The DB Techies Newsletter.
7th January 2000
The Deafblind Techies Newsletter Number.4
IN THIS ISSUE
++ 1, Editorial.
++ 2, Simply Scripts.
++ 3, Web-by-Mail.
++ 4, Moon.
++ 5, The Archives of the DB Techies Newsletter.
++ 6, To subscribe and unsubscribe from DB Techies.
++ 1. Editorial.
By James Gallagher
I wish that all of you had a great Christmas and a very Happy New Year. I have to say that I was thinking of you all. And I hope that you did not eat to many mince pies, I love these myself.
I had a very quiet Christmas as always, I live with my mother and my sister so we had our Christmas dinner after the Queen speech to the Nation. then at 6 PM we all went to my Brother and sister in-law house. We spent the rest of the night down there, on 29 April 1999 they had Triplets, Two Boys and a little girl and they also have a little four year old boy called Ciaran so we had our hands full for the rest of the night with babies.
On the 31 December 1999 We all went to bed about 10.PM. I not really like this time of year much, we all really enjoy Christmas but New Years day is just like any other day. We all spent New Years day back down at my brothers house with his family and what a day that was.
When we all got home we where all ready for bed, Thank goodness that I not have any kids. It good to know that you can hand them back after you have been sitting with them.
Little Ciaran is the one that I try to keep amused all the time by playing games with him but I not know who gets the better of who.
Well this is the first DB Techies Newsletter in this the year 2000, One has got a bit fed up with all this talk about this 2000 thing. Did all your computers start up OK after 12.am on Saturday morning. I have to say I was OK with all of my Computers and my equipment, Thank goodness for that.
I read on the BBC web site that about 400 Billion Pounds was spent on preparing the world for the millennium bug. Now that a lot of money.
There will not be a DB Techies Newsletter in February. We are going away on the 18th January for almost three weeks on holiday. We have a family country cottage that we go to, to get away from it all when we need too. I will have no access to the net as the cottage has not got a phone line but all my family members have these Mobile phones. So I will take the Dell laptop with my Powerbraille Braille Display, And I would be lost without my Braille Lite 2000.
It's about 4 hours in the car to the cottage, And as many of you know there is nothing more boring in life than sitting in the back of a car for 4 hours, So I have downloaded a good number of these films Scripts to read to keep the old brain going..
The next issue of the DB Techies will be on the 3rd March 2000. I do not have a clue what will be in it yet but that the fun of it.
Thank you all for taken the time to join my little newsletter and for reading this, there is not that many of us on it but that does not matter very much to me.
I hope that this new year will keep all of you in good health, and the
will to learn more about what new equipment and web sites that we can use
to improve our lives, This is what it is all about.
++ 2. Simply Scripts.
I have to say that for me reading brings me great joy and I read what ever I can get here in the UK. I get all the top National newspapers from TNAUK on CD ROM every week and this used to keep me going for that week, but now with my web sites I never have the time to read almost anything what so ever these days. But when one is on the net or in newsgroups you always read people talking about the latest motion-picture, And as a Deafblind person you always wonder what these must be like. We all know that you can have someone take you to the pictures and they will let you know what is going on in the story using the Deafblind manual.
Well I have found a site that you can download Hundreds of Scripts and Screenplays of movies from the classic films to the current films of today.
I know that many of you will say that these have been on the net for some time, well I have never tried these sites out as I thought that they would be of little use to me. Well was I wrong, Yes I was and in a big way too.
The site that I found by chance was Simply Scripts by Don Boose. I found Mr Boose was quite a nice person to e-mail.
I have to say first that this is a very much a sighted hearing persons Web site with Frames and lots of images all over the place, but if you just spend some time working out how it is setup you will be able to follow how it works. it is worth taken the time to do this.
I have read transcripts from films that I thought I would never be able to enjoy. What is so great for me is that in the transcripts the person descries what is in a room and what is going on in the background of the movie. The only one that i have had the time to read was the film The Sixth Sense. This was a great movie and the first I have ever read like this
I was taken a back with the descried details in the text, and once I had started it I could not stop reading it on my braille Lite until I had finished it and that was about 2.30 am. But the story was great. I have not had the chance yet to read another script but if I get the time I would like to read the Truman Show and Star Wars The Phantom Menace transcripts as I have read so much about these films on the net and newsgroups.
