George A. Hughes, The New Punctiuncula Stenographic System of Embossing by Which the Blind of All Nations will be Able to Emboss for themselves on any Paper without the Use of Type and to attain a Perfect Knowledge in Reading, Arithmetic, etc, with Unprecedented Facility (London, 1843). Book. Dimensions: 230 x278 x 23mm (open)

RNIB Collection Acc No: L1/11.

Credit: RNIB

George A. Hughes was a member of the Establishment of the Blind in London, and an advocate of arbitrary (or, as he termed them, ‘symbolical’) embossed writing systems. Himself blind, he was critical of sighted people’s refusal to accept that visually-impaired people could learn arbitrary systems, noting in 1848 if ‘they [sighted people] do not comprehend it at a glance’ they ‘flatly condemn it at once’. His dotted ‘punctiuncula’ system, based on stenographic principles, resembles braille in its use of dots arranged in a cellular unit but came under criticism from other educators and inventors and fell into obscurity.

A relief image of this work is available in the exhibition.

Object Description

This book is open on pages 4 and 5. Page 4, the left hand page, has an embossed alphabet code pasted on it. Page 5, the right hand page, is the frontispiece page. The alphabet code is aligned from top to bottom, not left to right. The first line reads ‘Hughes’ Raised Reading and Writing Alphabet for the Blind’ and is printed in large bold capitals. Beneath this are the printed the 26 Roman alphabet letters, again in capital, arranged over two rows (A-N and O-Z with & at the end) with Hughes’s embossed equivalent character below each letter. Each embossed character is comprised of either small dots, large dots, or a combination of both. Underneath each row of embossed characters a continuous straight line is embossed, underneath the second embossed line is printed in smaller type ‘The raised characters are to be read, as being on and above the long embossed line’. Underneath this are printed Roman numerals and fractions, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, ¼, ½, ¾. Underneath each printed number and fraction are the equivalent embossed characters. An embossed line runs underneath the bottom of the embossed characters. Underneath this are printed letter combinations and grammatical characters, bb, cc, dd, &c., comma, semi-colon, colon, full-stop, apostrophe, figure, sign. Underneath each printed character are embossed characters for each letter and number. An embossed line runs underneath the bottom of the embossed characters. Below this a line reads ‘192, Tottenham-court Road’. Underneath each printed character of this address are embossed characters for each letter and number. At the bottom of the page is printed some text in small type, transcribed as ‘The above example is the Inventor’s address, where may be had, his Embossed Books, Raised Music, and Portable Writing and Embossing Machines; adapted for running-hand and black Roman letter writing, raised Roman and short-hand characters, calculating, and copying composing music, without using types’.

The right hand page is the frontispiece. Transcription: ‘The New Punctiuncula Stenographic System of Embossing, by Which the Blind of All Nations Will be Able to Emboss for Themselves on Any Paper without the use of Type, And To Attain a Perfect knowledge in reading, arithmetic, etc, with unprecedented facility. By G. A. Hughes, (who is totally blind). Inventor and Teacher of the System. Entered at Stationers’ Hall. London: Published by the Author, 408, Strand, Opposite Adam Street, Adelphi. 1843 [end description]