It was invented by a Frenchman, Louis Braille, in about 1829. It is an alphabet, which can be read by blind people using their sense of touch, consisting of an arrangement of raised dots. In 1819, when he was 10 years old, the boy went to Paris with a scholarship to study at the National Institution for Blind Children. The institution's founder hit on the idea of providing texts in embossed Roman lettering which the blind could decipher or read. Two years after Braille's arrival Charles Barbier exhibited at the institution an apparatus by which a coded message in dots and dashes could be embossed on cardboard. Braille worked on this system and was able to adapt it to meet the need his sightless. He published expositions of his system in 1829 and 1837.
Braille became a dedicated teacher at his school and also a talented organist. It was through his life's work that thousands of blind people today can read. Thanks to Braille for his invention.