Here is a little info from Mr Boose the owner of Simply Scripts web Site.
There are two formats, scripts and transcripts. Many of the scripts are earlier drafts of the movie script and thus, in some cases, different from the final movie. Even the final draft of a script will be different from a movie because actors improvise some scenes. Transcripts, in almost all cases, are word for word transcriptions (hence the name, I guess) of movies and thus are more reflective of what you see and hear on the screen. In the past, More information about my audience will force me to be more accurate in categorizing the scripts or transcripts I have found. I will also tighten up categorizing the formats, be they Word Documents, Text, HTML, Adobe PDF file or special download.
I would like to thank Mr Boose for taken the time to reply to my e-mail letters about his site. So many people do not even bother these days to reply to an e-mail letter.
Right here is the URL for the Simply Scripts Web Site: .http://simplyscripts.home.att.net
Now I thought that just maybe some of you would like some URL's to some Scripts that I thought you may like.
Here they are..
Dark City, early Script, by Alex Proyas: http://www.lontano.org/FMA/arkiv/dark-city_early.html
Drop Dead Gorgeous - The Screenplay : http://www.un-official.com/The_Daily_Script/dropdead.html
Enemy of the State. transcript original script and story by David Marconi.
http://eostranscript.8m.com/eostranscripthtml.html
INDEPENDENCE DAY by Dean Devlin And Roland Emmerich.
http://plaza26.mbn.or.jp/~happywel/script/id4.html
Jurassic park, lost world.
http://plaza26.mbn.or.jp/~happywel/script/lwjp.html
Runaway Bride Screenplay by Sarah Parriott And Josann McGibbon.
http://plaza26.mbn.or.jp/~happywel/script/rwbride.html
The Sixth Sense Script.
http://plaza26.mbn.or.jp/~happywel/script/sixth-sense.html
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
http://members.tripod.com/bhundlan/sw_episode1.txt
The Truman Show", final, revised by Peter Weir.
http://www.lontano.org/FMA/arkiv/the-truman-show_final.html
The World Is Not Enough James Bond.
http://members.tripod.com/rankostome/bond19.txt
I have downloaded these transcripts so if any of you have any trouble
getting them just send me an e-mail letter and I will e-mail a text zipped
version of the transcripts back to you as soon as I can. Just ask and you
will have.
++ 3. Web-by-Mail.
This is a new service that I have just found on the net. I know that there is a couple of services like this on the net that will bring down a Web page for you through e-mail. But for the life of me I have totally forgotten them at the moment. The old brain is starting to go I think. one of them is iliad@prime.jsc.nasa.gov I think.
Well Web-by-Mail is a very good service from KingFisher Software (KFS), they offer this as free-of-charge for the Web-by-Email (WbM) service. But it has to be said that the owner of this service Mr Oliver Smith is doing this all on his own, this service is run on his own web space and in his spare time, so he is putting a lot of time into this and this should not be forgotten, This is a free service and an unsponsored one. Please remember that.
When I e-mailed Mr Oliver Smith to ask permission to write this little article for the DB Techies he said that it didn't occur to him that deafblind and Blind net users would find the Web-by-Email of use.
But through some e-mail letters from Mr Oliver Smith and myself, Mr Smith said that his Web-by-Mail service has been Unfortunately exploited by sighted hearing people. these are people wanting to download material that is either illegal to access directly in their country, or from behind a firewall, etc.
Mr Smith also writes that if it seems a bit strict occasionally, that he is trying to prevent the system being exploited, so that the intended users get better quality of service.
As such, he ask users to be 'considerate' when using the service; e.g. not sending hundreds of requests at once, or queueing hundreds of megabytes of downloads, and lastly showing patience when the robot gets slow - the majority of the days workload arrives between 4-8 am in the morning, and much of it from distant countries, so that downloading the pages is quite slow.
Mr Smith is in the United Kingdom so the time zone that he is talking about is the British time zone.
I have to say that I found Mr Smith a very helpful person to deal with, and I thank him for taken up so much of his time to help me with the questions that I had about his Web-by-Mail service.
Right down we come with all the information about the Web-by-Mail service.
