Valentine Hauy (1745-1822) was a French professor of calligraphy. One cold day he was going through a street in Paris when he saw a blind beggar. Hauy was a very kind –hearted person. He at once put his hand into his pocket and took out a coin. He put this coin on the blind beggar’s palm. But as he turned to go, the beggar called ``sir! You have surely made a mistake; you have given me a France instead of a Sou.’’

``But how did you know I had given you a France? ‘’asked Hauy in surprise.

``oh! Replied the blind beggar, ``it is quite simple. If I pass my finger over a coin, I can at once tell what it is’’.

Hauy allowed the beggar to keep the France although it was a great deal of money in those days. But as he walked back home, he thought to himself: ``if a blind man can tell a coin by the mere touch of his finger, why should he not be able to tell the different marks or letters of an alphabet?’’

This thought inspired Hauy to develop a system of reading for the blind. He printed normal letters in relief that could be felt by a touch of the fingers. He also started a school for blind children and prepared for them special books with embossed letters. Hauy’s experiment was a great success and he became know as the `father and apostle of the blind’.

Hauy’s system of reading for the blind was very useful, but it was quite different to learn. Moreover, it was only a reading system; there was no way for the blind to write in this system.

And in 1824, when he as only 15, Braille invented a system of writing which has been accepted all over the world. He was yet student in `Hauy’s school. This school is now known as the national instate for Blind children. It is supported by the French government. From 1826, Braille worked as a teacher in this Scholl.

The system invented by Braille has been named after him. It is also known as the six-dot cell system. Each letter is different position of the raised dots in cell represent different letters.

Unlikely Louis Braille did not live long to enjoy the great success of his system. He died of tuberculosis in 1852.

. Indicates an UN raised dot

• indicates a raised dot

In addition to 26 dot patterns for the English alphabet, there are five patterns for very common words (and, for, of, the, with) and nine patterns for common letter combinations (ch, gh, sh, th, wh, ed, er, ou, ow). We have patterns for punctuation marks also. In all there are 63 patterns.

Writing Braille is not very difficult. A special type of needle is used to form the raised dots. A person using Braille writes from right to left. When the sheet is turned over, the raised dots face upward and are read from left to right.

Braille has proved a great blessing for the blind. They can get the benefits of education like any other normal person. Many good books have been written in Braille. Blind people can read and enjoy them. There have been many examples of blind persons who learnt Braille and then wrote great themselves. Miss Helen Keller was one of them.