The Washington times., 1901-10-13
WRITING FOR THE BLIND.
American PeiRt System Now Used
at the Congressional Library.
Ingenious Methods Used in Printing
Volumes for the SiEhtless-History
of Raised Letters-NearIy Dozen
Different Plans Now in Use.

An investigation into the methods of
printing for the blind. as exemplified at
The ReaGIug Room for the Blind at the
Congressional Library, is well repaid in
interest The machines used in writing
the point systems, as they are called.
are operated quite easily. With the aid
of a perforated metal ruler and a hand
punch all the signs representing letters
of the alphabet and words can be read
lily made while machines operated after
the manner of typewriters. but with
very few keys, are used for greater eX-
pedition.
All the systems of blind writing are
illustrated at the reading room. al
though American point is that in
general use. The deIicacy of touch re-
quired by the sightless TO interpret the
raised characters is truly astonishing,
though. so far as can be ascertained, it
is seldom or never found lacking.
There is quite a small library Of
books printed in the raised character in
the reading room, and the collection is
being constantly enlarged. Persons
who have mastered the art Of blind
printing are the principal donators to
this library, one Of the professors Of
Georgetown College having recently
contributed large work which took
several months of his spare time l. exc
cute. These books occupy a large space
compared with ordinary volumes and
are very heavy and ponderous. The
collection at the reading room com
prises the Bible histories, biographies,
travels, and standard works of fiction.
a sketch of the history of blind print
ing may prove interesting. The first
successful efforts to introduce printing
in raised characters for the benefit of
the blind were made in 1884, by Able
Valentine Hany. at Paris. who founded
the same year rInsutution Royale dzs
Jeunes Avengles. which was the first
institution for the instruction of the
blind in the world.
The Abbe's experiments confirmed his
hopes that the blind were able to ac-
quire an acute sensitiveness OF touch
which woud render reading with their
fingers by means of raised characters
practicable. The Able Hany was thus
not only the inventor of printing for
the blind. but the founder of institu-
tons for their instruction.
The systems used by the blind at
present have been divided, by Mr.. john /
son, of the Blind School in London, into .
two classes, one in which arbitrary .
characters are used to denote letters, T
sounds, or words, and a second in .
which the ordinary Roman letters are /
used, all alike presenting a raised sur
face to the touch of the reading finger.
The first-named class embraces Lucas,
Frere's and Moons systems. lie sys-
teme raille, lie systeme Carton; the sec
ond class comprises Alston's system,
the American system, the French al
phabetical system. and modified form
Of Alston's system.
Lucas system possesses great advan-
tages for those who enjoy but an i'm
perfect sense of touch or are employed
in hard manual labor. 1t is considered
by many to be easy OF requirement and
the least difficult of all the English ar
bitrary systems. 1t has, however, the
disadvantage Of being complicated in
some of its details. while the abbTevia
ton of words and syllables and the
purely arbitrary formation of its char
acters render it troublesome for those
with sight 10 teach and difficult for the
blind to understand. The books pub
lished in this system are less bulky
than those OF some other systems, but
more so than Alstons the American,
Braille's, or Cartons. It required thir-
ty-six volumes TO contain the Scrip I
lures, while the Boston alphabetic re-
cuires but eight. Besides the Bible t
there have been probably not more than
twenty other works of smaller din4ea-
sions published in it,
Frere's system, which is occasionally
used, is based on the phonetic principle,
or combination of elementary sounds. ,
The Scriptures. In this system, required ,
fifteen volumes.
Moons system. in which there are
some small works at the reading room
for the blind may be said to be based
upon Lucas and Frere's. 1t processes
TO be an alphabetic arrangement,
though decidedly of an arbitrary char ,
acter its chief recommendation being ,
that it is the invention of a blind man.
who, by the exercise of industry and s
talent, became teacher in the Brigh-
ton School Mr.. Moon had but small
experience, scarcely extending beyond !
the school. One feature Of his system 7
was borrowed from Frere's that Of pre-
venting the constant recurrence of the
finger to the ends Of the lines on the
left side Of the page. This is effected
by printing every alternate line. in a !
converse position, so as TO admit of it's
being read backwards the first line be ;
ing read from left to right, the second
from right to left, and so on. bracket {
guiding the finger from the end of one
line to the beginning OF the next This
plan is now regarded generally as an
error, as there is said to be no more
necessity for the alternate lines TO be
printed backward for the blind than for
the seeing.
Braillc's system has been adopted
throughout France in preference TO all
other systems, and IS still popular in
this country where it is yielding to the
American point" The latter, indeed, |
may be considered modification of
The Braille, both having the advantage
of being readily written by the aid Of a |
small frame and q stylum
Alston's system consists in slight
modification of the Roman capital let
tcrs. Mr.. Alston's long experience con-
WINGED him that the simplest and most |
perfect system consists in the employ |
meBt of ordinary letters. which those
who can see can at once understand |