Louis Braille

Louis Braille

Louis Braille was born in the Coupvray, France on January 4, 1809. His mother

and father were Monique and Simon Renй Braille. Louis was the youngest of four other

children. Their names were Louis-Simon, Catherine-Josephine, and Marie-Celine.

Louis' father, Simon Renй, was a saddler. He made saddles and harnesses for

horses. His father had also been a saddler. Louis family led a simple, ordinary life. They

owned their farmhouse and seven and a half acres of land. Louis dad's workshop was

also on this land. The Braille's didn't have that much money, but there was always

plenty of food on the table. The family lived on a road called Chemin des Buttes. It

would later be renamed to Rue Louis Braille.

Louis would often visit his dad in the workshop. To Louis the shop was an

exiting adventure every time he would walk in there. The workshop smelt of leather, and

bridles, reins, and straps hung everywhere. In the middle of the workshop stood a bench

with many sharp tool. Not a very safe place for a three year old.

The tragedy is not known in perfect detail. Nor is the exact date known. But it

happened sometime in the year 1812. The investigating three-year-old boy climbed onto

the workbench in the workshop when his father was not looking. Louis reached for an

awl or knife. Soon after, people nearby heard yelling coming from the workshop. Louis

was crying, and blood gushed down his face. His hands had slipped off the sharp tool,

and the awl had cut into his eye. Louis mom and dad did every thing they could for the

helpless child. They cleaned the bleeding eye and covered it up with bandages. When

the bleeding stopped, they took Louis to the doctor. In those days doctors didn't know

a lot about helping infections. Powerless the doctor and the Braille family looked on as

Louis' infection spread to the other eye. Every thing became blurry for Louis. He began

to bump into things; he would drop things, and began to stumble constantly. His family

took him to an eye doctor in a adjacent town, but the doctor couldn't help the poor child.

Louis' sight got even worse each day. Eventually, he lost all sight in both eyes.

Years pasted and Louis got use to his disability. At the age of ten he was finely

able to go to school. A friend of Louis wanted to help him find a way to live on his own.

He knew Louis was very smart and was capable of learning just by listing to the teacher,

so Palluy when to the schoolmaster in town. The schoolmaster was a newcomer to

Coupvray. He was an eager young teacher who did not care what other people though of

him, so he let Louis in to his school. Louis went to school every day with one of his

friends. He listened to his teacher every day. He seemed to understand and remember

everything he heard.

The schoolmaster remembered that Paris had a special school for the blind.

Palluy decided to try to enroll Louis in the special school. On February 15, 1819, Louis

went to Paris with his dad to see the new school he would be enrolling in. The schools

name was the Royal Institution for Blind Children. When Louis and his father finely got

to Paris, Louis was very happy to be there. They were dropped off at the edge of the city.

They walked to the Latin Quarter. This area of Paris was known for its many schools.

Louis' school was located on the Left Bank of the Seine River. Louis and his dad walked

until they found the school at 68 Rue Saint-Victor. After Louis had settled in, he learned

quickly to his teachers requirements. At the age of 13 Louis was finding out that all the

systems that he was being taught were to difficult for him and other children.

He worked on some of the systems, one in particular the Captain Barbiers'

system even at thirteen he tried to convince the captain that he needed to change his

system of writing for the blind. Louis gave up only after three months. Instead he was

working on his own experiment. He worked on his experiment day and night. He even

worked during the summer. Louis wanted his system perfect. He had also arranged the

dots and dashes in a way that were clearly understood. He made every group of dots

different.

Louis' alphabet was ready in October of 1824. A new school year had just begun.

He had found a way to make letters, punctuation marks, and mathematical signs. His

whole