[Menvi-discuss] Braille Cell Numbering

Tue Feb 11 10:31:20 EST 2014

I think this is the way New York Point worked, but I could be wrong.  It had a variable cell, normally three dots going across and two down, but if a letter was made up of only three dots going down, the next letter could start immediately after, without leaving a space as we would for the 4-5-6 if we were writing two l's.  Capital letters could take up as many as twelve dots, or four columns.  The slates were interesting, but the braille writers were even more!  I know there was a system of contractions and music.  The Matilda Ziegler Magazine published an edition in New York Point until the mid '60's.  Everybody else stopped publishing it in 1917, when braille grade 1-1/2 was officially adopted as the United states' one tactile system.  There was also a system called American Braille, which used the regular six-dot configuration but different dots for letters, based on their frequency of use in English.  I think a was the same, but e was dot 2, and s was dots 1-2.  It was used at Perkins, and there were a few books still around in it when I was there.  Then there were at least three different systems of raised print and Moon type.  Helen Keller needed to know them all.  She didn't do as well on her Radcliffe math exam because the transcriber wrote it in the American Braille system which she hadn't seen before.

  David

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Teresa Haifley 
  To: 'This is for discussing music and braille literacy' 
  Sent: Monday, February 10, 2014 9:02 PM
  Subject: Re: [Menvi-discuss] Braille Cell Numbering

  Thanks, Rick.  It looks like the NY system was a larger cell of 4 or more dots across instead of 2 as we have now.  It was interesting reading, though.  .

  Teresa

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: Menvi-discuss [mailto:menvi-discuss-bounces at menvi.org] On Behalf Of Rick Coates
  Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2014 5:49 AM
  To: This is for discussing music and braille literacy
  Subject: Re: [Menvi-discuss] Braille Cell Numbering

  Prior to adopting the braille music code in NC in the early 1900's, my school used a system called the NY point system.  I do not know if the numbering system was different than braille.  Rick Coates

  On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 10:45 PM, Teresa Haifley <dthaifley at iowatelecom.net> wrote:

    Hello,
    Does anyone know if the dots in the braille cell were ever numbered in a different order?  They used to be called "points" instead of dots, but were they number 1 3 5 on the left and 2 4 6 on the right?  It makes a difference in understanding an old music instruction book I'm studying.

    Thanks,
    Teresa

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