The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1922-05-16
BRAILLE TYPE
MOST POPULAR
Work OF Schools for the Blind Is
Simplified by Adoption of
Uniform System.
DOTS TAKE PLACE OF LINES
Enables Blind to Receive Training
Through Which They May Become
seif-Supportlng-Many Books
Published.

embossed type has now been adopted
6y all schools for the blind in this
country, and since 1919 no new book
has been embossed In any other type
Dozens of embossed types for reading
by the finger have been designed
from time to time; the first practical
one was devised in France 1875 years
ago by Valentin Hauy. Three sys-
TENS retained popularity for many
years, but as this made 1t necessary
for the blind to learn three different
types, the leading educators of the
country decided to make one system
universal, and unanimously decided
on the Braille.
Much ingenuity, effort and money
have been expended in devising these
systems to enable the blind to read
and receive training through which
they may become self-supporting. All
may be divided into two groups
those composed of lines and those
composed Of points In general the
line types, which came first, were imi-
tations Of characters that had sur,
vived as best adapted to reading by
the eye.
The point types, the characters Of
which are merely different arrange
ments and numbers of similar points
or dots, represent arbitrary systems
Justified both as being generally more
tangible than the lines, and as being
writable as well as readable by the
blind themselves. The point systems
have gradually driven out the line
types, with the exception of the Moon
type, which is SO large and coarse
that anybody having the least pa
thence can learn to read with the
finger.
Agreed on Midway Type.
The type adopted is called the Re-
yised Braille, ~, as the British
have been using this type in two
forms, one in full spelling and other
highly contracted with many arbi-
trary authorizations. AS textbooks
and literature should be models Of
good usage, the leading educators of
the blind in this country agreed on
a type between the two. This Ameri-
can grade is a simplified type and can
be read by anyone who knows either
type.
The music notations for the blind
are now the same everywhere, as are
the mathematical and the chemical
notations wherever English is used. In
this way duplication of scores and
tables may be avoided through inter-
national exchange. Already 2O8 diff
ferent books have been published in
this uniform type,
The printing of embossed books for
the blind began with the founding Of
the first school in this country in 1880.
Books were made as funds were avail
able until 1879, when congress granted
the American Printing House for the
Blind at Louisville an annual subsidy
of $4,000 This house at once be-
came the greatest producer Of it's
kind in the world, and continued to be
such into the present century, when
the number of blind pupils in the
schools drawing upon this source for
books had more than doubled.
The cost of production and the in
crease in demand eventually made the
output Of this house insufficient, and
| in the emergency several of the
schools put up emergency printing
presses and assisted one another. One
| endowed enterprise set about manu-
| featuring writing appliances and
| table games for the blind and selling
| them at less than cost. In 1919, how
ever, congress increased its. grant to
| the American Printing House from
| $4,000 to $4,000, which made pos
sible the enlargement and improve
ment of the plant and the increase in
the number of books to each school.
Spreading knowledge.
In a report on the work to educate
the blind and distribute books among
them, Edgar E. Allen, director of the
| Perkins institute and Massachusetts
School for the Blind, writes:
"Most schools are glad to circulate
! their embossed books beyond their
own pupils and do so as far as they
can. But the reading hunger Of the
blind outside of institutions is chiefly
satisfied by circulating libraries 10
Gated here and there throughout the
| country. Libraries and schools inter
ested have collected much literature
and some authors have been induced
to meet the cost of publishing book
| or two in Braille.
"By far the largest number of blind
and partly blind pupils in the United
States, as elsewhere, attend the resi-
| Dental schools commonly called insti.
tutions. There are now 45 such
Schools, with total attendance OF
about 5000 The day-schOOl move
ment started in Chicago considered
all its pupils blind, and taught them
as such for years until in few cities
certain of the semi-blind were segre-
gated and taught as semi-sighted pu-
| pills, chiefly through the eye instead