Louis Braille inventor of Braille in 1824

Louis Braille was accidentally blinded in one eye at the age of three. Within two years, a disease in his other eye left him completely blind. When he was fifteen, he developed an ingenious system of reading and writing by means of raised dots. Today, in virtually every language throughout the world, Braille is the standard form of writing and reading used by visually impaired persons. THE STORY
Milestones:
1809 Louis Braille is born in Coupvray, near Paris France on January 4th
1812 Louis becomes blind, the result of an accident while playing in his fathers shop.
1819 Louis sent to Paris to live and study at the National Institute for Blind Children.
1824 Louis developed a system, employing a 6-dot cell and based upon normal spelling
1827 Louis published the first book printed using braille to describe and teach his system
1828 Louis becomes a full time teacher at the school where he was once a student
1840 Louis and his friend Pierre Foucault developed a machine to speed up the printing process
1852 When Louis died at age 43, not one newspaper in all of Paris wrote of his death.
1868 Braille, his 6-dot method is accepted as a world wide standard
1952 On the 100th anniversary of his death, the French government honors Braille's accomplishment
CAPS: Braille, Louis Braille, Valentin Hauy, Charles Barbier, Night Writing, William Bell Wait, Simon-René Braille, Pierre Foucault, Dr. Thomas Armitage, Royal Institute for Blind Youth, ARYs: braille, writing, communications, SIPS, history, biography, inventor, inventor of, history of, who invented, invention of, fascinating facts.
STORY:
Less than 200 years ago, it was said that the blind would never be able to read. People thought that it was only eyesight that could help humans see and read words. A young French boy Louis Braille, who was blind, was determined to find the key to access new methods for himself and all other blind persons of the world.

Louis Braille was born on 4th January, 1809, at Coupvray, near Paris, France..His father, Simon-René Braille, was a harness and saddle maker. At the age of three, Braille injured his left eye with a stitching awl from his father's workshop. This destroyed his left eye, and sympathetic ophthalmia led to loss of vision in his right eye. Braille was completely blind by the age of four. Despite his disability, Braille continued to attend school, with the support of his parents, until he was required to read and write.

Louis Braille was unhappy in school, because his blindness prevented him from reading books. At age 10, he was sent to Paris to live and study at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, the world's first of its kind. At the school, the children were taught basic craftsman's skills and simple trades. They were also taught how to read by feeling raised letters (a system devised by the school's founder, Valentin Haüy). He thought there had to be a better, easier, and faster way for the blind to read. He was determined to invent it.

From age 12 to 15, he experimented with codes, using a knitting needle to punch holes in paper to represent letters. He shared his progress with officials at the institute but wasn't taken seriously. Braille, a bright and creative student, became a talented cellist and organist in his time at the school, playing the organ for churches all over France.

When Louis was fifteen, he developed an ingenious system of reading and writing by means of raised dots. Two years later he adapted his method to musical notation. He used a pattern of 6 raised dots to represent letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and mathematical symbols. Louis showed his Braille method to his classmates who liked it and began using it, in spite of the fact that it was banned from the institute. At age 17, Louis graduated, became assistant teacher at the institute, and secretly taught his method. Mr. Braille accepted a full-time teaching position at the Institute when he was nineteen.

Braille later extended his system to include notation for mathematics and music. The first book in Braille was published in 1827 under the title Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Songs by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them. .After some slight modification it reached its present form in 1834, and is the system which has since borne his name.

In 1839 Braille published details of a method he had developed for communication with sighted people, using patterns of dots to approximate the shape of printed symbols. Braille and his friend Pierre Foucault went on to develop a machine to speed up the somewhat cumbersome system.

He had always been plagued by ill health, and he died in Paris of tuberculosis in 1852 at the age of 43; Not one newspaper in all of Paris wrote of his death. Although he was admired and respected by his pupils, his Braille system was never taught at the Institute during his lifetime.

Six months later, the institute officially adopted his 6-dot method. By 1868,his raised 6-dot system became a world wide standard, helping the blind read books, clocks, wristwatches, thermometers, sheet music and even elevator buttons.

In 1952, on the 100th anniversary of his death, newspapers everywhere printed his story. His portrait appeared on postage stamps, and his home is now a museum. In his honor, the French government moved his remains to the Pantheon in Paris. There Louis Braille was laid to rest with other great French heroes.

He was a kind, compassionate teacher and an accomplished musician. He gave his life in selfless service to his pupils, to his friends, and to the perfection of his raised dot method. Today, Braille has been adapted to almost every major national language and is the primary system of written communication for visually impaired persons around the world. The name of Braille will always remain associated with one of the greatest and most beneficent devices ever invented.