The Life of Louis Braille

By Doris Belusic


It is a pleasure to tell you about Louis Braille, the French inventor of the raised 6 dot reading and writing code for the blind. Yes, he spent his short life of 43 years, in brilliant pursuit, to find a method of reading and writing for the blind, that would be efficient, and could be quickly felt by touch – the fleeting touch of the end of a fingertip. But, Louis was much more than this brilliant inventor.

In Louis’ lifetime, France was in turmoil. Many of the population were poor and hungry. France suffered through revolutions, depression, high unemployment, pilagings, burnings, riots, bloody massacres, times of persecution and a potato disease. In Louis’ short lifetime, France had been ruled by 3 different kings, and then Napoleon.

Life for the blind was grim. Lucky were they who had supporting families or wealth or who found their place as musicians or singers. Most of the blind lived in squalor and begged as a means of survival, some worked in traveling circuses to amuse audiences. The government authorities and royalty, even when asked over and over to help, had little concern towards the plight of the blind.

Reading by the blind at this time was laborious for those educated to finger-read by feeling embossed Roman alphabet letters. This was very time consuming and cumbersome and books made in this method were very large and heavy.

On January 4, 1809, Louis Braille was born in the small town of Coupvray, near Paris, He was the fourth child of a saddlemaker.

Louis often accompanied his father at his father’s workbench, watching his father make saddles and harnesses. His father encouraged him, with supervision, to try to use the tools. His father had hopes that Louis one day would take over the business.

In 1812, at the age of 3, Louis had an accident with what he later described as a “sharp pointed instrument” in his father’s workshop, which pierced into his right eye. With only peasant remedies available, Louis soon lost the sight in his right eye.

Not long after, his left eye also became blinded, possibly from infection, but more likely from sympathetic opthalmia, a self-attacking immune reaction.

Louis was blessed with caring parents. His father, using upholstery tacks pinned to boards, in the shapes of letters, taught Louis the alphabet, then later to write with pen and pencil. Louis’ father laid the foundation for Louis to read and write.

Louis attended the one-room school in Coupvray and soon was a top student.

At age 10, it was decided, in Louis’ best interest, that he attend the school for the blind in Paris. In February 1819, Louis and his father rode four hours by stagecoach to Paris and Louis was enrolled into the school. Louis was given student number 70, which was hung at the end of his straw mattress bed, on his locker and pinned to his uniform. He was the youngest of 70 students. Louis would spend the rest of his life in this school as student, tutor then teacher

Louis’ father on that day was shocked at the deplorable look of the 5 story school building. Hidden from him was the severity of how the students were treated and the conditions in which they lived.

This 500 year-old school building had once been an orphanage, a seminary, a whorehouse, and a prison for priests. Less than thirty years before it became the school for the blind, the building was the site of a 2 day bloody massacre in the deaths of 170 priests. The building was cold, damp with mildew, had poor ventilation and had what many reports called “putrid emanations”. Another report later said the building was “perilous to life.”

Living in the confines of this building, the students were often sick. Malnourishment, muddy drinking water and long hours of study and work didn’t help. Digestive problems and tuberculosis were common. One of the directors, a doctor, but a strict, oppressive disciplinarian felt that discipline was more important than health. A later director, a kind, fatherly figure, made many pleas for help to government authorities and royalty but the pleas were ignored. The students got used to being cold and hungry.

Here, Louis studied many subjects using the cumbersome raised Roman alphabet books. He studied music, learned to play the cello, piano and organ, and was in the school orchestra. Here, he gained his lifelong love of music.

This, the first school for the blind, was also the first workhouse for the blind. Louis worked in the slipper-making workshop. Students wove material for their uniforms on looms. One massive project in the workshop was to weave material for bed sheets for a Paris hospital, which had 10,000 beds.

An army captain had come to the school for the blind to show the students his ‘night writing’ code. It was two vertical rows of 12 dots, which could be read without eyes. It had been meant for military purposes, but later he thought it might be useful to the blind. This code was only based on phonetical sound and was found to have many flaws. But, a seed had been planted in Louis’ brain.

Louis won many top student awards in school. Being gifted, he became frustrated at the limited amount of information available to him and at the cumbersomeness of the letter-embossed finger-reading books.

Louis said to his friend, a fellow student, “The methods we now use take up too much room on the paper and too much time. We have to think of space. We need the least possible number of signs to express our thoughts.”

In 1824, at age 15, in his 5th year at school, Louis spent every spare minute trying to create a better code for the blind. He was so driven and preoccupied that it was the first year he did not win awards at school. The kind school director, later said, “When the day’s work was done and when others were resting, I would find him sitting in some quiet corner, with the ruled board, paper and stylus. Sometimes he would fall asleep in utter weariness from constant search (of the code).”

That summer vacation in Coupvray, Louis would sit day after day under the chestnut tree on the hill, with rough paper and awl in hand. Neighbours would comment on seeing Louis “playing with pinpricks.” This was the time of Louis’ great achievement.

Interestingly, that summer, the game of Dominos 6 had become popular in France. This link is close enough to guess that Louis’ 6-cell pattern and Dominos 6 was more than co-incidental.

Louis would spend the rest of his life refining his code. One friend said, “He never lost sight of this work, never for an instant did he shirk the task of refining, developing and practicing his new way of writing and reading.”

The kind school director noted, “The value of Braille’s new code rapidly became apparent and its advantages were quickly noticed in the work of the students. For the first time pupils could take notes in class in the same way as sighted people. The enthusiasm was such that some children set work to compile their own Braille libraries….It must be admitted that writing by the means of raised dots gave study at the institute a boost.” The effect on speed alone was remarkable.

