Louis Braille The Boy Who Invented Books for the Blind By Margaret Davidson

Louis Braille died on January 6, 1852 Louis Braille died on January 6, 1852.This monument was built in his honor in his hometown of Coupvray, France, in 1887.

This is a picture of the Braille alphabet Louis created so other blind people could read books.

Louis Braille became blind after a accident Louis Braille became blind after a accident. He stabbed himself in the eye, with an awl, a tool from his fathers work shop. The tool was used to punch holes in leather. Louis rubbed his eye and it got infected. The infection spread to the other eye and made him blind in both eyes.

Louis was taught by a kindly priest in his village and then he went to the village school, but he could not read the books. When Louis was 10, the priest found out about a school in Paris called The Royal Institute of Blind Youth. At first his father, Simon, was not sure Louis should go, because Paris was 30 miles from their village. Finally his parents said he could go to Paris and Louis was very excited about all the learning he was going to do.

Louis’ dad made him a long pointed tip cane to feel around so he did not bump into walls. Although Louis was blind, he still had chores to do. He learned how to set the table. He also learned how to get water in a bucket from the well and get back to his house with it. He used to sing and used sound to guide him, like bats do in caves. He also learned to polish leather for his father. He knew when he was finished polishing by the smooth feel of the leather.

When Louis first got to the school it was not what he expected When Louis first got to the school it was not what he expected. The school was crowded with students, the building was very loud, and the air in Paris was not as fresh and clean as town. The building was very big and there were lots of hallways and turns. Louis did not know his way around. The first night, Louis was homesick and had trouble sleeping. A boy named Gabriel became his friend and made him feel better.

At the Royal Institute for Blind Youth the students learned to read with raised print that were just raised letters. It was very difficult to do and there where only 14 books of raised print in the whole library. A new person came to the school, Captain Barber, with a technique he called night writing which used raised dots made with a stylus, on thick paper, using sound to spell words. There were many things this technique could not do, it was a failure, but not all of it. Louis could not stop thinking about dots. He was going to work out a way for the blind to really start reading and writing with dots!

Louis did not think the dot where a bad idea, but it needed to be changed. He started to send all the time he had on making a alphabet with dots using stylus and heavy paper. People stated talking about Louis and how he was going to fail at his alphabet. Captain barbier did not like his idea because he did not think blind people needed to know how to read. He was not an unkind man, he just thought that blind people were not as smart as other people.

The Braille alphabet is made up of cells and six numbered dots The Braille alphabet is made up of cells and six numbered dots. The raised dots in each cell stand for a letter. It was so simple and Louis Braille was only fifteen when came up with the alphabet . The head of the school, Dr. Pignier, heard about the systems of dots thought is was amazing, but as the school was a charity school, did not have the money to have books made. He wrote to many people for money, but they all said no. When Louis was finished school, he did not leave, he became a teacher. Louis became sick with tuberculosis, went home to recover, and when he got back, there was a new school head.

The new school head, Dr. Dufau, did not like his system, and banned it from school. He also burned all the books and took all their tools. The students and Louis Braille would not be stopped. They did it behind his back. A new teacher came to the school and saw how good it was and convinced the head of the school to support it. The head of school got wealthy people to support them so the could get more money to make books.

Louis Braille never really recovered from Tuberculosis Louis Braille never really recovered from Tuberculosis. He eventually became bedridden, at the age of 35, but continued to work in bed punching patterns of dots. Now, other schools were starting to use braille and a printing press for Braille was made. Louis Braille died but not after leaving the world his alphabet. Today, blind people around the world use his alphabet to read and write.

Vocabulary 1. stylus, a instrument for writing, marking, or incising, noun, 2. braille, a system of writing for blind people in witch letters are represented as raised dots, noun, 3. tuberculosis, a highly communicable disease, noun, 4. institute, a society or organization, noun, 5. nightwriting, a system made before braille using the raised dot, but goes by symbols, noun,