A METHOD OF TEACHING THE BLIND, BY MEANS OF TANGIBLE CHARACTERS, TO WRITE OR READ LANGUAGES, ARITHMETIC, MUSIC, &c., WHICH INVENTION I CALL A PANAGRAM
Year: 1813

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
CASSON, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, Professor of
Music, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty did, by Letters Patent under the Great
Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Ninth day of August last, give and
grant unto me, the said John Casson, His especial licence that I, the said
John Casson, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A METHOD OF TEACHING THE BLIND,
BY MEANS OF TANGIBLE CHARACTERS, TO WRITE OR READ LANGUAGES, ARITHMETIC,
MUSIC, &c., WHICH INVENTION I CALL A PANAGRAM;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Casson, under
my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be used, to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same may more
fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Casson, do hereby declare that the nature and intent of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner of its operation, is particularly described and ascertained
as follows (that is to say):-
The Panagram is designed for the instruction and use of the blind, to enable
them to write or read by means of tangible characters placed according to the

page_text: rules given in a book of instruction with the Panagram. This Invention is
capable of expressing the various characters made use of in writing the
languages, arithmetic, and music, or any other art or science to which it may
be adapted. This is done; not by representing the characters as they appear
on paper, but by means of cubes or polygons particularly marked or indented,
or otherwise, on the different sides of the squares, aided by small square pins
with a mark, indent, or bend at the top, or otherwise. They may be made of
wood, metal, ivory, bone, horne, glass, composition, or pottery, or any other con-
venient materials, in sets of different sizes, each cube from one eighth of an
inch to one half and inch square, or any size required. The cubes are placed
in regular lines in a book or frame filled with square holes, or sockets fitted to
receive them, leaving the side to be felt or read upwards to the touch of the
finger; they may be read from left to right as in a book, from right to left, or
from the top to the bottom, or otherwise; each socket is bordered with a num-
ber of very small square holes to receive the pins, and one hole is in the centre
of the cross pieces of the frame for a guide to shew, by placing a pin in it,
where the writer or reader begins or leaves off. The frame or book of the
Panagram is made of wood or metal, or wood and metal, or any other con-
venient material, and may be of different dimensions, according to the number
of cubes to be contained in it, from one hundred to a thousand or any number
required. A frame of the size of two feet long, by one foot and a half broad,
will contain a thousand or more of these cubes all in their proper sockets.
This Invention is unique in the great simplicity of its construction, and in not
being liable to go out of repair. All the cubes are exactly alike, and all the
pins are of the same size and figure; therefore, if half the number were lost
the remainder would still be perfect. Any single cube with its pins can repre-
sent all the characters requisite for writing, or for figures, by only turning to
the touch the side allotted to the letter or figure wanted, and then proceeding
to the next cube for another letter, or a repetition of the same, so that the
cubes need not to be taken out of their sockets except to turn them, nor is
any extra number of cubes or characters required when the composition is to
be altered or a new piece written; but the pins, when not wanted, must
always be put aside into a small box or cavity which is in the side of the
frame, or they would be in the way; also the lines for cutting off the sums in
arithmetic must be moved off when done with. The method and manner of
using and turning the cubes or polygons is described as follows (that is to say):
Each cube, when turned, will present six sides or surfaces to the touch, every
side or surface so marked or indented that it may easily be distinguished from
the others. Each of these six sides may be turned four different ways, keeping

page_text: the same surface upwards, videlicet:-1st, the open end of the indents to the
right hand; 2nd, towards the student; 3rd, to the left hand; and 4th, from
the student. Thus every cube has twenty-four distinct positions or meanings,
and, with the assistance of the square pins (which also turn four ways, and
for which there are six or more small holes to each cube), will answer every
purpose necessary for writing the languages, figures, &c., &c., &c.; see the
annexed Drawing, in which the alphabet is set, and a small section of the
Panagram, by which may be observed every turn of the cube in succession, and
which shews that one cube is capable of representing the whole alphabet.
The cubes are divided by long narrow lines of wood, metal, or otherwise,
from the top to the bottom of the frame, separating them into divisions of two,
three, or more together, which is the manner of classing them for music.
In arithmetic these lines will be very useful to divide the columns of figures.
In letters they are of no consequence.
The detail of the rules to be observed for the application of the said
Invention may be seen in the complete instructions given with the Panagram,
but is unnecessary here, as I ground my claim to the Patent on the originality
of the Invention itself, the particular marks or indents on the cube, and the
method of turning it.
In witness, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, at Liverpool aforesaid,
the Fourth day of October, One thousand eight hundred and thirteen.