                           CHAPTER 3
                                
                      EARLY BRITISH CODES
                                 
  1. INSTITUTIONS AND ASYLUMS FOR THE BLIND AND
       THE FIRST TACTILE MODES OF COMMUNICATION IN
       BRITAIN
       
       2. A COMPETITION
       
       3. ROMAN ALPHABET CODES
          Gall Type
          Alston Type
          Littledale Type
          Roman Upper and Lower Case Type
       
       4. ARBITRARY CODES
          Hughes Type
          Lucas Type
          Frere Type
       
       5. MIXED ROMAN AND ARBITRARY TYPE
          Moon Type
       
       6. WRITING
       
              7.   COMPARISONS
          Size and Shape of Configurations
          Line Type
          Punctiform Type
          Presentation
          Stenographic, Phonetic, and Full Orthographic Systems
       
       8. CONCLUSION
           1. INSTITUTIONS AND ASYLUMS FOR THE BLIND AND THE
     FIRST TACTILE MODES OF COMMUNICATION IN BRITAIN
  
  Literacy for the blind developed more slowly in Britain than in France. 
  Ritchie (1930, p.36) wrote, "If here and there the blind were kindly
  treated, it was because of the magnanimity of the philanthropic, not
  because they had any right to it ... the dawning consciousness of social
  justice as a right rather than a condescension was not fully understood". 
  The first institutions were founded for the inmates to learn a manual
  trade "so that they might, if possible, maintain themselves by their own
  industry" (Carton, 1838, p.23).  Liverpool, the first institution, was
  opened in 1791; 43 years later, "the intellectual instruction of the pupils
  has not been deemed of importance; they only learn a trade" (ibid.,
  p.119).
  
  Edinburgh Asylum was founded in 1793.  Only training in manual crafts
  was given at first and later on oral instruction in spelling, grammar,
  arithmetic, geography and "a good general view of the solar system". 
  One wonders why emphasis was given to a subject so far outside the
  experience of the pupils.
  
  The first tactile aid to communication so far known in Britain came to
  light when it was on view prior to an auction in the spring of 1995.  The
  following paragraph includes information given to the writer during a
  private viewing.
  
  Letters patent for Mr. Casson's Panogram were taken out in 1813.  John
  Casson (grandfather to Lewis Casson, the actor), is described as a
  professor of music at Liverpool, and as the copy of the specifications at
  the Patent Office shows that the patentee "made his mark", presumably
  Mr. Casson was blind.  Unfortunately, the directions for use are missing,
  but a paper found inside the apparatus in 1856 describes it as "a
  method of teaching the Blind by means of Tangible Characters to write
  or read languages, Arithmetic, Music, etc." (sic). 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
         Mr. Casson's Panogram - Open Position
             (Reproduction of photograph.)
                             
  The Panogram consists of a mahogany box (approximately 8 x 5 x
  2 inches) containing 300 identical small cubes arranged in rows, half in
  the base and half in the lid of the box which can open out flat.  Each
  cube has nicks or grooves cut away making a different asymmetrical
  design on each side.  As each of the six surfaces can be turned to four
  different positions 24 letters can be represented and similarly some of
  the positions could represent numbers.  The cubes nest into square
  depressions but they protrude above the edges.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Mr. Casson's Panogram - Diagram showing six surfaces of the cubes
  with corresponding letters and one enlarged 3D cube to aid
                      explanation.
                             
  There are three small holes on the left and right of each depression for
  the positioning of small pegs.  The letters I and U are formed by placing
  a peg to the left of J and V respectively.
  
  
  
                            
  Mr. Casson's Panogram - Diagram of letters I and U with pegs in
                       position.
                             
  It is suggested by the writer that, by the positioning of pegs, note values
  and key signatures could also be indicated.  Rows of peg holes occur
  along the sides of the box, possibly for storage and to mark the place
  during use.  The writer found it impressive to realise the amount of
  planning needed at the drawing board stage to encompass so many
  aspects of information.  As far as is known only one Panogram exists. 
  It would have been interesting to find out how easy it would be for blind
  people to use such apparatus.  However, the experiment was not
  possible because the writer was outbid by an unknown buyer.
  
