George Da via so 
 1825-1911 
 
RINTING FOR THE BLIND 
 
 EEPORT 
 
 OF A COMMITTEE OF THE 
 
 g^mcriran Social ^cmn %^uchim, 
 
 AT THE GENERAL SESSION 
 
 IN DETROIT, MICHIGAN, 
 
 MAY, 1875, 
 
 BOSTON: 
 ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET. 
 
 18 75. 
 
PRINTING FOR THE BLIND. 
 
 EEPORT 
 
 OF A COMMITTEE OF THE 
 
 AT THE GENERAIi SESSION 
 
 IN DETROIT, MICHIGAN, 
 
 MAY, 1875. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET. 
 
 18 75. 
 
Dear Sir, I send 3^ou the following copy of the Eeport of a 
 Committee of the American Social Science Association, which was 
 read at the four daj^s' meeting recentl}- held in Detroit, INIichigan, 
 which will soon be published with the full proceedings of that Con- 
 vention. 
 
 It will be seen that they strongly recommend organizing an 
 Association, to produce, at one central place, all the maps, charts, 
 globes, printing of all books, all school apparatus, writing-boards 
 of different kinds, slates of different patterns, and every kind of 
 apparatus invented for the blind. 
 
 On the last leaf of the cover I have added a statement of the 
 object and present organization of the American Social Science 
 Association, as some may not be aware of the broad ground of 
 usefulness it is occupying and the great social benefits it is accom- 
 plishing. 
 
 S. P. RUGGLES. 
 
 Boston, June, 1875. 
 
 Jutuu^A^ Jx'<4f^^ 
 
Hvnoj 
 
 AG 
 
 REPORT. 
 
 Mr. Sanborn read the following Report, prepared by President 
 Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard Universit}^ on behalf of a committee 
 consisting of himself, Henry Villard, and George T. Angell, on the 
 subject of 
 
 "PRINTING FOR THE BLIND." 
 
 The undersigned were appointed a committee to examine the 
 educational apparatus for the use of the blind which has been in- 
 vented within the past few years hy Mr. S. P. Ruggles, of Boston, 
 and to consider the proposition which he made to the superintend- 
 ents of Blind As^'lums in 1871. They have attended to this duty, 
 and have the honor to present the following Report : 
 
 With the best appliances now in use, the blind, unless very ex- 
 ceptionally intelligent, read, write, and cipher through the sense 
 of touch, slowly and laboriously. All knowledge which is obtained 
 through reading and writing they therefore acquire painfull}^ ; they 
 study Geography, Algebra, and Geometry under heavy disadvan- 
 tages, and composition, even in their native language, is for them 
 very difficult, because of the time and labor required for the mechan- 
 ical operation of writing in such a fashion that they can themselves 
 read by the touch what they have written. Moreover, the tools 
 with which the blind now read and write and study Geography and 
 Arithmetic are costly, so that even the best-equipped asylums are 
 but scantily provided with the most indispensable tools. 
 
 To improve these appliances materiall}^, and to make them cheap, 
 would therefore be an immense service to the blind ; and it is just 
 this service which Mr. Ruggles wishes to render them. It will be 
 most convenient to consider his various inventions under the several 
 heads of Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Geography. 
 
 1.^ Reading. The blind read by touching with their fingers 
 raised letters. Neglecting unessential variations there are two 
 
 A 
 
kinds of letters in this country : first, letters which closely resem- 
 ble in shape the letters used in print for people who see ; and 
 secondly-, letters which are made up of points without connecting 
 lines. The first kind was introduced, and has been widely dissem- 
 inated, by the Perkins Institution, at South Boston, Massachu- 
 setts ; the best examples of the second are the Braille letters for 
 writing, and the letters introduced by the New York Institution 
 for the Blind for both printing and writing. The Boston letter has 
 the advantage of being easily read by those who see, and it has 
 been used in a large number of books ; but there is no question 
 that the point letters are much easier to read by touch, and that a 
 considerably larger proportion of blind people can learn to read 
 them with facility than can learn to read the Boston letter. It may 
 be doubted whether the point alphabets alread}^ in use are the best 
 possible, but it cannot be doubted that thc}^ are superior to the 
 Boston letters. In reading the Boston letters the blind feel only 
 the corners and extremities of tlie letters, not their whole outlines. 
 Sharply raised, isolated points are much easier to feel with distinct- 
 ness than the ends and angles of lines. One objection which has 
 been urged against the Braille and New York characters is that 
 they cannot be easily read by the eye, so that teachers who can 
 see are put to some inconvenience by using with tlieir blind pupils 
 books printed in these characters. The objection is not a forcible 
 one ; but Mr. Ruggles has found a way to meet it by making a 
 point alphabet which is superimposed upon a lower embossed 
 Roman letter, each character presents prominent points for the 
 touch, and lower but perfectly distinct lines for the sight. 
 
