This is a classic tale of necessity being the mother of invention. A disability created in him the need invent a tool that became a boon to many. Hence it is no wonder that the device was named after him. Yes, it is the Braille system of reading.
Louis Braille’s father Simon-Rene Braille made harnesses, saddles and other horse tack in Coupvray near Paris, France. When Louis was three years old he was playing in his father’s workshop with a sharp tool and hurt his eye. Before he turned five, the boy had lost sight in both the eyes because of the mishap. When he was 10, he got a scholarship to the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris. The children in that school were taugh to read by using a system devised by the school's founder, Valentin Haüy. It used a technique of embossing heavy paper with the raised imprints of Latin letters.
Braille learned of a communication system devised by Captain Charles Barbier of the French Army called night writing. Louis cut down Barbier’s 12 dots to six and fine-tuned the system a great deal.
Simple and efficient
The salient feature of Braille’s reading system was its simplicity and the fact that the visually challenged could also write using the same. Braille used six raised dots to represent the standard alphabet. This helps the visually impaired to read with the tips of their fingers. The books have double-sided pages which saves a lot of space. Now almost all countries use braille. A recent variation is the braille computer terminal.
A highly proficient student, Braille was made a professor when he was 24 and he taught history, geometry and algebra. He brought out many written books about braille including Method of Writing Words, Music and Plain Songs. Yes, Braille had an ear for music and he became an accomplished cellist and organist. He played the organ for churches all over France.
King Louis Philip praised him publicly after a demonstration at the Paris Exposition of Industry in 1834. The Britannica lists Braille among the 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time. On his bicentennial in 2009, besides the US, Italy and Belgium, India too brought out a coin after him, the two-rupee coin to be precise.
It was a pity that the system did not get enough recognition during his lifetime. But posterity more than made up for it by looking on it as a revolutionary invention. Braille died of suspected tuberculosis at the age of 43. Last Wednesday, January 4, marked his 216th birth anniversary.