  Two members of staff at the Edinburgh Asylum for the Blind invented a
  method of reading the Bible by means of knotted string (Baker, 1859,
  pp.13-17; Ritchie, 1930, p.26).  The knotted alphabet consisted of seven
  large knots, all different, along a string representing A, E, I, M, Q, U, and
  Y respectively.  The remaining letters were each made from a large knot
  plus a small single knot at a specific distance from the large knot
  according to its position in the alphabet.
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
     Knotted String Alphabet (Ritchie, 1930, p.26).
                            
                             The long and tedious work of string "writing" was used for the production
  of the gospel of St. Mark and a few other short works.  For reading to be
  carried out the string was unwound from a roller and the fingers "read"
  the knots as they passed over the user's lap.  It was ingenious but it
  must have been very slow in use, so perhaps its merit lay more in
  checking the memory than for a first time reading.  A method of reading
  from the printed word was needed.
  
  It is noticeable that whereas only 8 institutions were opened in Great
  Britain between 1791 and 1826, 26 were opened between 1827 and
  1882 (Farrell, 1956, p.32).  Two main reasons may be recognised, the
  growth of humanitarianism, and an interest in code making. 
  "Humanitarian activity was the characteristic form in which their religious
  piety expressed itself" (Trevelyan, 1942, p.495) hence the provision of
  more institutions.  A competition was organised in 1832 whose aim was
  to find the best code for the use of the blind, and the evangelicals were
  encouraging the reading of the Bible.  Most of the publications in
  embossed codes were therefore religious works, chiefly parts of the
  Bible and "reading was taught that the Bible might be studied and that
  the blind by this means might be led from theological darkness into light"
  (Ritchie, 1930, p.21).
  
  2. A COMPETITION
  
  A text book on reading (1820) written by Guilli and printed in his code,
  property of Glasgow Asylum for the Blind [now on loan to the National
  Library of Scotland], reached Britain and, according to a hand written
  note on the cover, it eventually came into the possession of Alexander
  Hay, who was a blind man.  Evidently Mr. Hay did not like the large
  Roman letters for he invented a new embossed code of arbitrary letters
  and sent it to the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in Edinburgh
  for their approval.  Stimulated by this effort, the Society published a
  report in 1832 and in the following year a gold medal to the value of 20
  was offered with the following aims (Taylor, 1838, p.93): "To investigate
  what form and size of letters or characters, and what number of these
  should be adopted, with a view to constructing a general alphabet for
  the blind in Great Britain and Ireland; and secondly, the best and
  cheapest method of printing such letters or characters in relief, so as to
  render them most easily and accurately distinguishable by the touch".
  
  There were 20 entries, 3 modifications of ordinary Roman characters,
  12 using arbitrary characters and 5 other entries were sent in for
  interest, but not to be included in the contest.
  
  The difference of opinion concerning the use of Roman and arbitrary
  codes was to continue for many years and to be the main cause for
  delay in the production of a single code.  Some of the authors of
  arbitrary codes for the competition illustrated in Carton, 1838 (opp.,
  p.83) seemed carried away by the enjoyment of making a series of
  patterns with little idea of the perceptual and cognitive problems
  involved.  The arbiter was the Reverend William Taylor of the York
  School, who being sighted, it is not surprising that he chose the entry of
  Dr Fry of Bristol, who had used the simplest form possible of capital
  letters using no serifs.  A reader with sight always finds it difficult to
  assess the qualities of a code intended to be read by touch, and even
  a blind person needs practice before an unbiassed opinion should be
  given.  Comments on all codes therefore need to be made with caution. 
  The organisers of the competition had hoped that one best type would
  result from their project.  In fact, it had the opposite effect for the number
  of codes multiplied.  They little realised that unity within Britain would
  not be achieved until nearly 40 years later.
  