First You need to send an e-mail to www@kfs.org
leave the Subject heading blank and also leave the body of the message
blank as well.
Once you have send this e-mail letter you may wait for some time before you get any replies. When the reply comes it will give you all the information you will need to use the Web-by-Email service.
I have given you a copy of all the e-mail letters that you will receive if you follow all the commands that you are ask to do. You will receive three e-mail letters all of which follow now.
------
This is e-mail Number One.
To: James@deafblind.com
Subject: * Welcome to KFS Web-By-Mail
Welcome to the KFS.org Web-by-Mail Robot
James@deafblind.com
(You are receiving this email in response to an email to www@kfs.org)
== Welcome to the NEW KFS.ORG Web-By-Mail Robot ==
-- INTRODUCTION FOR EXISTING USERS --
KFS.ORG's web-by-mail robot has been around for nearly 6 years. It is a *FREE*, non-commercially sponsored or funded service. Up until recently it operated with no restrictions or limitations at all.
As a result, however, of recent abuse of this service, I am in the process of bringing online a new version of the robot which tries to ensure fairness of usage and access. Welcome to WEBE (pronounced Webby). The new, kfs.org, Web-By-Mail robot.
The robot is currently imposing the following restrictions:
+ No access to ftp:// URLs - use an ftp-by-mail service instead
+ Access to pornographic material is prohibited; users who are found
to be accessing such material will have their access PERMANENTLY removed
without any notice.
+ Widely known pornographic sites, such as playboy.com, etc, will result
in AUTOMATIC, PERMANENT removal of access.
+ A series of access quotas will determine the speed with which the
robot responds to your requests.
What are the quotas? At it's simplest, you are limited to 40 URLs per email, a maximum of 30 URLs per hour, and a maximum or 800Kb per single request, or 400kb per hour.
If you exceed your quota, the robot will quietly move your requests to the back of the queue. When your turn comes around again, it will look not only at your previous access, but how many requests you have in the queue. The more requests you have in the queue, the longer the robot will take to respond to you.
Example: If you send the robot 260 requests, it will take 5 hours before the robot starts to process any of your requests. When it has processed the first 26, it will not process more requests from you for another 4 and a half hours.
-- INTRODUCTION FOR FIRST TIME USERS --
This is either the first time you have used www@kfs.org OR it is the first time you have used it since we made our latest modifications to our system.
The kfs.org robot is intended to provide users legitimate users with access to online material that for one reason or another they are unable to access. It is not intended to provide people with indirect access to illegal, ilicit or erotic material; infact if you do, the robot will automatically ban you from using it.
This service is provided free, but my resources are limited. Please be considerate in your use of the service. Recent abuse has forced me to impose very strict quotas on how much people can use the service. We urgently need the co-operation of our users to continue providing a service.
-- Some Common Questions Answered --
1. How can I request more than one web page at a time?
Simple; put "request" as your message subject, and simply list the web addresses in your email. For example, when you receive a web page from the robot, it contains a list of addresses at the end. You can simply reply to that email for the robot to send you back all of the 'linked' pages.
Example:
To: www@kfs.org
Subject: request
http://www.kfs.org/
http://www.kfs.org/web-by-mail.html
http://www.yahoo.com/
2. How can I search for pages on the web?
You really need a web browser to do that. The robot is intended to provide access to pages, not as an alternative to a web browser.
There is, however, a very simple search-engine service in the robot!
Send the robot an email containing a line, either in the Subject: line or message body, that says 'search '. For example:
search www4mail web by mail gateway
If you are using a HTML capable mail agent, such as Outlook or Netscape, you can use 'rawsearch' instead to get HTML pages back instead of web pages.
rawsearch www4mail web by mail gateway
This is a NEW service and may still have some odd quirks.
3. How can I retrieve pages AS web pages in my mail software?
If you are using Microsoft Outlook or Netscape Communicator, then you simply add "raw," infront of the web page address. For example:
raw,http://www.kfs.org/web-by-mail.html
4. How can I retrieve pictures?
If simply specifying the address for a picture doesn't work, you may to experiment with the "raw," and "bin," options. For example:
www.kfs.org/~oliver/617/images/p51.jpg
raw,http://www.kfs.org/~oliver/617/images/Dambusters.jpg
bin,http://www.kfs.org/~oliver/617/images/617logo.gif
bin,raw,http://www.kfs.org/~oliver/617/images/Lancasters.jpg
However, if you are intending to use web-by-mail for retrieving erotic or pornographic materials, be warned: the robot does not take kindly to this form of us, and will promptly ban you from using it in future. You have been warned.
