Main Menu Back to Braille Adaptive Equipment Eye Disorders Eye Exams Eye Surgery History News Research & Clinical Studies Eye Diagram Glossary   Our Other Sites Bookstore Directory Other Resources Statistics Vision Health Resources Search All Sites Site Map Resource Links Third Party Links Louis Braille, The Inventor of Braille A blind eleven-year-old boy took a secret code devised for the military and saw in it the basis for written communication for blind individuals. Louis Braille, newly enrolled at the National Institute of the Blind in Paris, spent nine years developing and refining the system of raised dots that has come to be known by his name. The original military code was called night writing and was used by solders to communicate after dark. It was based on a twelve-dot cell two dots wide by six dots high. Each dot or combination of dots within the cell stood for a letter or a phonetic sound. The problem with the military code was that the human fingertip could not feel all the dots with one touch. Louis Braille created a reading method based on a cell of six dots. This crucial improvement meant that a fingertip could encompass the entire cell unit with one impression and move rapidly from one cell to the next. Braille himself was blind from the age of three. He was born in the village of Coupvary near Paris on January 4, 1809. One day he was playing with a sharp instrument belonging to his father, a harness maker. The child accidently prodded one eye with the tool and developed an eye infection causing total blindness. Until 1819, Braille attended the local village school, where his superior mental abilities put him at the head of his class. He received a scholarship to the National Institute of the Blind, where he was the youngest student. Soon afterward, he began the development of the embossed code. In 1829 he published the code in Procede pour Ecrire les Paroles, la Musique et la Plain-Chant au Moyen de Points, which also contained a braille music code based on the same six-dot cell. Even after he had developed his system for reading and writing, Braille stayed on at the institute as an instructor. Eventually an incessant cough made it impossible for him to lecture and he had to return to Coupvray. He died there at the age of forty-three, and was buried in the family plot in the village cemetery. In 1952, on the centennial of his death, his body was ceremoniously transferred to the Pantheon in Paris. A monument to Louis Braille stands in the main square of Coupvary. All brands and product names are trademarked or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright of syndicated content belongs to it’s respective author or news organization. Original content (including "look and feel") Copyright © 2001-2006  •  Vision Loss and Blindness Resources  •  All rights reserved.