the Boston idea, and all its literature
was slowly and laboriously turned out
according to that method from 1910 an
til 1868.
It was just after the battle of Gettys.
burg, and at time when the country
was in a state of feverish anxiety, that
William B. Wait became superintend.
ent of the New York Institution For the
Blind. Public attention was occupied
with the great struggle between the
north and south, and the new superin
tendent did not find much to strengthen
his hands in a new work. He had beef
educated for the legal profession, but
was forced to abandon it at the very out.