5. Can I download a web page including pictures?
No. Web-by-mail is designed for web-access, not web-browsing.
6. What are the quota limits?
The quotas are currently experimental. They are intended to bring web-by-mail usage to a sensible level, without preventing people from legitimate usage. The newest version of our quotas will be stricter, but they should cause legitimate users less inconvenience.
7. How can I increase my quotas?
At the present time, no. The whole point of quotas is to eliminate certain usage patterns which the service, as a free, non-commercial service, cannot support. Our quotas are intended primarily to affect those people, so if they are affecting you, you should first consider if you are making fair use of this service.
8. Can I send you some money?
For increased or assured services? No
As a gift? Yes.
9. Why do you provide this service, for free???
Because I am priveliged to have a good Internet connection, and I know there are a lot of people for whom the World Wide Web has many valuable resources, but they have access only to email. The robot is intended to provide these people with that vital access.
10. Why the quotas and limits and everything?
After 6 years of operation, the robot started to be abused no more than 6 months ago. It now uses more than 3 times as much of my Internet connection that I do! My employer is most unhappy about this, and has ordered me to reduce it or shut it down!
Thank you for taking the time to read through this. I hope that kfs.org will prove useful to you, and hope that you will be considerate of the freedom of this service.
-----
This is E-mail number Two.
To: James@deafblind.com
Subject: [WEBE] Conditions of Usage
USAGE AGREEMENT REQUIRED:
In order to use kfs.org web-by-mail, you must confirm that you intend to use the service primarily for retrieving web pages, and that you will not use the service for retrieving pornographic or 'warez' (illegal or 'pirate' software; if you don't know what 'warez' are, you probably don't need to worry about this).
This is a free service, run by a private individual, and I am no millionaire (I'm not even a thousandaire, unless you use Lire). We ask you to bear this in mind when using the service; there may be occasional hiccups and delays in the performance of the service.
INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS:
Your UserNo is 3812.
To start using the web-by-mail service, you need to send an email to www@kfs.org with a subject of AGREE. The message must contain a line of text which says 'User (UserNo) agrees'.
EXAMPLE:
If your UserNo is 123, then you would send:
8x---8x--- start example 8x---8x---
To: www@kfs.org
Subject: AGREE
User 123 agrees
8x---8x---- end example 8x---8x----
IMPORTANT
The email must be EXACTLY as shown above, with your userno instead of 123. Do NOT send the email as HTML text . It is processed by a robot, so it will NOT understand if you alter the format of the email.
Once you have sent this email, you will receive a response from kfs.org confirming that you have agreed to use the service.
MORE ABOUT THIS AGREEMENT...
KFS.ORG has been providing a free, non-commercial web-by-mail service for 6 years now. We do so to offer users with minimal or no web access to retrieve valuable, often important information from the world wide web.
However, the facility has recently been abused by people fetching pornographic or 'warez' material. In one week, such material accounted for 97% of the total information web-by-mail handled.
This is a *FREE* service, with no commercial backing. We quite simply cannot cater for this material and continue to run the service.
I have implemented a number of filters which attempt to catch users accessing inapropriate material. I acknowledge that these sometimes get it wrong, and users do not get barred for one or two accesses, unless they are blatantly obvious ('www.hotsex.com').
However, users who repeatedly use the service to access pornographic or other inapropriate material will be barred without further notice.
If you feel this restriction is unfair, I have to ask you: Why do you need to use my service to access the files? Maybe because a bigger, better internet connection costs too much for you? In order to give everyone access to these files, I'd need a bigger, better internet connection for a start, and I'd need a number of bigger, better computers to run the service.
-----
And this is E-mail Number three.
To: James@deafblind.com
Subject: Re: AGREE
Thank you! Your agreement has been received, and you can now use kfs.org web-by-mail service without further interruption.