  3. ROMAN ALPHABET CODES
  
  Gall Type
  James Gall, a printer in Edinburgh, was working on a code for tactile
  reading before the Society of Arts competition had even been
  considered.  In the Report of the Royal Commission on the Useful Arts
  (1852, p.414) Gall was commended for his zeal and patience in his
  attempts to produce the perfect code.  "It is to Mr. Gall, perhaps, more
  than any other man, that the interest in education of the blind was
  awakened throughout Great Britain and America".  In 1837 (p.10) Gall
  described how, "perceiving that angles were more readily felt than
  rounds, and that the outside of the letter was more easily felt than the
  inside, he modified the alphabet into its most simple form, throwing the
  characteristics of each letter to the outside, and using angles instead of
  curves".
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
            Gall Type (Ritchie, 1930, p.44)
                             
  The alphabet consisted of 26 configurations chosen from those he
  considered best for touch reading from all the upper and lower case
  letters.  These were then modified in shape to make touch reading
  easier, yet at the same time keeping them still recognisable as Roman
  type.  A, B, D, P, and Q became more triangular in shape, O was a
  diamond and G a smaller diamond standing on a stalk.  The remainder
  of the letters were less changed from their original shape.
  
  Some introductory books were produced and then Gall published the
  gospel of St. John.  He entered the competition, but did not win the
  medal. In 1837 (p.10) he wrote, "After a long-continued, laborious and
  expensive series of experiments by means of blind persons, he has
  produced the perfect alphabet, which may now be considered the most
  simple, the most tangible, and therefore the most perfect alphabet which
  can be constructed for the blind".  It is noticeable that he did not present
  his code as the best so far, but was quite categoric about it being perfect
  - the word is repeated twice.
  
  It is worth giving some considerations to who those "blind people" were,
  and what success they really seemed to gain, for we are reminded of the
  exaggerated claims of Hay for his embossed script some 50 years
  earlier.  The first trials were with three or four pupils, chosen by the
  director of the Edinburgh Asylum, who received training by Gall three or
  four times a week for six months.  According to Anderson (1837, p.54),
  "The result was nothing more than being able to make out letter by letter
  and a few short words, some of them scarcely that."  A second trial
  (ibid., p.55) was made by six boys and a blind teacher at the asylum who
  practised daily for many months with no better result, "they even averred
  that they could get the gospel by heart in half the time" (ibid., p.55). 
  Similar results were gained from a sample of pupils in London.
  
  Later, Gall tried out "fretted type", that is the same shapes but made with
  embossed dots (Gall, 1837, p.56).  He found that the "rough and sharp"
  configurations enabled the finger to be more distinctly indented while a
  much slighter pressure was required to produce the effect that was
  needed.  He also found fretted embossing more durable, the shapes
  were less likely to "fall in the middle", the books were cheaper to
  produce and the pages could be printed on both sides.  His earlier code
  was tried out at the Glasgow Asylum but it was soon superseded by
  Alston Type.
  
    Alston Type
  John Alston of Glasgow Asylum used a modification of the prize-winning
  version sent in by Fry of Bristol.  Charles Baker, superintendent of the
  school for the deaf and dumb at Doncaster, wrote a series of small
  booklets for his pupils, and thinking that they could also be suitable for
  blind pupils he sent them to Alston to be embossed (Anderson, 1837,
  p.64).  One of them, "First Lessons on Religion, and a Series of Lessons
  on Prayer" is in the writer's possession and has an inscription on the
  flyleaf by Alston.  The capital letters are so unvarying in proportion that
  it must have been difficult to distinguish the differences for a beginner
  and possibly also for the more experienced reader.  The booklet
  measures 23 cm. in width by only 13 cm. in height, and the letters
  are about  cm. high, leaving very little space between the 15 lines for
  return sweeps to the next line.  There was a larger fount provided for the
  elderly.
                            
