Inventor of the Braille system of raised letters for the blind, born near Paris, France, January 1809. He became blind (the result of accident) at the age of three. In 1819 he became a pupil of the institution for the blind in Paris, and subsequently was elected a professor in the institution. While there he devised a system of points or raised dots, instead of raised lines, for the uses of the blind in reading or writing.