You may receive additional 'Conditions of Usage' emails in the next hour or so; you can ignore these. However, if you are still getting them within 24 hours, please contact webmaster@kfs.org.
Any user who repeatedly accesses inapropriate material will be summarily banned. Please do not let 'your brother' use your account to download lots of dirty pictures over the weekend, as we will not un-bar your account if this happens.
End of the E-mail letters which I got from the Web-By-Mail service.
I hope that the above e-mail letters has make it a lot easier for you
to understand what is need to use this service. I am not very good at trying
to explain to others how to do
somethings. Sorry if I went on a bit to much.
The Web-By-Mail service is great and one that I will be using a lot, but I have to say one thing about using this service, it not about the Web-By-Mail itself but about web sites.
In the little article above about films Scripts, if you try and go to some of the sites you will get back an error message like this one.
To: James@deafblind.com
Subject: URL: http://www.jgeoff.com/godfathr.html
FRAME: [1]space
FRAME: [2]sidebar
FRAME: [3]Main
No frames? Infamita!
Ancient browser?
Too cheap to get a [4]FREE upgrade?
Here's the [5]main frame, but don't be surprised if Luca Brasi pays
you a visit!
I feel that it a great shame that we may not be able to access some sites with this service because many of these Scripts sites have frames on them. Sad though it is.
I really think that this is a great service that Mr Oliver Smith is offering us, and it was never meant for deafblind or blind net users. I wish him well and thank Mr Smith for the Web-by-Mail service .
For the Help file send E-mail to www@kfs.org and in the Subject: help
To learn what is the status of the Web-By-Mail service, again send
e-mail
to www@kfs.org with Subject: status
KingFisher Software (KFS) Web Site: http://www.kfs.org
E-mail: webmaster@kfs.org
++ 4. Moon.
In the last issue of the DB Techies in the article about the Brailtalk, we talked about the Moon system a little bit, Well I will now try and inform you about the wonders of the Moon system. I believe a good number of you will not have heard about Moon before, so we will start.
Many people know about the braille system of reading by touch fewer have heard of Moon. This is a simple method based upon the standard alphabet. The Moon alphabet is made up of 14 characters used at various angles, each with a clear bold outline. For many elderly blind people especially, and Deafblind people as well, Moon is easier than the more complex braille system, although many people gain confidence from learning Moon to move onto braille.
The majority of people who go blind in later life are unable to master the small dots of the braille system. For such people the Royal National Institute for the Blind provides an easier alternative system of embossed type. This, with its clear, bold outline, is readily learned by people of all ages.
And for many deaf people who have lost there sight in later life and now are Deafblind, Moon for a number of them is the only way that they can be able to read again. this is because some of them may have been in manual employment and with this there ability to read the small braille dots is almost impossible. But this can be done if both tutor and the new braille reader have confidence and encouragement in each other.
But this is not the case for everyone so this is where Moon can come
into it's own place in our
lives.
It is believed that there is only about 400 Moon readers in the UK. I do not have a number of Moon readers for Australia.
I myself believe that Moon is not being supported as much as it should be. Many people believe that it's days are Numbered and some time ago the "RNIB" Royal National Institute for the Blind tried to cut back it's Moon publishing claiming that the cost of Moon was far to much for the number of Moon readers in the UK. They did have a good point and that was one that I could not disagree with and that was with the falling number of Moon readers here in the UK.
But if you do not promote Moon and make Deafblind, Blind people more aware of it then how on earth can it grow stronger with more readers.
You may ask why do I support Moon so much well this is because I have been with Deafblind people who can only read Moon and I have been there when they have tried to find if they could have information produce in Moon about the Football world Cup. As I not a football fan myself this did not matter to me, But I did feel strong displeasure over this because this person had his hopes just put down over this without a second thought for him or for any other Deafblind person who where interested in football.
But just maybe a new future for Moon maybe just a round the corner well
I really HOPE so.
Why is this so.
There is new software that will allow Moon code text to be produced on a Braille embosser. This new software will let you make a moon letter or document on your braille embosser. You can still use the embosser to make braille and now Moon.
I am finding it very hard to, almost impossible to find information about this new software on the net. But I have just found an address which I will be sending a letter to them after the holidays are over to learn more about this.
