WRITING-MACHINES FOB THE BLIND. 645 



The ordinal numbers are formed by using the points 2, 3, 5, and 6. 

 Fractions are expressed by writing the numerator as a cardinal, 

 and the denominator as an ordinal number. But Braille's nu- 

 merals are not well adapted to mathematical calculations, for they 

 make the operations too long and difficult. An adaptation of 

 them to music is more convenient, and is strikingly different from 

 the blind-man's notation described by Guillie. It represents the 

 measures by button-molds, the values of the notes by pieces of 

 cork of various thicknesses, a round note by a ring, a black note 

 by a piece of money, rests by thongs of leather, etc., the whole 

 being strung on a long cord. 



The characters, printed or written in relief, are read by the 

 inner side of the end of the forefinger of either the right or the 

 left hand, the hands being held open over the page. 



The Braille or anaglyptographic writing was done on a paper 

 which was fixed upon a tablet of wood or metal with an undu- 

 lating surface presenting parallel, horizontal, and equidistant 

 grooves, of a uniform depth, and about as large as a school-slate. 

 The wooden frame of this tablet is bored on the sides with holes 

 at equal distances apart, into which are fastened with pins the 

 ends of a guide. The guide is furnished with two rows of rectan- 

 gular openings of the size of the generator sign of the Braille 

 alphabet, while the width of the grooves in the plaque is so calcu- 

 lated that the height of the openings in the guide shall correspond 

 with that of the grooves. The blind writer, holding vertically in 

 his hand a stylus with a rounded point, forms in each of the open- 

 ings one of the signs he desires to write ; in consequence of the 

 slight depth of the grooves, the stylus gives to the paper, which 

 should be of suitable thickness, enough relief to make the writing 

 legible without piercing holes in it. After each word the operator 

 should " jump " an opening so as to give the needed space between 

 that and the next word. The two lines finished, he lifts the guide 

 lightly, and slides it along the frame till the pins drop into the 

 next holes, when he is ready to begin two new lines. It should be 

 remarked that the characters are written in hollows, and have to 

 be read in relief. The writer is therefore obliged to write on the 

 reverse of the paper and form the characters from right to left, in 

 order that they may be read from left to right, as is the usual way. 

 Some blind persons have written the equivalent of one hundred 

 Alexandrine lines an hour on the Braille machine. Various forms 

 have been given to instruments on the Braille principle, some of 

 which are represented in the engraving (Fig. 2). In one kind the 

 upper edge of the paper is held in a board which is hinged to the 

 upper end of the frame. In another kind the paper is fixed be- 

 tween two frames which are boxed into one another, so that when 

 one side has been written upon {recto) it can be turned and written 



