Louis Braille

Louis Braille [ bʁaj ] ( born January 4, 1809 in Coupvray, Ile -de -France, † January 6, 1852 in Paris) is the inventor of the Braille system for the blind him, Braille or Braille shortly.

Life and work

Childhood and youth

At the age of three years, Braille injured with an awl on the eye. The injured eye inflamed and infected the second, hitherto intact eye. This led to total blindness of the little Louis. Since the inquisitive boy did not want to accept it, to experience literature only by reading, he thought about a font for the blind.

Louis Braille invented his Braille not alone. He also built on the ideas of others. In the School for the Blind by Valentin Haiiy he learned a system know that Haiiy had met at a concert followed by a talk with the blind composer, pianist and music teacher Maria Theresia Paradis during her three-year tour of Europe with Paris stay. For this a type case had been developed, with which they set their correspondence and their grades, teaching blind and sighted children together and so could also provide for their own livelihood. Haiiy it was so fascinated that he developed this equipment for themselves, with which movable type and paper notes were in shape, which thus were palpable.

Louis Braille was made ​​as a student Haüys attention to this system and experimented in the shoemaker's shop of his father with making leather pieces triangles, squares and circles, which should simplify the writing additionally. But the result did not satisfy him. As a 11 -year-old learned Braille by an artillery captain named Charles Barbier invented for military purposes " night writing" know, which was a complicated system of points and syllables. Braille simplified this script by replacing the letters and syllables by the number of points of twelve was reduced to six per character. 1825 The 16 - year-old Louis Braille had completed his Braille.

Braille

Getting Started: literature in Braille

Although the characters were easy to learn and easy to write, they could not long prevail. At 27, Louis Braille has transferred a selection from the works of the blind English poet John Milton and tries to prove it with a public lecture that he can read and write quickly. But his listeners believed that he had learned the lyrics by heart.

Louis Braille wrote to the French Minister of the Interior and received the uninformative answer: "This work seems to me excellent, and worthy Mr. Braille to be encouraged. " An official recognition did not materialize. In addition to that, the new director of the School for the Blind forbade braille. He was of the opinion that the blind would be isolated by a font that seeing is unknown. In addition, the director had invented a Handleitgerät, with the alphabetic script could be written. Some students but practiced the braille on the sly.

Development of a notation for the blind

1828 Louis Braille invented, who played organ, one is also based on the six-point notation. She sat down by quickly and to date is the perfected way for the blind to read music notes and write. Meanwhile, this font is standardized internationally.

Development of Raphigrafie

1839 Louis Braille published his Raphigrafie to simulate the Latin letters by dots, where he had worked for a long time. It was intended that font for blind students who wanted to write members or friends who could not read the Braille. The uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers of the alphabet Raphigrafie - up to ten points high and varies widely. With the onset of the development of the mechanical typewriter font this was forgotten.

International Recognition of Braille and death

It was not until 1850 that the braille was officially introduced for teaching in French schools for the blind. In Germany, the official launch took place in 1879. The international triumph of his invention did not live to Braille. He died in 1852 in Paris of tuberculosis. 100 years after his death Braille's body was exhumed and transferred to the Panthéon in Paris. His hands, which were so central to his invention, but remained in his grave at his home.

Commemorative

To celebrate the 200th birthday of Louis Braille Belgium was on 25 September 2009 issued a two - euro commemorative coin. Italians also gave on 15 October 2009 from a 2- euro commemorative coin to mark the occasion.