 The number of books printed for the blind is relatively very 
 small, on account of the costliness of printing in embossed charac- 
 ters. Stereotyping is the only available method of preserving for 
 future use the pages once composed ; and the ordinary mode of 
 stereot3'ping locks up so much metal that the books printed from 
 the plates become very costly, inasmuch as large editions are never 
 needed, and the demand is slow at the best. Mr. Ruggles has 
 invented a method of stereotyping plates of embossed characters 
 which is so easy and cheap that everything printed for the blind 
 might be stereotyped at once, and so preserved in a permanent 
 form. The amount of metal used in his process is not more than 
 one fifth of that required in the ordinary process of stereotyping, 
 yet the plates are durable and perfectly adapted to their purpose. 
 
The process is applicable to any embossed alphabet, whether in 
 points or lines, but not to the tj^pe used for persons who see. In 
 printing for the blind Mr. Ruggles would stereotype every page as 
 soon as it was set up and corrected, so that a very small quantity 
 of type would suffice for a book, however large, and that small 
 amount would never be put into the press. Indeed, with Mr. Rug- 
 gles' method it would be cheaper to stereotype a book for the blind 
 than to print it in any other wa}'". In elementary schools for blind 
 children the stereotype plates themselves would be exceedingly 
 useful in giving lessons which are so often repeated that the prom- 
 inences upon paper sheets would soon be flattened b}^ the pressure 
 of many fingers. Thus, the alphabets, the first lessons in reading, 
 the Multiplication Table, and the Table of Weights and Measures 
 might well be presented to the pupils on metal plates. 
 
 2. Writing. Intelligent blind persons can learn to write the 
 ordinary running hand so that persons who see can read it. In 
 writing this character they use a pasteboard guide of the size of a 
 large sheet of paper. This board contains, at the proper intervals 
 for lines of writing, depressions which guide the fingers of the 
 writer in forming the letters and carrying the lines of writing 
 across the sheet of paper which is placed upon the board. Mr. 
 Ruggles has devised a method of making these pasteboard guides 
 in two diff'erent patterns with the utmost accuracy, and at the same 
 time ver}' cheaply, so that they could be sold at four or five cents 
 apiece, which is a small fraction of their present cost. 
 
 This writing, however, cannot be read by the blind, and it is of 
 the utmost importance that the blind should be taught a handwrit- 
 ing which they can read themselves. That the blind should receive 
 a large part of their instruction through the ear bj^ oral teaching 
 is inevitable ; now, persons who can see have great difficulty in 
 learning much from lectures alone, without aid from books or speci- 
 mens, unless they can take notes of the lectures, and studj^ these 
 notes afterwards by themselves. To apprehend is one thing : to 
 digest, remember, and reproduce is another ; and mere apprehen- 
 sion is the least precious part of the complex processes which make 
 up mental training. In order that the}^ may assimilate the instruc- 
 tion which they receive by the ear the blind need a handwriting 
 which they can read by touch. The Braille point-writing, which has 
 been extensively adopted in Europe, answers this purpose well, 
 though it is far from compact, and on that account is not well adapted 
 
