HISTORY OF BRAILLE & NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

HISTORY OF BRAILLE & NAPOLEON BONAPARTE'S COURIER

The United Nations has designated January 4 as World Braille Day. This date was chosen based on Louis Braille's birthday, although he was not the first to create Braille.

So, what was the creation of Braille, which until now has been a means of reading for the blind? The following is the history of Braille as quoted from the Brailleworks website.

Braille was invented by a French soldier named Charles Barbier. At that time Barbier, who was a member of Napoleon Bonaparte's army, created a unique writing system for the benefit of war. At that time, many courier soldiers died while sending messages because they were still using lighting.

Departing from the courier rescue mission earlier, Barbier created a unique writing system in the early 1800s. The writing system was called "Night Writing" which the troops used to communicate at night without lighting. Therefore, this writing system does not require sight.

Also known as Barbier's Sonography, this paper uses a table consisting of 12 cells. Each cell consists of 6 lined holes. Barbier's writing system is a combination of embossed dots based on the location of the holes in the cell.

Unlike the Roman writing system, which is written and read from left to right, the Barbier writing system is read from left to right but is written from right to left. This is because the embossed dots produced on the new paper texture can be felt by the fingertips when the paper is turned over first.

Meanwhile, in a small village in Coupfray, France, lives an 8-year-old blind boy, named Louis Braille. This child later became friends with Barbier a few years after the French war ended. Braille then adopted the writing system created by Barbier to communicate efficiently with other blind friends.

Later, when Louis Braille was accepted to study at The National Institute for the Blind, Braille developed Barbier's sonography into writing for the blind in a more structured manner. Braille reduces the number of cells in the Barbier table by half to just 6 cells.

Braille only uses 6 cells because fingers are better suited to using 6-cell combination points. If the cells are many it can produce a more diverse combination of letters. However, too many cells will make the finger no longer sensitive to the point.

This Braille writing system can eventually help the blind write and read faster. Hundreds of years later, the writing system became a way of communicating, the only time the blind had to read or write before the world finally entered the digital age.