Night writing is the name given to a form of writing invented by

Charles Barbier Charles Barbier de la Serre (18 May 1767 – 22 April 1841) was the inventor of several forms of shorthand and alternative means of writing, one of which became the inspiration for Braille. Barbier was born in Valenciennes and served in the Fren ...

as one of a dozen forms of alternative writing presented in a book published in 1815: ''Essai sur Divers Procédés D'Expéditive Française, Contenant douze écritures différentes, avec une Planche pour chaque procédé'' (Essay on Various Processes of French Expedition, Containing twelve different writings, with a Plate for each process). The term (in French: ''écriture nocturne'') does not appear in the book, but was later applied to the method shown on Plate VII of that book. This method of writing with raised dots that could be read by touch was adopted at the Institution Royale des Jeune Aveugles (

Royal Institution for Blind Youth Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (''National Institute for Blind Children'' or ''Royal Institution for Blind Youth''), in Paris, was the first special school for blind students in the world, and served as a model for many subsequent school ...

) in Paris. Barbier also invented the tools for creating writing with raised dots. A student at the school,

Louis Braille Louis Braille (; ; 4 January 1809 – 6 January 1852) was a French educator and the inventor of a reading and writing system, named braille after him, intended for use by visually impaired people. His system is used worldwide and remains virtua ...

, used the tools and Barbier's idea of communicating with raised dots in a form of code, and developed a more compact and flexible system for communications.

References

{{Writingsystem-stub Tactile alphabets 1808 introductions Writing systems introduced in the 19th century

See also

References