The Royal Institute for Blind Youth, 18
Perfecting the Braille System
The night-writing system Louis decided to work on was based on a 12-dot system. Each combination of dots and dashes stood for a syllable. Louis thought these aspects made it unnecessarily hard to learn. First of all, he threw out the dashes, because they were more difficult for a blind person to correctly make. He then invented a 6-dot cell system where each combination stood for a character in the regular language. Over his summer vacation in Coupvray, he meticulously designed unique combinations for each of the characters. Louis soon found another problem with using night-writing. Another flaw with the night writing system was that it did not include any punctuation, which he quickly solved by creating combinations for commas, periods, and other grammatical punctuation.
Finally satisfied with his new system, Louis presented it to the director of the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, Dr. Pignier. Louis demonstrated how the system was used by writing on his slate using his dot system while Dr. Pignier read to him. The director was amazed to hear 15-year-old Louis Braille read the same piece back to him perfectly, word for word! Complementing Louis on his astonishing ingenuity, the Dr. Pignier encouraged him to present it to his fellow students. When he did, the other blind boys at the school immediately began to use it, especially for taking notes in class.
Finally satisfied with his new system, Louis presented it to the director of the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, Dr. Pignier. Louis demonstrated how the system was used by writing on his slate using his dot system while Dr. Pignier read to him. The director was amazed to hear 15-year-old Louis Braille read the same piece back to him perfectly, word for word! Complementing Louis on his astonishing ingenuity, the Dr. Pignier encouraged him to present it to his fellow students. When he did, the other blind boys at the school immediately began to use it, especially for taking notes in class.