If Moon can be produced on an embosser this would be a great leap for deafblind people here in the UK. I myself would happily buy this software too. So lets hope that the future Of Dr William Moon Reading system will be with us for a long time yet.
Now I know that many of you may not have known about Moon before as it is mostly used in the UK and in Australia. The first time I write about Moon on the Deafblind mailing List many members on the list did not know anything about Moon. I thought because of the tours that Dr W Moon did in New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia in 1882 that the Moon system would have been taken up by some Deafblind, Blind organizations about this time. But that was not true as I learned on the Deafblind mailing List.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind "RNIB" Have made a Moon font available to anyone who wants it, it is about a 30 KB file to download and if you use Windows just put it in the Windows fonts folder and it is there when you need it.
Here is The URL where you can download the Moon and Braille fonts.
http://www.rnib.org.uk/wesupply/archive/welcome.htm
And like always if you have trouble getting to the site I am very happy to e-mail anyone these fonts, just one e-mail to me and you will have the Moon font..
Right I have went on far too long again about my little thoughts on Moon so here starts the info.
It is much slower to produce Moon than braille, there is far less literature available in Moon, but over the years a reasonably wide range has been published and is available on loan free of charge from the National Library for the Blind, 35 Great Smith Street, Westminster, London SW1. There are currently about 400 people in the United Kingdom who are still reading Moon books and magazines.
From 1923, Moon has been printed direct from type. Several of the types are square-bodied, so that four characters can be produced, depending upon which way up the type is used, from one piece of type others, on square or narrower bodies, make two characters; and some only one. Fourteen types are required to make the alphabet, and twelve other types are used for contractions and punctuation marks. The type is set by hand. There are about 900 letters and space in a Moon page measuring 12 inches by 10 inches, and these can be set by an experienced typesetter in half an hour. The paper is moistened before printing to take the embossing without splitting, and after printing the pages pass through a mechanical gas-heated drier.
Now about the great Man himself.
Dr William Moon.
(1818 - 1894)
The Moon system of embossed reading was invented in 1845 by Dr William Moon of East Sussex.
Just over A hundred years ago, William Moon died at the age of 75 just two months short of his 76th birthday. He was born in humble circumstances in the village of Horsmonden near Tunbridge Wells on the 18th December, 1818. He was a normal healthy child until he contracted scarlet fever a terrible scourge in those days. It left him totally blind in one eye, and with severe visual loss in the other. After this tragedy, his parents moved to Brighton, leaving young William in the care of his grandparents. It is not known the reason for this it was certainly not neglect indeed William's mother was a strong influence throughout his upbringing, and largely responsible for implanting in him a firm Christian faith. In time he attended a school in London. This was a school for pupils with normal sight, and it is interesting to note that years later, when he wrote about the education of blind children, William expressed his opinion that blind children should always be educated alongside their sighted peers. In many ways his ideas were advanced for this time, and much in line with how we think today.
On leaving school, William went to live with his widowed mother in Brighton. His ambition was to train for the Non-conformist ministry. However, this was not to be. His sight had been steadily deteriorating, and despite efforts to save what remained, by 21 William Moon was totally blind.
William wasted no time on self-pity. He decided to try and teach other blind people to read by touch. Braille was not known in Britain at that time, but there were a number of other systems available. Wisely, William had learnt some of these before going blind himself. He therefore gathered together a variety of blind people and began teaching them to read. These pupils were extremely varied regarding age and ability. However, like most teachers, he had both successes and failures. It was the failures that most concerned him, particularly one boy whom he described as being "very defective in intelligence." This lad seemed quite unable to learn to read through his finger-tips by any of the known systems. William thought and prayed hard about this, and eventually began to devise a new system of raised, simplified lettering. To his delight, the boy stared to read by this method, and within a week was able to read simple sentences. The system later known as 'Moon', had been invented.
In 1842 William married Mary Ann Caudle, the daughter of a well-known Brighton surgeon. Life was very difficult for the couple at the outset of their married life. They had little money. William taught at a blind school, and Mary attempted to run an embroidery shop. They had two children: Robert, born in 1844, and Adelaide born the following year. The family were continually on the move from one lodging house to another, but despite this, William obtained a wooden printing press and began to print passages of scripture in his embossed simplified lettering. Later he devised a means whereby a great number of copies could be produced at relatively low cost.
