The Royal Institute for the Blind

Louis was ten years old when he first stepped into the Royal Institute for the Blind, in Paris.  His father had escorted him by carriage to the school.  Simon-Rene Braille, Louis' father, was terribly disappointed with the accommodations.  The dormitory, which had previously been a prison, was dark, damp, and sickly-smelling.  Over 60 students shared one restroom, and there was little living space.  The meals were very small, and usually consisted only of dirty river water and a little bread.  Meat was a rare treat at the poor school.  Most of the boys had hacking coughs, and other illnesses spread quickly.  Rules were rigid and the teachers were strict.  Harsh punishments came to those who broke the rules.

Even with these difficult circumstances, Louis was happy to be in a place where he could learn.  He was taught about music, and learned how to play the piano, organ, and cello.  The school sold woven and knitted goods made by the students to earn money, and Louis was found to be adept at making ladies' slippers.

Before Louis came to the school, he dreamed of hundreds of embossed books lining the shelves of the school library.  But when he came to the school, he was sorely upset to discover that the school owned only three volumes in large embossed letters (Hauy's system).  He tried his best to read them, but found the process slow and frustrating, because the letters were hard to read, and were so large that by the time he reached the end of a sentence, he would have forgotten the beginning.

One day, a man came to the school with a new method for reading and writing.  His name was Charles Barbier, and he introduced night writing, a system that had been used in the military for communicating silently in the dark.  Night writing consisted of embossed dots and dashes.  Each combination of dots and dashes represented a syllable.  Louis was elated to find that the system worked much better than the Hauy system taught at the school.  Still, he saw places where improvement could be made.  He went to Barbier, but the man brushed off Louis' suggestions.  Louis decided that if no one else would listen to him, he would just have to create a new system by himself.