                            
                            
                            
                            
                            
             Alston Type (Baker, 1837, p.1)
                             
  Alston was a capable organiser and soon after the results of the
  competition were announced he established a committee for collecting
  funds for printing, and his types and printing press were ready soon
  after (Scottish Guardian, 1837, 7th April).  Public demonstrations of
  reading took place in 1838 and 1841 and already by 1840 he had
  printed "all the scriptures" and had sent consignments of his books to
  the Philadelphia institution in the United States where similar embossed
  capitals were being used.
  
  In 1842 (p.4) Alston wrote, "Fry's letters were too broad to be easily
  deciphered by touch.  Having therefore made numerous improvements
  on the size and sharpness of the type, and to obviate the sameness of
  some of the letters by adding the hair strokes as will be seen in the A,
  R, and N, etc.  I brought out several elementary books".  One wonders
  how successful the hair strokes were.
  
  Littledale Type
  Another modification of Roman type was tried out by Dawson Littledale
  who produced his code in 1838 (Armitage, 1886, p.2).  Like Hay, he
  used capitals as well as lower case letters which caused the reader
  more signs to learn and remember.
  
  Roman Upper and Lower Case Type
  Blair in a paper read in 1868 (printed 1876, p.11) reported that "a
  society has been founded ... to furnish embossed books in the Roman
  type to the blind, at a price within the reach of the poor".  The type used
  upper and lower case letters (Blair, 1877).
  
  4. ARBITRARY CODES
  
  Hughes Type
  G.A. Hughes, a blind man and governor of the Manchester School,
  described (1843, p.31) his "new puncticula stenographic system of
  embossing by which the blind of all nations will be able to emboss for
  themselves on paper without type and to attain a perfect knowledge in
  reading, arithmetic, etc., with unprecedented facility".  His manual is still
  available in libraries in Britain and in America.  Perkins School for the
  Blind, near Boston, Massachusetts, has examples of his code, but there
  seem to be no available examples of his work in this country.  Only three
  basic shapes were used, a dot, a dash, and a rosette or cluster of seven
  dots respectively used in various positions and combinations.  Armitage
  (1886, p.31) wrote, "It produced very good printing, could be worked
  tolerably fast, and was easy to learn.  It was, however, expensive". 
  Harris (1981, p.10) thought, "His system was apparently used for no
  more than one or two books".  If this was so it is possible that the
  punctiform code was too radical for British taste at that time.
  
  Lucas Type
  Thomas Lucas, a teacher of shorthand, produced a similar system for
  use by the blind (ibid., p.10), and he also opened a small school for
  them.  The abb Carton, director of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind School at
  Bruges, visited the school and subsequently recorded in his report
  (1838, p.37) "the class is not large, and the success is ordinary.  One of
  the pupils, after a year's practice, could only with difficulty read one line
  which I gave him in St. John's gospel, published by Mr. Lucas and only
  succeeded after making frequent mistakes".  It seems hardly fair to
  blame the method because of a poor performance by just one pupil, for
  the method was difficult for more than one reason.
  
  The signs consisted of a straight line, a curve, a circle and either a
  straight or a curved line with a circular blob to the side at one end.
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
           Lucas Type (Ritchie, 1930, p.51).
                             
  The signs seem simple in outline but confusion is likely to have resulted
  because similar signs are used in so many positions.  For example, the
  stright line with the blob had 16 different positions according to the
  angle of the line and on which side of the line the blob occurred, and
  eight positions for the curved example.
  
  The stenographic nature of the method was difficult for the learners, for
  vowels were often omitted and some wordsigns could have as many as
  three meanings.  The first sentence in St. John's gospel starts:
                                  in t bgini ws t wrd a t w ws w g, a t w ws g
  (In the beginning was the word and the word was with God,
                 and the word was God).
                  (Baker, 1859, p.54.)
                             
  Lucas moved to London and his code was extensively used by the
  London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read.  Even after his untimely
  death many volumes of the Bible continued to be transcribed by the
  Reverend Cowring.
  
