Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Experience with this form of interpointing, however, showed that the dots embossed on one side of the page damaged to some extent the dots on the other side of the page. For one reason, the machinery used for embossing was not sufficiently precise to make a perfect register. For this reason attempts to do interpointing were abandoned for some years and attention was concentrated on improving the interlining.

Interpointing was done in Great Britain and other European countries during this period, but damage to letters on the opposite side of the page was obviated by spreading the dots somewhat, especially in a vertical direction. The reason why printing of this kind was not very popular in the United States was probably partly due to the fact that American braille was not quite as well adapted to a vertical spreading of dots as was European braille.

The Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind, however, which was started in March 1907, was because of its large circulation somewhat more concerned about economizing on paper than upon a highest possible degree of legibility. For the sake of getting more printed material in a magazine of a given number of pages, the readers were willing to sacrifice something in facility of reading. But the interpointing in the ephemeral Ziegler magazine was not considered of a sufficiently high quality to warrant printing permanent books in this way.

Furthermore, there was opposition to the use of interpointed books in the schools for other reasons. It is extremely hard to read interpointing by sight because it is difficult to distinguish by the eye between raised dots and the depressions or pits of the dots on the opposite side of the sheet. Seeing teachers, therefore, found inter-pointing objectionable in textbooks. It was also contended that the pits between the lines and between the dots were sufficiently noticeable to the touch to cause some difficulty in finger reading. However, embossing on both sides of the page effected something like a forty per cent saving in bulk and theoretically nearly as much in cost.

The matter was the subject of considerable discussion down to 1923 when the research department of the American Foundation for the Blind was set up. The new department was looking around for a significant research problem with which to launch its activities. Reduction in cost and bulk of braille books seemed the most challenging subject to tackle.

Tests were undertaken immediately to determine to what extent good interpointing would retard reading. It was assumed that machinery could be developed which would emboss equally well on both sides of the sheet. Test sheets were prepared consisting of groups of nonsense words and straight reading matter. Blind people were brought into the New York Public Library one at a time and asked to read aloud while a trained observer timed the reading and noted errors and indications of hesitation. The subjects read the same material both on interpointed sheets and on sheets printed on one side of the page. The results showed practically no difference in the relative legibility of the two styles of printing.

Where there was some apparent difference, it indicated that the interpointing was read with slightly less speed but with slightly more accuracy. Apparently, those who were not familiar with the interpoint reading material were distracted to some extent by the pits between the lines, but this slowing down seemed to give more time for careful reading.

It was concluded, as a result of these tests, that interpointing well done would in practice affect neither speed nor accuracy after the reader had had a little experience with reading it.

The research director of the Foundation decided that if interpointing and one side printing were equally legible, the savings in bulk and cost of manufacture far offset any inconvenience interpointing might cause seeing people. The question then seemed to be a mechanical one -- how to develop a machine which would do the best possible interpointing.

In order to stimulate interest in this subject, the American Foundation for the Blind took Mr. Edgar E. Bramlette, Superintendent of the American Printing House for the Blind, and Mr. Frank C. Bryan, Superintendent of the Howe Memorial Press in South Boston, on a tour of visitation to the leading printing houses in Europe. Visits were made to London, Edinburgh, Paris, Marburg, Hannover, Steglitz, Leipzig, and Vienna. The committee returned from Europe convinced that there was no braille printing machinery in existence which operated with sufficient precision to make consistently good interpointing.

The American Foundation for the Blind then turned to the Carnegie Corporation and asked for a grant of money to enable it to develop the required machinery and also develop a better braillewriter for manuscript purposes. Through the good offices of Dr. Keppel, President of the corporation, a grant of $75,000 was made to set up an experimental shop.

A French-Swiss mechanic, assisted by an ingenious young American, was employed to undertake this development work. A precision stereotype machine and a braillewriter utilizing some of the features of the Hall Braillewriter were developed which could be manufactured at a reasonable cost.