Blind
Blind names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Blind THE, those who want
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THE, those who want, or are deficient in, the sense of sight. Blindness may vary in degree from the slightest impairment of vision to total loss of sight; it may also be temporary or permanent. It is caused by defect, disease, or injury to the eye, to the optic nerve, or to that part of the brain connected with it. Old age is sometimes accompanied with blindness, occasioned by the drying up of the humors of the eye, or by the opacity of the cornea, the crystalline lens, etc. There are several causes which produce blindness from birth. As early as 1260 an asylum for the blind (L'hospice des Quinze-Vingts) was founded in Paris by St. Louis for the recrusaders who lost their sight lief of the in Egypt and Syria; but the first institution for the instruction of the blind was the idea of Valentin Haüy, brother of the celebrated mineralogist. In 1784 he opened an institution in which they were instructed not only in appropriate mechanical employments, as spinning, knitting, making ropes or fringes, and working in pasteboard, but also in music, in reading, writing, ciphering, geography, and the sciences. For instruction in reading he procured raised letters of metal; for writing he used particular writing cases, in which a frame, with wires to separate the lines, could be fastened upon the paper; for ciphering there were movable figures of metal, and ciphering boards in which the figures could be fixed; for teaching geography maps were prepared upon which mountains, rivers, cities, and the boundaries of countries were indicated to the sense of touch in various ways, etc. Similar institutions were soon afterward founded in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dresden, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, Vienna, and in many cities of the United States. There are now comparatively few large cities that do not possess a school or institution of some kind for the blind. Various systems have been devised for the purpose of teaching the blind to read, some of which consist in the use of the ordinary Roman alphabet, with more or less modification, and some of which employ types quite arbitrary in form. In all systems the characters rise above the surface of the paper so as to be felt by the fingers. The type adopted by Haüy was the script or italic form of the Roman letter. This was introduced into England by Sir C. Lowther, who printed the Gospel of St. Matthew in 1832 with type obtained from Paris. In 1920, a most interesting and ingenious device, that enables the blind to "see" by ear was brought to the attention of the public. The invention was by Dr. public. Max Herz, a specialist of Vienna. It is based on a sound alphabet, adapted by the inventor from the Morse alphabet, eliminating the dash and using the dot in various combinations. The modus operandi is thus described: A phonograph record is made of a story in the sound language. The record is placed on an instrument resembling a phonograph, equipped with a sound box, and the blind person, after having familiarized himself with the alphabet, is able to read by ear rather than through the fingers, as by the Braille method. The alphabet is based on the single dot, two dots and four dots, variously combined. The phonograph record is made as follows: Using an instrument like a typewriter the operator punches holes in a narrow tape, each group of perforations being a letter in the dot alphabet. The tape is then run through an electric machine and the perforations are transferred in sound to a master record. Duplicate records may then be turned out in any number desired. One great advantage of this new invention over the Braille method is that a book of 200 printed pages may be transferred to a record only six inches in diameter, while the same book reproduced in Braille would require a thousand pages. The entire works of Dickens and Shakespeare could be reproduced by the "typophone," as the invention is called, on records that would occupy a box about six inches high and as many inches square, while the same works in Braille would occupy a large part of a room. The Bible, for instance, in Braille requires several volumes, while six thin typophone records would contain the entire book. The expense of the latter would be only about twenty or thirty cents, while the same work in Braille would cost many dollars. Another advantage claimed for the new method is that it is very easy to learn, proficiency being only a matter of a few days, while facility in the old method is sometimes only attained after a year or two of study. The reproducing instrument resembles a small phonograph and is kept in a wooden case, like a traveler's typewriter. As in the phonograph, there is a large circular disc, about 9 inches in diameter. Above this disc there is another one about the size of a six-inch record. Connecting the two is a reduction gear. The blind man places the record in position and fastens the needle to the sound box as in an ordinary phonograph. In order to begin reading the book, he turns the large disc and the words of the story are then tapped out in the code. The reduction gear causes the record to rotate at a rate one thirty-sixth as slow as the lower disc is turned. The operator may read as slowly or as rapidly as he desires. There are about 65,000 blind persons in the United States. Of these about 60 per cent. are males. In Dr. Moon's alphabet some of the characters are Roman, others are based on or suggested by the Roman characters. The Braille system is one in which the letters are formed by a combination of dots. In the United States books have been printed for the blind in three different forms of embossed characters, known as the Braille, the line letter, and the New York point systems. All of these have been used in the different schools. The New York point system, invented by W. B. Wait, Superintendent of the New York Institution, has also been adapted the printing of and in 1894 entire Bible was printed in it by the American Bible Society. Mr. Wait also brought out in 1894 the kleidograph, an instrument of his invention, by which the blind can readily write in embossed characters, and also the stereograph, by which they can emboss metal plates for printthe ing in embossed characters.
Blind KARL (blint)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
KARL (blint), a German author and revolutionist, born at Mannheim, Sept. 4, 1826; studied law at Heidelberg. For his share in the risings in south Germany in 1848 he was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, but while being taken to Mainz was liberated by the populace. After the reaction had again triumphed over the Continent, Blind found an asylum first in Belgium, and afterward in England, where he took an active part in Democratic propaganda. An enthusiastic advocate of German freedom and unity, he promoted the Schleswig-Holstein movement. As an author he has written on politics, history, and mythology, including lives of Ledru- Rollin, Deák, Freiligrath. He died May 31, 1907.
Blind MATHILDE, a German-English poet
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MATHILDE, a German-English poet, born in Mannheim, March 21, 1847; went to England in 1849, and won fame by her writings, "The Prophecy of St. Oran, and Other Poems" (London, 1881); "Life of George Eliot" (1883); "Madame Roland" (1886); "The Heather on Fire," a tale (1886); "Ascent of Man" (1889); "Dramas in Miniature" (1892); "Songs and Sonnets" (1893), and "Birds of Passage" (1895). She died in London, Nov. 26, 1896.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 was excited by Dr. Max Herz's "typophone," a phonograph that tapped out books in a dot code adapted from Morse; it disappeared, but its promise did not. From 1934 the American Foundation for the Blind and the Library of Congress began issuing "talking books" on records in ordinary recorded speech, no code to learn, and audio is now the dominant way blind readers get long texts, alongside synthetic-speech screen readers and refreshable braille displays. The rival embossed alphabets Collier's lists — Moon, the line letter, New York point — lost the so-called War of the Dots when Britain and the United States agreed on Standard English Braille in 1932. The causes have shifted too: cataract, which the article ascribes to old age drying the humors, is now treated by routine surgery with an implanted plastic lens, and trachoma and river blindness have been driven back by mass drug treatment.
Written for this edition, 2026.