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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



uj^on the other side {verso) in the interlinear spaces. This system 

 vastly increases the capacity of the sheet of paper. There are also 

 pocket tablets, or replets, of which different models are repre- 

 sented in the engraving ; they are for the most part strips of un- 

 dulated zinc, to which are hinged guides bearing several rows of 

 openings. 



Signora della Casa, an Italian woman, constructed the appa- 

 ratus represented in the first figure of our engraving (Fig. 2). A 



Fro. 2 —Various AppARATua for writing by the Blind. 1 Signora della Casa's piston-guide. 

 2. Kecto-verso iablet ot Laas d'Aguen. 3. Goldberg's Danish tablet. 4. English reglet. 5. Bal- 

 lu's reglet. 6. Austrian tablet. 7. Braille's tablet. 8. Beaufort's stylograph. 



little carriage bearing six buttons, which control as many movable 

 pins, glides along a ruler that is notched at equidistant intervals. 

 When one of the buttons is struck with the finger, the correspond- 

 ing pin springs out and makes a point on the paper. A spring 

 brings the pin back, and after the writing of each sign, the car- 

 riage is slid on a notch along the guide. But this apparatus is not 

 in use, and we mention it only as a curiosity. 



When we wish to write to a blind man by the Braille alphabet, 

 we can accustom ourselves to reverse the signs by copying them 

 as they look in a mirror ; or we can use a table composed by M. 

 Merricant, of Toulouse, which gives the characters written both 

 ways ; or we can learn only the reversed alphabet, and read the 

 writing, if we have occasion to read it, on the hollowed or reverse 

 side of the sheet, or the side on which it is written, which, with 

 the eyes, will be easy enough. 



For the use of blind in writing to seeing people, designs have 



