United Nations World Braille Day, says Crystal.

It seems that one Charles Barbier had, in 1815, devised a system of
raised dots pressed into paper, so that a text could be read with the
fingers. This was intended for military use (soldiers in battle could
read messages at night without raising a light). It was never so used,
but was eventually taken up by the Institut National des Jeunes
Aveugles, where L.B. (then aged 15) was a student. He simplified the dot
patterns so they could be rapidly read with a single finger, and made
other improvements to produce the system which bears his name.

PTD in _The World's Writing Systems_ (p.886) calls this "the first
effective digitization of writing".

Ar an ceathrú lá de mí Eanair, scríobh Ross Clark:

> United Nations World Braille Day, says Crystal.
>
> It seems that one Charles Barbier had, in 1815, devised a system of raised dots
> pressed into paper, so that a text could be read with the fingers. This was
> intended for military use (soldiers in battle could read messages at night
> without raising a light). It was never so used, but was eventually taken up by
> the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, where L.B. (then aged 15) was a
> student. He simplified the dot patterns so they could be rapidly read with a
> single finger, and made other improvements to produce the system which bears
> his name.
>
> PTD in _The World's Writing Systems_ (p.886) calls this "the first effective
> digitization of writing".

That is very important, in retrospect. Wikipedia suggests that the optical
telegraph codes of the French Revolution predate it.

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)