Braille

Braille changed the world for the blind and partially sighted. While inventor Louis Braille deserves a lot of credit, the method that bears his name was not created by him. To discover the truth, they must travel back in time to the time of Charles Barbier, a soldier in Napoleon's army. Barbier's night writing method, which was not intended to help the blind read, inspired Braille. It was instead intended to allow soldiers to communicate without fear of being shot.

Prior to Barbier, soldiers in combat had to read communications at night using lantern lights. It doesn't take a genius tactician to realize that lighting a lantern on a battlefield at night is a bad idea. Barbier devised a grid system that troops could learn in order to read messages without becoming targets. Sections of the grid represented specific letters, so if a raised dot was felt in a specific location, the reader knew what letter it represented. This method could deliver an entire message without exposing anyone to torchlight.

Creator: Louis Braille

Introduced: 1821