  Frere Type
  Lucas type appeared in 1838 and James Hadley Frere also produced
  an embossed arbitrary code a few months later.  In his manual (1840)
  Frere described the invention of a phonetic system based on Gurney's
  shorthand for adults and children, which he later adapted for teaching
  the blind.  He printed the four gospels and part of the Acts of the
  Apostles.  He provided a shape for each of 26 sounds and also signs for
  long and short vowels.  The shapes were straight and hooked lines,
  curves and circles, and the system was written in boustrophedon, that
  is, reading from left to right as in visual reading, then a curved line led
  the finger to the next line to be read from right to left.  This was
  considered easier than retracing back by the finger before reading could
  continue from the left.  On the return line each letter was reversed.  The
  boustrophedon method not only saved time but less space was required
  between lines and thus was a cheaper method of production.
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
                            
           Frere Type (Ritchie, 1930, p.53).
                             
  5. MIXED ROMAN AND ARBITRARY TYPE
  
  Moon Type
  By the age of 21 William Moon had become totally blind.  He had
  wanted to be a church minister but because of loss of sight he learned
  the Frere code, bought some embossed books and set up a small
  school.  He was far from satisfied with the code and was very outspoken
  when he met the author (Rutherford, 1898, p.36): "I think it was in 1841
  that I first met with Mr. Frere, and told him of the difficulties connected
  with his system of reading.  He was very indignant and thought, being
  an older man than myself that he must know best.  I told him that if he
  did not make the alterations I suggested or something like them,
  someone would, at a future date, either do so, or would invent another
  method which would supersede it, little thinking that I should be the very
  individual that would do it four years later."
  
  The meeting is reminiscent of the one between Barbier and Braille when
  the latter while only young offered "some improvements", but Braille
  must have been far more restrained than the outspoken Mr. Moon.
  
  One of Moon's pupils who was "very deficient in intellect", spent five
  years trying to master reading by the Frere system.  One cannot help
  wondering why he was left to struggle for so long, but other pupils were
  also having difficulty so Moon determined to invent his own code.  "In 10
  days my former dull pupil was able to read sentences" (Moon, undated,
  braille edition, p.8).
  
  At first scrutiny there are obvious similarities between Frere and Moon
  codes for some of the signs are the same but have different meanings. 
  Moon also used the boustrophedon method.  On the return line, while
  still keeping the signs in word order, Moon kept their shapes the usual
  way round, whereas Frere had reversed each sign as though reading
  through a mirror.  There were other differences.  Frere's system, being
  phonetic, used a single sign to represent a sound, no matter how many
  letters were involved, whereas Moon used a full orthography.  Moon's
  code was therefore more suitable for children to learn to read and to
  spell, and for adults who had already learned by sighted methods.
  
  Moon used alphabetical shapes, modified where necessary to make
  them more suitable for touch reading, and where this was not possible
  he introduced a few arbitrary shapes.  As a result, he had an alphabet
  of 8 unaltered Roman letters, 11 Roman letters with parts left out, 2
  more that are barely recognisable for their original meaning, and five
  new forms.  It is sometimes difficult to recognise the origin of some of
  the modified letters but Moon must have considered this aspect
  mattered less than that they should be easily recognised by touch.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
            Moon Type (Ritchie, 1930, p.58)
                             
  His code met with increasing success, and it soon became evident that
  his future life was destined to be devoted to the provision of embossed
  religious literature.
  
  So far Moon had been using movable type which involved resetting each
  time a page with different content was to be printed.  This method was
  very slow and stereographic plates were too costly for the complete
  Bible to be embossed.  He therefore experimented late at night for some
  while (Rutherford, 1898, p.30), occasionally burning his fingers, and
  eventually he was able to make suitable plates for a quarter of the cost
  of those used by Frere.  Each plate was made of tinned iron which was
  washed over with a solution of chloride of zinc.  His letters were made
  of copper wire, cut and twisted into shape and when these were laid on
  the plate and heated and then cooled, they were firmly soldered on.  In
  this way he could prepare plates which could be used repeatedly.  By
  the end of 1851 he had completed the whole of the New Testament, the
  Psalms and part of the book of Isaiah (Moon, undated, braille edition,
  p.16).
  