This new-fangled code, had not taken well with the governmental authorities or royalty of the day. Change was opposed and France was not in a position to spend money. And, the new code worried sighted teachers that their jobs might be taken over by blind persons. It was argued that what was good for the sighted, was good for the blind. The blind, too, should manage with the Roman alphabet. They did not want the blind to gain too much control.

Before Louis’ 18th birthday, in his 8th year at the school for the blind, he was appointed as a school tutor. Louis taught classes, supervised the slipper-making workshop and taught piano.

Louis taught with persuasion and example. It was said, “He conducted his lessons with deep understanding of the special problems of the blind and he taught with such charm….the students hung on his words and his classes became such a pleasure that they not only held him in esteem, but also saw him as a wise and trusted friend.”

Louis gave selfless dedication of thought, time and energy to his work. He said to his students, “….We do not want to be shut away from the world because we cannot see and so we must work and study to be equal with others, not to be despised as ignorant, or objects of pity. I will do all in my power to help you all attain dignity through knowledge.”

Louis, at the age of 20, devised a code for written music for the blind. For the first time blind musicians could read and compose music. It was widely acclaimed as “the stuff of genius.”

In May 1831 Louis learned of his father’s death. During his summer vacation in Coupvray, he helped his widowed mother financially, by tuning pianos.

In 1833, at the age of 24, Louis became one the first fully-fledged blind teachers at the school. From then on, the blind were able to teach the blind. Later he received the title of professor.

Louis’ style of teaching was described as, “Precise, clear, his explanations to the point. Without unnecessary elaborations he was always willing to reiterate his teachings if his students had, at first, not properly understood.”

Louis was also appointed as organist at a few churches, where he’d perform the first musical works ever translated to the Braille code.

In 1835, at age 26, Louis showed the first signs of tuberculosis- weakness, breathlessness, coughing, and blood from his lungs. He had seen it happen to others before him and he knew he had the seeds of death in his lungs. The sixteen years he had spent at the school had taken their toll.

The 6 dot code was still not accepted officially. Government still insisted on previous teaching methods and held to the dictum “The blind must always be brought closer to the seeing.” But, among the student body the code was alive and well.

A well-known poet at the time visited the school and saw the decrepit conditions and it was he who convinced government to pass a bill for a new school for the blind to be built. Five years later a grand new school would be opened.

Louis went on his mission more determined than ever – the perfection of a simple, effective means of communication for the blind. There was still so much to do. Over the next few years he improved Braille and the code for music, published the first books about and in Braille, and together with his friend, invented raphigraphy, and a keyboard printer so that both the blind and sighted could communicate with each other by reading and writing.

Not quite 30 years old, Louis’ health had become more debilitating. He was offered a post of personal tutor to a blind royal prince. It was tempting, to live with royalty, make a good wage and to breathe good alpine air. But, Louis was loyal and could not turn his back on his pupils and friends, and there was still work to be done in the pursuit of his life’s mission with his code. One of his friends said of him, “There were many examples such as this of his generosity and kindness, as well as a duty and he would often sacrifice time, health and money….”

The school, again, had a new director. He believed in the status quo and was opposed to the new code. So, the Roman alphabet was forced upon the students. But, the blind tutors and students secretly used the code in their daily work, knowing that if the director found out, it could result in severe punishment. But, punishment could not suppress the six dot code system.

This impressed and intrigued the new deputy director and he decided to learn the Braille code. He became the first sighted person to be able to read and write Braille and this had far-reaching effects.

It was through this deputy director that Louis’ code became accepted in the school and by the government, and later became known throughout France and around the world.

By 1844, at age 35, Louis had stopped teaching due to his health, but continued as organist at a church.

Louis was known for his acts of charity. It was written, “Using great discretion he carried out many acts of charity and he never talked about the good that he was able to do. Many of his deeds were not known until after his death….. He paid for books, for boards and equipment for his poor students. He paid for his own writing machines and he lived a very frugal life.”

Louis spent the last weeks of his life in the school’s infirmary. On January 6, 1852 Louis died.

Louis was buried in his hometown of Coupvray in the graveyard at the top of the hill, where he lay under a granite stone for 100 years.

June 1952, on the centenary of Louis’ death, France honoured Louis Braille as a national hero. In Paris, there was a large ceremony. Many proud and respectful blind people were in attendance from around the world.

Louis’ bones were lifted from his grave in Coupvray to be buried in Paris, in the Pantheon, with France’s other national heros. But, Coupvray was where he was born and raised and where he lay for 100 years. So, it was decided to separate his hands from his body. His hands were left in the grave in Coupvray and the rest of his bones were buried in the Pantheon.

If only Louis could know that his code became the primary means of communication for the blind worldwide and how it improved the lives of countless blind people. If only he could know he is a hero.

Helen Keller wrote: "Braille has been a most precious aid to me in many ways. It made my going to college possible - it was the only method by which I could take notes of lectures. All my examination papers were copied for me in this system. I use Braille as a spider uses its web - to catch thoughts that flit across my mind for speeches, messages and manuscripts."

Louis’ home in Coupvray is now a museum, unchanged from when he lived there as a boy. A plaque on the wall reads, “He opened the door to knowledge to all those who cannot see.”

After learning about Louis Braille, I am in awe and he holds my deepest respect. Not only was he a genius, but he possessed the best traits of human nature. He was kind, gentle, hard working, patient, generous, loyal and humble. And, he never complained, although, throughout his life, it seemed he had much to complain about. The blind could not ask for a better role model. Thank you Louis Braille for all you have given us.