1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:06,920 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, I'm Eves and you're listening to This 3 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:10,320 Speaker 1: Day in History Class, a podcast that proves history is 4 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:26,759 Speaker 1: always happening. Today is January four. The day was January four, 5 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:31,720 Speaker 1: eight o nine French educator Louis Brill, namesake of the 6 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:36,000 Speaker 1: Brill Reading and Writing system, was born. Roll was born 7 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:39,400 Speaker 1: in Couvray, France, a village near Paris. He was the 8 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: youngest of four siblings, born to Simon Renee Brill and 9 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:46,440 Speaker 1: Monique Baron. When he was three years old, he injured 10 00:00:46,479 --> 00:00:48,600 Speaker 1: his eye with a sharp tool while playing in his 11 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:53,559 Speaker 1: father's workshop. His eye soon became infected and the infection 12 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:56,080 Speaker 1: spread to his other eye and what's believed to have 13 00:00:56,120 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 1: been a case of sympathetic a thomia. Sympathetic thomia occurs 14 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:04,440 Speaker 1: when the uveal tract and an uninjured eye becomes inflamed 15 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,760 Speaker 1: after trauma, are surgery, and the other eye. By the 16 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 1: time he was five, he was completely blind. As a child, 17 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:14,640 Speaker 1: Braille was taught to read by feeling studs hammered into 18 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:17,319 Speaker 1: wood in the shape of letters. His parents sent him 19 00:01:17,319 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 1: to the Royal Institute for a Blind Youth in Paris 20 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: when he was ten years old. Their students were taught 21 00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:27,279 Speaker 1: to read books that used embossed print letters, and to write. 22 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:30,520 Speaker 1: Students had to memorize the shape of letters and tried 23 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:34,160 Speaker 1: to recreate them on paper. This, of course, was a 24 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:37,840 Speaker 1: difficult task. Conditions at the school were subpar, but the 25 00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:40,920 Speaker 1: environment and curriculum had their benefits for the students there. 26 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:44,760 Speaker 1: Braille was considered a smart and creative student, and he 27 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:49,200 Speaker 1: became a good cello player and organist. Around the same time, 28 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:54,280 Speaker 1: Charlotte Barbier, a retired artillery officer in Napoleon's army, created 29 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:58,560 Speaker 1: a system of writing using a raised dot alphabet. Barbia 30 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,600 Speaker 1: attempted to sell the system, called night writing to the 31 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:04,560 Speaker 1: French army, so that soldiers could pass notes in the 32 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:08,400 Speaker 1: dark without striking a light. When the army proved uninterested 33 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:11,520 Speaker 1: in the idea, Barbie turned his attention to the Royal 34 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: Institute for Blind Youth. Rail saw Barbia's demonstration and was 35 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 1: intrigued by night writing, but he thought that it needed 36 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:24,000 Speaker 1: many improvements. By eighty four, Braile had devised his own 37 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:27,840 Speaker 1: improved system. It was simpler than barbier system, and it 38 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:31,960 Speaker 1: was better adapted for blind people. As Barbier was cited. 39 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,840 Speaker 1: Rail's method used a six dot sil rather than a 40 00:02:35,919 --> 00:02:39,320 Speaker 1: twelve dot system. In it, six dots were arranged in 41 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:43,320 Speaker 1: different patterns or sales that formed letters, numbers, and later 42 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:47,360 Speaker 1: musical notes. Other students at the Royal Institute picked up 43 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: the system, but the school did not endorse it. Rail 44 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:53,240 Speaker 1: became a teacher at the Institute and in eighteen twenty 45 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 1: nine he published the book Procedure for Writing Words, Music 46 00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:00,799 Speaker 1: and Plain, Song and Dots. But it took a while 47 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:03,680 Speaker 1: for the Braill system to catch on. That was partly 48 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:06,800 Speaker 1: because Valentine a, a cited man who found at the 49 00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:10,640 Speaker 1: Royal Institute, worked on a principle that blind people should 50 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:14,480 Speaker 1: not have a different alphabet than cited people, and Pierre 51 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: Armand dufat the director of the Institute beginning in eighteen forty, 52 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:21,800 Speaker 1: restricted use of the Brail system in the school and 53 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:27,000 Speaker 1: had books and braille writing equipment burned. Dufout eventually changed 54 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:30,520 Speaker 1: his tune, but the Brail system was not officially adopted 55 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:34,960 Speaker 1: in France until eighteen fifty four, two years after Braill died. 56 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:39,280 Speaker 1: But during his lifetime Braill worked on improving his reading 57 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:42,880 Speaker 1: and writing system. In eighteen thirty seven, he published a 58 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:46,920 Speaker 1: revised edition of the system. In this edition, the raised 59 00:03:47,040 --> 00:03:52,400 Speaker 1: dash was eliminated, leaving just raised dots. Despite the system 60 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:56,200 Speaker 1: not being widely accepted, students learned Brail on their own, 61 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:00,400 Speaker 1: and Brail himself continued to teach history, geometry, and algebra 62 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:04,200 Speaker 1: at the school. As the Brail system spread throughout Europe, 63 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:07,680 Speaker 1: it met resistance from people who thought blind people didn't 64 00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: need to know how to read, from people who thought 65 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: it was unnecessary because sited people could not read it, 66 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: and from those who have posted it for other reasons. 67 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:20,040 Speaker 1: But since then, the Rail system has been modified by 68 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 1: Brail's successors and recognized as a universal language. I'm Eve 69 00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:27,480 Speaker 1: Jeff Cote and hopefully you know a little more about 70 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:30,920 Speaker 1: history today than you did it yesterday. 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