6 
 
 for printing. The New York system of point writing and printing, 
 advocated by Mr. William B. Wait, Superintendent of the New York 
 Institution for the Blind, gives the blind an available handwriting, 
 and being more compact than the Braille writing, can be advantage- 
 ously used in printing also. It is no trifling advantage of the New 
 York system that the same characters are used for both printing 
 and writing ; for the organs of touch work so slowly, when compared 
 with the eye, that the fewer the characters the blind must learn to 
 distinguish the better, although of course it would be easier to learn 
 many plain characters than a few obscure ones. Both the Braille 
 and the New York alphabets are punched upon paper by means 
 of a style which is held in the hand, and is guided by a metallic 
 frame placed over the paper, the paper being held upon a back- 
 board made of grooved metal, or of wood covered with cloth. 
 These frames or guides are absolutely essential to both systems of 
 writing, and upon the merits of their construction the success of 
 either S3 stem entirely depends. The frames used in the two sys- 
 tems are analogous, though not alike. Mr. Ruggles has greatly 
 improved, and at the same time cheapened, the Braille writing 
 frame. The metallic guide of this frame in its common form holds 
 but two lines of writing, and therefore requires frequent shifting 
 down the page. Mr. Ruggles*3 guide covers the whole page, and is, 
 of course, much more convenient. With the ordinary Braille writ- 
 ing-frame only one side of the paper can be used ; with Mr. Rug- 
 gles' s frame both sides can be used, and the writing will be equally 
 legible, or rather tangible, on both sides of the sheet. This economy 
 is effected b}^ a simple contrivance analogous to that of the register 
 in common printing. The cost of writing-frames is of consequence, 
 because every instructed blind person should have one in common 
 use. The New York frame now costs $3.50, and the ordinary 
 Braille frame not less. Mr. Ruggles^s frame for the Braille writing 
 is much less expensive. 
 
 The Institutions for the Blind in this country have too much neg- 
 lected instruction in ix>int-writing. At the Perkins Institution at 
 South Boston, certainly a leading Institution for the Blind, instruc- 
 tion in point handwriting is not included in the course of studies. 
 At a meeting of the American Association of Instructors of the 
 Blind, held at Batavia, N. Y., in August, 1874, the following reso- 
 lution was adopted : 
 
 " Resolved^ that it is the duty of each superintendent to acquaint 
 himself fully and practically with the Braille, the New York, and 
 
other sj'stems of alphabet writing and musical notation for the 
 blind, in order that he may be prepared to form an intelligent opin- 
 ion as to their respective merits as S3\stems." This resolution 
 implies that the superintendents of Blind As3^1ums, or some of them, 
 were in August last not acquainted with these systems. The com- 
 mittee are inclined to agree with Mr. "Wait in his emphatic statement 
 that *' the use of tangible written language is indispensable to the 
 proper instruction and training of the blind. Without it, no sys- 
 tem of education can be complete ; without it, no school can effi- 
 ciently prosecute its work." * 
 
 3. Arithmetic, The blind generally use in ciphering a metallic 
 or wooden frame full of square holes, into which t3'pe, bearing in 
 some cases the common figures and in others certain conventional 
 signs for the digits, are inserted. The metallic frames are heavy 
 and costly, and they blacken the fingers ; the wooden frames are 
 expensive and fragile. Mr. Ruggles makes out of a thin block of 
 wood with a zinc top a light, durable, and clean frame full of pen- 
 tagonal holes, and in this frame, instead of nine or ten kinds of 
 type, he uses type of but one sort. Projecting upwards on the 
 edge of one end of this pentagonal t3^pe is a raised point, and on 
 the edge of the other end a raised line. The point, in the five posi- 
 tions which the pentagon supplies, gives five tangible characters, 
 and the line in the five positions gives the other five of the ten 
 needed to indicate 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. A few more t^^pe 
 give all the additional characters needed for solving algebraical 
 problems. Although Mr. E-uggles considers the pentagonal hole 
 and the single pentagonal tyi^e better than any contrivance now in 
 use, 3^et he can cut with the ingenious machine which makes these 
 frames, oblong, square, round, or hexagonal holes, and j^et 
 retain all the merits of his frame, though not those of his pentago- 
 nal type. Institutions or individuals preferring the ordinary square 
 type bearing the common figures could use these type in the im- 
 proved frames. 
 