William's object in developing his system was twofold. He wanted to teach blind people to read through their fingers, but he also wanted to help them to read the Bible for themselves with attention and understanding. His system was taken up by the British and Foreign Bible Society as well as by other missionary bodies. In this way it spread to many distant parts of the world. Eventually it was used to print reading material in over 400 languages, some of which had no alphabet, as for example the Chinese dialects. By the middle of the 1850s life had improved. The Moon family had moved to 104 Queens Road, and William had his printing house next door. In 1858 the complete English Bible was produced in Moon. The printing had taken ten years to accomplish, and consisted of 5,000 pages contained in 60 volumes.
In the early 1850s William met the man who was to become, outside his own family, his closest friend and supporter. Sir Charles Lowther (Bart.) was another victim of scarlet fever, and had been blind since infancy. He was a rich God-fearing man with position and influence. Over a period of about 40 years he used these gifts to further William's work, as he considered the moon system to be the best one for enabling the blind to read by touch.
William originated the idea of the Home Teaching Society. It was a simple plan. A group of interested people would form a committee, and then engage a teacher of the blind whose task it was to seek out and teach the blind in that area to read moon. Much of the reading was scriptural, so it was the teacher's responsibility to discuss this with the blind person, and to keep him or her supplied with books. The books were obtained from free lending libraries of moon books, maintained by local charity and the generosity of individual benefactors like Sir Charles Lowther. Home Teaching Societies spread throughout Britain and beyond to Sweden, Canada, the United States and Australia.
William travelled widely throughout his life, promoting his system and also as a preacher of the Gospel. He was a fine evangelist, and drew large crowds to hear his message. He toured most regions of the United Kingdom, and also visited France, Holland, Germany, Sweden and the United States. His son Robert often accompanied him on these tours; one such tour occurred when Robert was only 16: father and son crossed to Holland taking with them a moon printing press which they delivered to the Rotterdam Institute for the Blind. What a journey that must have been!
William's family played an important part in his work. Mary helped him in the early stages when he was developing his printing technique. Robert worked with his father in designing raised line drawings of animals and buildings for the education of young blind children. Relief maps with moon symbols were also prepared, and an astronomical atlas. The wonder and immensity of the heavens were never far from William's thoughts, and he regarded an awareness of these things to be an important part of life. Later on Robert qualified in medicine, finally settling in Philadelphia where he became a distinguished eye specialist, and continued to promote his father's reading system among the blind throughout America. William's daughter, Adelaide, remained with her parents in Brighton, and helped her father run the printing house which despatched moon books all over the world. After his death, she continued with the work, and received regular support from her brother. Robert and Adelaide worked together in this way for the next 20 years, both dying in 1914. Altogether, the children were a great credit to their parents. They helped William through the difficult period surrounding Mary's death in 1864, and supported him when, two years later, he married Anna Maria Elsdale.
In 1882 William and Adelaide toured the United States. Among the many
cities visited were New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago and, of course,
Philadelphia, where William received an honorary doctorate of law from
the university.
++ 5. The Archives of the DB Techies Newsletter.
I have included a page on my site which will archive this copy of the
DB Techies Newsletter, and the last issue of the DB Techies has already
been put on to my site, so if you missed the other Editions of DB Techies
Newsletter you can get them at
http://www.deafblind.com/dbtechies.html
++ 6. To subscribe, send a message to dbtechies-subscribe@egroups.com or go to the e-groups's home page at http://www.egroups.com/group/dbtechies/
To unsubscribe from DB Techies send e-mail to: dbtechies-unsubscribe@egroups.com You must send the e-mail letter from the same e-mail address that you used to subscribed from.
Please remember that any suggestions about any equipment that would Be useful to deafblind and blind people, or any information, which would be useful to the readers will be welcome.
Until the next issue which will be on the 3rd March 2000.
"DB Techies" newsletter will be published monthly on the first Friday of each Month. And will be e-mail to the Subscribers.
I wish all the very best to all of you, And Thank you for taken the time to read this little newsletter.
All the very best to you all.
Yours
James
James Gallagher
E-mail James@deafblind.com
End of DB Techies.