Louis Braille was born at Coupvray (Seine-et-Marne) on 4 January 1809 and died in Paris on 6 January 1852. Blind from early childhood, he devoted himself to the education of his unfortunate companions, inventing for them the system of writing that bears his name.
His progress at the Paris Institute for the Blind in the study of letters, music, and mathematics was such that in 1826 he was called to teach there grammar, geometry, geography, history, algebra, and arithmetic in succession.
Dissatisfied with the Haliy system then in use for the blind, he set out to devise a new one. He found it by reforming Barbier’s system, which used twelve dots arranged differently in a given space to form the various letters of the alphabet. Braille reduced the dots to six and arranged them in three series of ten letters each.
A specimen of the system may be given here:
With the same signs applied to musical notation, he succeeded in transcribing musical works, rendering a great service to the blind, who can accomplish much in the field of music.
His system was officially adopted at the Paris Institute for the Blind only in 1854 and then spread to almost all parts of the world.