  About 1853 Moon met Sir Charles Lowther (Rutherford, 1895, p.63), a
  blind man who was encouraged to collect and read embossed literature
  after his mother had brought back type and books from France
  embossed in Guillie type (ibid. p.24).  With the help of a servant he
  embossed St. Mark's Gospel and several of the Epistles for his personal
  use.  He was probably the first blind person in Britain to read embossed
  material for this was before the work of Gall and Alston.  He became
  interested in Moon's code and his philanthropic enterprise is shown by
  the fact that within a five year period he donated 9,909 volumes in the
  Moon code for use in Britain and America (ibid., p.63).  Moon was
  fortunate to have knowledge of his code spread in this way.
  
  Moon had had to give up the idea of being a minister in his early years,
  but now his deep religious beliefs and his evangelism, together with the
  enhancement of reading for the blind were to lead him to another great
  work.  With a friend, named Miss Graham, homes for the blind were
  visited with a three-fold purpose (Rutherford, 1898, pp.62-63) to teach,
  to lend books of the Bible and to read the scriptures to those unable to
  read.  This was the origin of the Home Visiting Society, and his son
  carried out similar work in Philadelphia.  Moon's evangelism led to a
  wide dissemination of his code.
  
  6. WRITING
  
  Blind people have always found difficulty in writing alphabet symbols
  and there was the added problem in many systems that the writer was
  not able to read his script.  In Britain, the first attempt was made by
  George Gibson of Birmingham who sent his apparatus and an
  explanation to the Society of Arts in May 1827, and for his work he
  received the Gold Vulcan Medal (Gibson, 1827, p.91).  He used prick
  writing (ibid., pp.90-96) in a manner which was probably similar to the
  method used by Mlle. Maria von Paradis nearly a hundred years earlier. 
  He used cubes of wood with a raised sighted letter on one end for
  identification and the same letter reversed but made of projecting pins
  at the other.  "If, therefore, a piece of paper be laid on a cushion, or
  surface of felt, and the type be pressed down, the points will enter the
  paper, and form on the under surface of it a raised or embossed
  representation".  A shallow box lined with padding was provided which
  Gibson called a "typograph".  It had slots on two opposite sides into
  which a metal bar was placed to hold the paper and a movable ruler was
  provided to keep the cubes in place during the writing process.  The
  type was stored in a drawer under the tray.
  
  Referring to the cost of paper in his day, Gibson suggested that "waste
  writing paper, such as has been written over with pen and ink, will
  answer the purpose of the blind quite as well as any other" (ibid., p.92). 
  He wrote letters by this method and also kept his own accounts.  Both
  Gall and Alston advocated prick writing but their respective apparatus
  was less sophisticated.
  
  Gall also used a "typhlograph", which was a guide to help with
  handwriting (1837, pp.15-19, pp.48-51).  It had a board for holding the
  paper, a slide-rest for enabling the writer to keep a straight line and a
  guide to help with forming the letters.  By holding a pencil against the
  edges of a hole in the guide, upward or downward curves could be
  made, and the hole also had markings at intervals to indicate where
  straight lines could be started and ended.  To make the next letter the
  pencil was held firmly at the right hand edge of the hole and then the
  guide was moved along so that the opposite side of the hole then met
  the pencil ready for the next letter to be inscribed.  It is possible that
  Hughes' method was the most successful of those attempted before
  1870 for it was regarded as providing good printing and according to
  Armitage (1886, p.31) the system could be used "tolerably fast".
  
