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Louis Braille

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Inventor

The Resume

    (January 4, 1809-January 6, 1852)
    Born in Paris, France
    Inventor of braille, the system used for reading and writing by the blind and visually impaired
    Published the book 'Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Songs by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them' (1829)
    Died of tuberculosis in Paris at age 43

Why he might be annoying:

    He lost his sight at age three fooling around with his father's stitching awl, poking himself in the eye, where it became infected and spread to his other eye.
    His braille system was merely a simplification of a code developed by Charles Barbier, a captain in the French army, called sonography (aka 'night writing').
    That book he published has a 21 word title.
    His braille system was not officially recognized or used in France until two years after his death.

Why he might not be annoying:

    Learning and excelling in school just by listening to teachers, he was given a scholarship to the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris at age 10.
    He became a classically trained pianist and organist.
    The school had just 14 raised-print textbooks, which he quickly read and which made him think about ways of improving the system.
    After Capt. Barbier visited the school in 1821, he took the system he learned from him, a complex coding of 12 dots and several dashes, and developed it into the six raised dot system that is still in use today.
    He became a well-honored teacher at the Institute, but the air at the establishment aggravated his tuberculosis, and he died without seeing the long reaching impact of his invention.
    Braille has now been translated to nearly every language on the planet, forever giving the blind a way to read and write.
    Helen Keller quoted, 'We the blind are as indebted to Louis Braille as mankind is to Gutenberg . . . Without a dot system what a chaotic, inadequate affair our education would be.'
    In 1952 (the century of his death), his remains were moved to the famed Panthéon, where he lies with such other notable French citizens as Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Louis Pasteur and Madame Marie Curie.

Credit: Scar Tactics


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 15 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 14 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 19 Votes: 52.63% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 17 Votes: 23.53% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 20 Votes: 30.0% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 148 Votes: 58.11% Annoying