DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0128
100 THE GREAT EXHIBITION
another pair is produced of that article of attire, for which the English have as yet teen
able to discover no name in their most comprehensive vocabulary. See now, how, with
tnis wonderful case and this most extraordinary machine, a man may travel far and wide
without the aid of his fellows. Add only to this small quantity of luggage one of those
steam ploughs lately invented by the English, with which sis shares are readily set to
work, and you may plough your field up in a jiffy. Is it not astonishing, to travel, sleep,
be clothed and fed without apparent assistance from human hands ?
CHAPTER XV,
PRINTING FOR THE BLIND, FKOM THE JURIES' REPORT.
INVENTED IK EEANCE----M. 1IAUY—M. GUTLLIE.—M. DUEAU.—INSTITUTION AT VIENNA.—ME.
GALL, OE EDINBURGH.—REV. ME. TAYLOE, OF YORK.----DR. HOWE, OF THE "UNITED STATES.----
PROGRESS OE THE DISCOVERY IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.—STEREOTYPE OE THE HOLY SCEIPTURE3.
The jury have noticed with pleasure the large number of exhibitors from England,
France, the Zollverein, and the United States, of inventions and devices for the instruc-
tion of the blind. It has been estimated that, in the European countries, one person out
of every 1,200 or 1,400 of the entire population is blind, and in America, one in every
2,000. The great and increasing attention that is paid to the intellectual and moral
instruction of this unfortunate class is one of the distinctive features of the progress of
our age. A few years ago, printing for the blind was considered only a curious or
doubtful experiment; but it is now established beyond all question that books are true
sources of profit and pleasure to them. Whilst embossed books have recently very
rapidly increased, it is delightful to notice that the blind readers have multiplied far
more rapidly. These circumstances have induced the jury to attempt a brief historical
sketch of the origin and progress of printing for the blind, together with the present
state of the art.
The invention of printing for the blind marks a new era in the history of literature.
The whole credit of this invention, so simple, yet so marvellous in its results, belongs
to France. It was M. Valentine Hauy, who, in 1784, at Paris, produced the first book
printed with letters in relief, and soon after proved to the world that children might easily
be taught to read with their fingers. It has been said by his biographer that he took
his idea of embossed typography from seeing that Mademoiselle Parodis, a blind pianist
of Vienna, who visited Paris that year, distinguished the keys of her instrument by the
sense of touch, and also rapidly comprehended the maps in relief, which, a short time
before, had been invented by M. Weisembourg, of Mannheim. After employing letters
of different forms and sizes, and experimenting with the blind as to the precise shape of
the letter that could be the most readily distinguished by the touch, he at length fixed
upon a character differing very slightly from the ordinary Roman letter, or perhaps a little
approaching italics. There was the usual mixture of the upper and lower case, the
capitals taking more of the script form than the small letters. He submitted his first
efforts and experiments to the Academy of Sciences of Paris. A committee was appointed
to examine them, consisting of the Due de la Rochefoucauld, M. Desniarets, M. Demours,
another pair is produced of that article of attire, for which the English have as yet teen
able to discover no name in their most comprehensive vocabulary. See now, how, with
tnis wonderful case and this most extraordinary machine, a man may travel far and wide
without the aid of his fellows. Add only to this small quantity of luggage one of those
steam ploughs lately invented by the English, with which sis shares are readily set to
work, and you may plough your field up in a jiffy. Is it not astonishing, to travel, sleep,
be clothed and fed without apparent assistance from human hands ?
CHAPTER XV,
PRINTING FOR THE BLIND, FKOM THE JURIES' REPORT.
INVENTED IK EEANCE----M. 1IAUY—M. GUTLLIE.—M. DUEAU.—INSTITUTION AT VIENNA.—ME.
GALL, OE EDINBURGH.—REV. ME. TAYLOE, OF YORK.----DR. HOWE, OF THE "UNITED STATES.----
PROGRESS OE THE DISCOVERY IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.—STEREOTYPE OE THE HOLY SCEIPTURE3.
The jury have noticed with pleasure the large number of exhibitors from England,
France, the Zollverein, and the United States, of inventions and devices for the instruc-
tion of the blind. It has been estimated that, in the European countries, one person out
of every 1,200 or 1,400 of the entire population is blind, and in America, one in every
2,000. The great and increasing attention that is paid to the intellectual and moral
instruction of this unfortunate class is one of the distinctive features of the progress of
our age. A few years ago, printing for the blind was considered only a curious or
doubtful experiment; but it is now established beyond all question that books are true
sources of profit and pleasure to them. Whilst embossed books have recently very
rapidly increased, it is delightful to notice that the blind readers have multiplied far
more rapidly. These circumstances have induced the jury to attempt a brief historical
sketch of the origin and progress of printing for the blind, together with the present
state of the art.
The invention of printing for the blind marks a new era in the history of literature.
The whole credit of this invention, so simple, yet so marvellous in its results, belongs
to France. It was M. Valentine Hauy, who, in 1784, at Paris, produced the first book
printed with letters in relief, and soon after proved to the world that children might easily
be taught to read with their fingers. It has been said by his biographer that he took
his idea of embossed typography from seeing that Mademoiselle Parodis, a blind pianist
of Vienna, who visited Paris that year, distinguished the keys of her instrument by the
sense of touch, and also rapidly comprehended the maps in relief, which, a short time
before, had been invented by M. Weisembourg, of Mannheim. After employing letters
of different forms and sizes, and experimenting with the blind as to the precise shape of
the letter that could be the most readily distinguished by the touch, he at length fixed
upon a character differing very slightly from the ordinary Roman letter, or perhaps a little
approaching italics. There was the usual mixture of the upper and lower case, the
capitals taking more of the script form than the small letters. He submitted his first
efforts and experiments to the Academy of Sciences of Paris. A committee was appointed
to examine them, consisting of the Due de la Rochefoucauld, M. Desniarets, M. Demours,