  7. COMPARISONS
  
  The next few pages will endeavour to tease out some of the problems
  involved in the use of the Roman alphabet, and also arbitrary codes in
  order to bring some understanding and explanation of why most failed
  and only two are still in use today.  The braille code was becoming
  recognised in France but did not begin to come into use in Britain until
  1870.  The main aspects to be addressed are the size and shape of the
  characters, their presentation in terms of clarity of line and use of space,
  the use of stenographic, phonetic and letter by letter systems, and finally
  some comments on the chaos caused by the diversity of codes.
  
  Size and Shape of Configurations
  At first it was thought that recognition of embossed signs would be
  easier if the configuration was larger than those used in inkprint.  The
  range for visual reading can be enormous from letters on an air balloon
  in the sky to small print on a bottle of pills.  By comparison the range for
  tactile reading has to be very small indeed.  Only one letter at a time can
  be sensed, and if it is larger than the size of the finger pad then up and
  down and rotary movements will occur in attempts to collect the required
  information.  These extra movements interrupt the light, even
  progression along a line of signs which is the best method leading to
  comprehension of words and sentences.  In other words, if the sign is
  too large, the reading process is slower, and at the opposite end of the
  scale, if the signs are too compressed and produced too close together,
  the image seems blurred as in type that is too small for visual reading. 
  Size and spacing of characters are critical factors for successful tactile
  reading.
  
  Line Type
  The early code makers who used an embossed Roman alphabet were,
  a priori, bound to find difficulties.  Visually the alphabet signs seem
  simple, but tactually they are hard to decipher because many of the
  signs are complicated to the touch.  To take a few examples: a capital
  A has a simple outline but the internal crossbar is difficult to sense; M
  and W are even more difficult because of the number of down strokes;
  and a lower e has a difficult curve to sense and the gap at the right may
  not be recognised so that the letter may be misread as an o.  Densely
  packed configurations are extremely difficult for perception and
  cognition to take place.  Hay, Guilli and Dufau in France, and Alston
  and Gall in Britain, experimented with different sizes of character but
  comparatively few pupils met with success.  The problem was further
  compounded by the fact that large bulky books were very time
  consuming and costly to produce, so it was tempting to make the
  characters smaller than suited the majority of users.
  
  Gall had showed some understanding of the problem when he wrote of
  "throwing the characteristics of each letter to the outside" (1837, p.10),
  but if he had taken that idea too far the letters would have been
  unrecognisable to those with vision.  The sighted code makers of the
  time had not enough understanding of the processes involved to be able
  to accept the idea of an arbitrary code.  They considered that their
  codes should be recognisable to sighted and blind alike.  On the other
  hand, Moon, who had once had vision before he became blind at the
  age of 21, understood the problem and was prepared to go further. 
  Keeping some of the easiest alphabet shapes helped readers who had
  once read by a sighted method and by altering others to very simple
  shapes he achieved more success.  
  
  Punctiform Type
  The success of embossed dots over line type had been discovered in
  France, but in Britain at this time the nearest approach to braille were
  the codes of Littledale and Hughes.  Gall was reaching out towards this
  method when he discontinued using his angular shaped alphabet letters
  and used simpler shapes with a fretted surface.  If Hughes' code had
  been better known in his day the standard of reading might have
  improved.
  
    Presentation
  The discomfiture of reading cramped letters on a badly presented page
  is well known, and it must be even more frustrating if similar faults occur
  in tactile reading.  Embossed characters not only need to be of suitable
  size and clear in outline, but pleasant to feel as well.  More variations
  are possible than may at first seem likely, and these include an easily
  recognised line or dot that is pleasant to the touch and of suitable height
  and with good spacing variables.  The early code makers tended to pay
  too little attention to spaces between lines for fingers to make return
  sweeps between two lines of characters to the beginning of the next line. 
  This may be because of lack of imagination on the part of sighted code
  makers, and was certainly also because of cost.  The spacing between
  lines was not so critical where the boustrophedon method of printing
  was used.
  