 4. Geography, The appliances for teaching Geography to the 
 blind are globes in wood or papeir-mache, and maps in wood, plas- 
 ter or paper, on all of which mountains, rivers, seas, towns, natural 
 outlines, and political boundaries are indicated by elevations and 
 depressions, or other tangible marks like pin-heads, screw-heads, 
 
 * Thirty-Ninth Annual Eeport of the Managers of the New York Institu- 
 tion for the BUnd for the Year ending September 30, 1874. 
 
8 
 
 parallel embossed lines, and similar devices. The best of all con- 
 trivances for imparting a knowledge of natural and political bound- 
 aries to the blind is tlie dissected map, from which the piece repre- 
 senting a country or a continent can be actual!}^ taken out and 
 grasped in the hands. We cannot learn the shape of objects by 
 touch alone unless we can embrace them or completely encircle 
 them in our hands ; following the outline of a body with the fin- 
 ger will not give an unerring conception of form. Hence the 
 great superiority of dissected maps in wood or other tough mate- 
 rial, as a means of informing the blind concerning the subdivisions 
 of the earth's surface, whether natural or artificial. Maps on paper 
 are very useful adjuncts at a later stage. The best equipped Insti- 
 tutions for the Blind are very ill-provided with apparatus for teach- 
 ing Geograph3^ The Perkins Institution still uses the well-worn 
 globes and wall-maps which were made by Mr. Ruggles more than 
 thirt}^ years ago, when he w^as in the service of that institution. 
 The New York Institution has good wooden maps for class- 
 room use, some of which are dissected, but it has no paper 
 atlases or other maps for individual ownership and private use. 
 We should think school-children with eyes very poorly equipped 
 unless each one had his own geography and atlas. These two 
 institutions are the oldest in the country, and both have fair 
 resources, partly derived from endowments and partly from the 
 State. Now, wooden dissected maps for the blind ought to be 
 as common and cheap as the dissected puzzles which are sold for 
 the amusement of children who can see. Embossed maps should 
 also be printed for the use of the more advanced students. Mr. 
 Ruggles has demonstrated that such maps can be cheaply printed 
 and made so firm that they will resist nmch handling. 
 
 In carrying on his experiments on embossed alphabets and maps 
 Mr. Ruggles has lately built a new press, being the fifth press 
 which he has constructed expressly for printing for the blind. The 
 first and third of these presses were built for the Perkins Institu- 
 tion, where thej^ were used for more than thirty years. The second 
 press was built for the Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind, and 
 the fourth, in 1863, for the American Printing House at Louisville. 
 The new press is larger and more powerful than any of its prede- 
 cessors, and is especially adapted to produce a large map sheet. 
 
 On the 15th of January, 1871, Mr. Ruggles addressed the fol- 
 lowing proposition to the superintendents of all Institutions for the 
 Blind in the United States : 
 
9 
 
 " If all the Institutions for the Blind in the United States will 
 choose a publishing committee, said committee representing all 
 said institutions, whose duty it shall be to decide what books, 
 maps, etc., shall be printed, the number of copies in each edition, 
 and how to be distributed among the different blind people and 
 institutions, I will get up an improved printing establishment, 
 supplied with all the necessary printing-presses, all the type of 
 various kinds for books, maps, and all other work, together with 
 all the conveniences for electrotyping and stereotyping, and also 
 all the appliances necessary for the manufacture of the school ap- 
 paratus, and all the things needed for the successful operation of 
 the entire mechanical departments of such an establishment, and 
 all at my own expense, without any charge or cost to said commit- 
 tee or institutions, and I will also superintend the same without 
 pay or cost to any one, my sole object being to give to the blind 
 the benefit of all the improvements which I have thought out and 
 perfected within the past ten years, and which I believe will be 
 found to be nearly or quite as much in advance of the present 
 modes of instruction, printing, etc., as the improvements which I 
 made in 1835 were in advance of everything prior to that time." 
 
