History News Desk!! Louis Braille (English: Louis Braille, born: 4 January 1809; died – 6 January 1852) is famous for creating the Braille script for the blind. Louis, who eliminated the difficulty of reading for the blind by creating the Braille script, was also blind. Louis Braille was born in a middle-class family in the small village of Cupre, France. Over time, Louis Braille himself made many modifications to the Braille script with the hard work of eight years and finally in 1829 he succeeded in creating a script based on six points. Because of Louis Braille, the blind got the opportunity to read. In 1837, a book called A Brief History of France was also printed in Braille script, but still the world took a long time to recognize it. Two years after the death of Louis Braille in 1854, the French government gave it official recognition. Due to the immense potential and strong effectiveness of the Braille script, Braille got the status of ‘World Braille’ in the World Braille Conference of 1950. On January 4, 2009, when Louis Braille completed two hundred years of his birth, on the occasion of Louis Braille’s birth bicentenary, India tried to revive him when a postage stamp was issued in his honor on this occasion.
life introduction
Louis Braille was born on January 4, 1809 in a middle-class family in the small village of Cupre, France. His father Simon Raleigh Braille used to make saddles and saddles for royal horses. Due to lack of sufficient financial resources to meet the family needs, Simon had to work extra hard, hence when the child Louis was only three years old, his father took him along with him to make saddles and saddles for horses. According to his nature, the three-year-old boy used to spend his time playing with the objects available around him, hence the objects of play of the child Louis were the same which were used by his father in his work like hard wood, rope, pieces of iron, Horse shoes, knives and useful iron tools. One day, the knife used to cut wood for the saddle suddenly bounced and hit the little boy in the eye and a stream of blood flowed out of the child’s eye. A simple herb was applied and his eyes were bandaged. Gradually the little boy became completely blind by the time he turned eight years old. Instead of a colorful world, everything for that boy was immersed in deep darkness. Louis, who had a keen interest in his father’s leather industry, lost his eyes in an accident. The accident occurred in the workshop of Louis’ father.
invention of braille script
Boy Louis very soon became engrossed in his situation. Louis Braille had amazing abilities since childhood. Seeing his curiosity towards learning everything, the church priest enrolled Louis Braille in the Paris Seminary. Everyone was impressed by the amazing talent of Louis Braille since childhood. He studied various subjects in school. The life of Louis Braille reveals the truth that God had some special purpose hidden behind his childhood accident. In 1825, at the age of just 16, Louis Braille invented a script which is called Braille script. The invention of this script revolutionized the education of visually impaired people. Louis, who was proficient in mathematics, geography and history, met Captain Charles Barbier of the French Army during his studies. He told about night writing and sonography which are read by soldiers in the dark. This script was raised and based on 12 points. It was from here that Louis Braille got the idea and he modified it and invented the 6-point Braille script. Louis, a brilliant mind, made a provision to display not only letters or numbers but also all the symbols.
Due to his blindness, Braille wanted to create a system for the blind so that they could easily write and read and could easily communicate with each other. “Communicating means getting to know each other and understanding each other and this is very important for blind people and we cannot ignore this thing. According to him, the blind should be given the same importance in the world as is given to ordinary people.” But people did not know the importance of his invention while he was alive, but after his death, his invention proved helpful not only for Paris but for the entire world.
Honored by the Government of India
The Government of India issued a postage stamp in honor of Louis Braille in 2009. The work done by Louis was not useful for any nation alone but for the blind human race of the entire world. Therefore, mere recognition by one nation could not be a true tribute to that Mahatma. At the age of ten, his father admitted him to the Royal National Institute for Blind Children in Paris. In that school, studies were conducted using the script created by “Valentine Hou”, but this script was incomplete. Here Louis acquired proficiency in history, geography and mathematics. Once a French Army officer, Captain Charles Barbier, came to this school for a training session and told about the “Night Writing” or “Sonography” script used by the soldiers to read in the dark. This script was made by embossing letters on paper and had 12 dots in two lines of 6 each, but it lacked punctuation marks, numbers, mathematical symbols etc.
death
Using this script as the basis, the brilliant Louis created 64 letters and symbols using only 6 points instead of 12, and not only punctuation marks but also mathematical symbols and musical notations could be written in it. This script is universally accepted today. When Louis created this script, he was only 15 years old. This script, created in 1824, is used in almost all the countries of the world. In 1851, his health started deteriorating and he died on 6 January 1852 at the age of only 43. 16 years after his death, in 1868, the ‘Royal Institute for Blind Youth’ recognized this script.
important facts
Even after losing his eyesight, Louis Braille did not lose courage. He wanted to create something that could help blind people like him. That’s why he created a writing style in his name, which had six dot codes. The same script later became known as ‘Braille script’. Under Braille script, letters, numbers and words are formed by connecting dots. The first book in this script was published in 1829. Louis Braille was very interested in music and could play many types of instruments. Louis Braille created the six-dot Braille script for the blind in 1829. It took Louis Braille eight years to create this script. Louis died at the young age of 43 on January 6, 1852 due to TB. Had died from disease. 100 years after the death of Louis Braille, France designated 20 June 1952 as the day of his honour. On this day, the French government exhumed the body of Louis Braille, which was buried 100 years ago, with full state honours. On this day the entire nation apologized for its mistake in front of the mortal remains of Louis Braille. Louis Braille’s body was wrapped in the national flag and reburied with full state honours.[1]