  Taylor, who judged the competition organised by the Society of Arts,
  was an advocate of the use of Roman type.  He wrote (1838, p.102) the
  greatest sum of advantages "may not be the one which occupies the
  least space, for the bulk of books is of much less importance that the
  ease with which the contents can be perused".  When Gall started using
  fretted letters he found that less pressure was necessary in production
  of material, so for the first time he was able to use thinner paper and
  introduce printing on both sides by the use of interlining.  That is, the
  line on the reverse side occurs between the lines of the first side.  This
  was a distinct advantage because it made a saving in cost and the idea
  was used again soon after the braille code was introduced into this
  country.  Moon paid attention to dot height as well; for more advanced
  readers he arranged for the lines to be "flatter as well as nearer" (report
  of the Royal Commission on the Useful Arts, 1852, p.421).
  
  Taylor (1838, p.90) summed up the quality of line type required as
  follows: "The paper used in printing in relief should be very good and
  strong, not liable to tear, tolerably thick and well-sized.  If it be too thick
  the letter will not be sharp nor well-defined; neither should the elevation
  be too much elevated, or it will increase the bulk of the book and be
  more liable to injury.  About 1/40 or 1/35 of an inch is generally found
  sufficiently high for small type impressions.  Alphabets in first books for
  beginners should be a little higher." 
  
  Stenographic, Phonetic, and Full Orthographic Systems
  When reading accounts of the first 50 years of code production in Britain
  it is easy to be left with the impression of six codes being in contention
  for most of the time.  However, the report of the Royal Commission
  (1852, p.420) stated that "the present state of printing in Roman
  character in Great Britain is ... that every press has been stopped, while
  books in arbitrary characters seem to be increasing in gaining favour". 
  Littledale and Hughes type were only in production for a short while, so
  the relative merits of Lucas, Frere and Moon types remained.
  
  Lucas' stenographic method left out so many letters in the words and
  there were as many as three different meanings for many of the signs,
  with the result that it was considered by some to be difficult to learn and
  to understand, yet others found it easy to use.  How then can this
  apparent discrepancy be understood?  Maybe the difference of opinion
  can be explained by a reason which has more to do with the attitude of
  the time rather than emphasis on the difficulties of the code.  Because
  Bible reading was so much encouraged, and especially for the blind, it
  is possible that though Lucas type might seem difficult for a first reading,
  the very familiarity of the Bible words and Bible stories would supply the
  clue to the sign meanings.  That is, the text served as a reminder rather
  than a provider of first hand knowledge.
  
  The boustrophedon system of printing used by Frere and Moon for their
  codes is of mixed value.  Undoubtedly it saved time because no
  unproductive return sweeps are necessary, but this advantage may
  have been outweighed for learners by the problems of perception when
  meeting words in a different form in the return line.
  
  8. CONCLUSION
  
  Each time a new code was invented the originator must have considered
  it to be the best and therefore not likely to be superseded, but
  unfortunately with every new system more difficulties became apparent
  for the very people for whom help was intended.  Learners tended to
  know only one code, which was the method taught by the nearest
  institution, and so they were likely to be debarred from being able to
  understand other codes.  Books were few because of expense and often
  duplicated in more than one code.  This was particularly true of the Bible
  and other religious works.  Thus there was an extreme shortage of
  reading material with few subjects covered, and there was consequent
  wastage of money and a great deal of unnecessary frustration for
  readers.
  
  Eventually, it became abundantly clear that a resolution to the crisis
  must be found.  Meetings were arranged, usually attended by only the
  sighted superintendents of institution, and they tended to favour the
  system with which they were most familiar.  They also made the mistake
  of thinking that the matter could be solved quickly in perhaps one or two
  meetings.  Baker (1859, p.66) wrote: "A conference should be held,
  partly composed of intelligent blind men to ascertain whether it is
  possible to unite all parties in the prosecution of one system of printing,
  or whether all should persevere in a course which divides the friends of
  the blind and injures their cause."
  
  One blind man, Thomas Rhodes Armitage, was to show the imagination
  and determination to resolve this crisis in Britain.  His work will be
  described and evaluated in the next chapter.
  