 Most of the superintendents thus addressed repeatedly expressed 
 the warmest interest in this offer, but no common action was taken 
 by the different institutions, and Mr. Ruggles' generous proposal 
 has thus far been without fruition. At a convention of superin- 
 tendents of Institutions for the Blind, held at Indianapolis in the 
 summer of 1871, and at a meeting of the American Association 
 of Instructors of the Blind, held at Boston in August, 1872, com- 
 mittees were appointed to confer with Mr. Ruggles in regard to 
 his proposal, but they found no means of giving effect to Mr. 
 Ruggles' benevolent intentions. At the next meeting of the Asso- 
 ciation, held in August, 1874, at Batavia, New York, the following 
 resolutions were adopted : 
 
 *' Resolved^ That the Association hereby express their ver3^high 
 appreciation of the munificent offer made b}^ Mr. S. P. Ruggles, 
 and the earnest desire that his inventions for the benefit of the 
 blind may be made available to the greatest possible number and 
 at the earliest practicable time. 
 
 " Resolved, That we believe that the purposes of Mr. Ruggles 
 can be best carried out by a Board of Trust of his own selection, 
 with which we shall be glad to co-operate." 
 3 
 
10 
 
 There is much reason in the last resolution. ' The work of mak- 
 ing books, writing-frames, arithmetic-frames, globes, and maps for 
 the blind is a mechanical business,which, in addition to a thorough 
 knowledge of the wants of the blind, requires ingenuity, manual 
 skill, and familiarity with the processes and resources of many 
 different arts and trades. There is no more propriety in carrjdng 
 on this mechanical business in a school or asylum for the blind 
 than there would be in manufacturing in a high school or college 
 the books, slates, blackboards, and chalk of which it made use. 
 The qualities which make a good superintendent of an asylum or 
 a good teacher of blind persons are very seldom combined in the 
 same individual with the qualities which go to make a successful 
 head of a machine-shop or of a printing-establishment. There 
 should be in this country a separate corporation, devoted exclu- 
 sively to manufacturing the implements and books which are 
 needed by the blind, having no purpose whatever of mone3^-mak- 
 ing, and conducted in the interest of all the blind and of all the 
 institutions which care for them. The corporation would be, in 
 the main, a charitable corporation, although there is no reason 
 why it should not have some receipts as well as expenses. Ac- 
 cording to the United States census of 1870, there were then but 
 20,320 blind persons in the whole country, of whom less than 
 4,000 were under twenty years of age. It is possible, perhaps 
 probable, that the number is considerably understated, but if, with 
 Mr. F. B. Sanborn, we should add forty per cent to these figures, 
 the number of blind persons in condition to make use of books, 
 maps, writing-frames, etc., would still be too small to make the 
 business of manufacturing these articles remunerative. 
 
 It is very desirable that this work of charity should be begun, 
 in accordance with the suggestion of the Association of Instruc- 
 tors of the Blind, by the organization of a permanent corporation 
 which should take advantage of Mr. Ruggles' public-spirited offer 
 to place his skill, his time, and all his inventions and machinery, 
 at the service of the blind. The work of such a corporation, 
 begun with the help and under the guidance of Mr. Ruggles, 
 would become a permanent charity of a very useful sort. 
 
 The committee are convinced that endowment would be neces- 
 sar}' to carry on the work in a satisfactory manner, and they rec- 
 ommend the Social Science Association to take all measures in their 
 power to promote the organization of the corporation and secure 
 for it an adequate endowment. 
 
5 PEMBERTON SQUARE, BOSTON. 
 
 This Association, founded in 1865, has for its object to organ- 
 ize and concentrate forces now working at random. A marked 
 feature of ttie time is the desire to investigate and ameliorate 
 the conditions of human life. But this impulse, too often fit- 
 ful and ill directed, is apt to defeat itself. Thus, all com- 
 petent authorities agree that the overflowing and unregulated 
 spirit of charity is one of the most hurtful and dangerous of 
 our social tendencies. The British Association, in successful 
 operation since 1857, aims to propose suggestions of reform 
 for the attention of the ministrj^ Such an agency appears 
 to be much more necessary in this countr}^, not onl}' from the 
 inefficiency and unsteadiness of executive government, but 
 from the want of connection between the States. Upon the 
 great subjects of Finance, Taxation, Education, Jurisprudence, 
 Health, Charities, Pauperism, Prisons, Railwa^^s, Insurance, 
 Police, etc. etc., not to speak of the lack of system in individ- 
 ual States, there are or may be thirty-seven different systems, 
 unconnected and without reference or advantage to each other- 
 To bring into closer relations men of special talents and ac" 
 quirements in different States, and, while excluding frivolities 
 and crotchets, to establish general principles as against em- 
 piricism in the conduct of society, is the purpose for which 
 we ask the sympathy, not only of the friends of humanity 
 but of every lover of his country. 
 
AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 LIST OJP OFFICISRS, 1875. 
 
 f PKESIDENT. 
 
 David A. Wells, Norwich, Conn. 
 VICE- PRESIDENTS. 
 Samuel Eliot, Boston. J. W. Hoyt, Madison, Wis, 
 
 Theodore D. Woolsey, New Ha- Charles I. Walker, Detroit, Mich. 
 ven, Conn. William G. Hammond, Iowa City. 
 
 H. C. Lea, Philadelphia. George Davidson, San Francisco. 
 
 Hkv. Dr. James McCosH, l^rinceton, D C. Gilman, ^aZ^/more. 
 N. J. W. T. Hauhis, St. Louis. 
 
 Rev. Dr. M, B. Anderson, Bochester, N. Y. 
 
 SECRETARY. 
 
 F. B. Sanborn, Concord, Mass. 
 
 TREASURER. 
 
 Gamaliel Bradford, Boston (5 reniberton Square). 
 
 DIRECTORS. 
 Emory Washburn, Cambridge. Mrs. Henry Whitman, Boston. 
 
 Charles W. Eliot, * Miss A. W. May, " 
 
 Prof. Benj. Pierce, *' Bev. E. C. Guild, Waltham. 
 
 S. G. Howe, Boston. Rev. Dr. E. C. Wines, New York. 
 
 T. C. Amory, *' H. ViLLARD, Nevj York. 
 
 C. C. Perkins, " Nathan Allen, Lovjell. 
 
 J. M.. Barnard, Boston. Dorman B. Eaton, New York. 
 
 R. M. Mason, " E. Lloyd Howa^^d, Baltimore. 
 
 J. S. Blatchford, Boston. Henry B. Baker. Lansing, Mich. 
 
 E. E. Hale, " Z. R. Brockway, Detroit, Mich. 
 
 George T. Angell, ** Mrs. W. P. Lynde, Milwaukee. 
 
 J. M. Forbes, ** Thomas M. Logan, m. d., Sacra- 
 
 Mrs. John E. Lodge, Boston. mento, Cal. 
 
 Mrs. S. Parkman, " D. W. Wilder, Topeka, Kan. 
 
 Mrs. C. H. Dall, " 
 
 The Chairmen and Secretaries of the Five Departments are to be adder! 
 to the above list, if not already included. They are : 
 
 I. Department of Education, C. W. Eliot, Chairman; , 
 
 Secretary. 
 IL Department of Health, Dr. Edward Wigglesworth, Boston, 
 
 Chairman; Dr. D. F. Lincoln, Secretary. 
 
 III. Department of Jurisprudence, , Chairman; , Secretary. 
 
 IV. Department of Trade and Finance, David A. Wells, Chairman ; 
 
 Prof. W. G. Sumner, New Haven, Secretary. 
 V. Department of Social Economy, Prof. W. B. Rogers, Boston, 
 Chairman; F. B. Sanborn, Secretary. 
 
 The fee for membership is $5, and all are invited to become members 
 who feel an interest in our work. All members are entitled to receive the 
 year's publications of the Association, "The Journal of Social Science" 
 being the principal of these. Seven numbers of this Journal have been 
 issued, and No. 8 may be expected in the autumn of 1875. The price of 
 Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 is $1.50 each; of Nos. 6 and 7, SI. 00 each. 
 
 Special papers appearing in " The Journal of Social Science" may be or- 
 dered separately, when in print, at the rate of 10 cents for every 15 pages. 
 
 All the publications of the Association, including Nos. 2, 3, 5, G, and 7 
 of "The Journal of Social Science," m;iy be ordered of tl)e Secretary of 
 the Association, 5 Pemberton Square, Boston ; or of the Publishers (Hurd 
 & Houghton, New York; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass.). 
 
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 This b^rrDUE t ^rT ""^''^ '""'^^''- 
 
 = -he last date .aped5eW. 
 
 MAY 12 J948 
 
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