William Moon

Source

• Born: 18 December 1818
• Birthplace: Horsmonden, Kent, England
• Died: 9 October 1894
• Best Known As: Developer of raised lettering for blind readers

A childhood bout with scarlet fever caused William Moon's eyesight to slowly deteriorate, so that by the age of 21 he was completely blind. He educated blind children with various systems of reading by touch, eventually inventing his own method in the 1840s, known as the Moon Code. Moon settled in Brighton and was a successful teacher, preacher and printer. He made and sold hundreds of books in the new format, including a 60-volume edition of the Bible. Eventually the Louis Braille method became more widespread, but the Moon system is considered easier to learn for those who lose their sight later in life.

William Moon is not to be confused with the writer William Least Heat Moon.

William Moon
Born	December 18, 1818(1818-12-18) Horsmonden, Kent, UK
Died	October 9, 1894 (aged 75)
Resting place	Extra-Mural Cemetery, Brighton, East Sussex, UK
Nationality	British
Occupation	Teacher, Philanthropist
Home town	Brighton, East Sussex, UK
Known for	inventing Moon Type
Religious beliefs	Christian (Non-Conformist)
Spouse(s)	Mary Ann Caudle
Children	Robert, Adelaide
Awards	FRGS (1852), FRSA (1857), Hon. LLD (Philadelphia, 1871)

William Moon, Hon. LLD, FRSA, FRGS (December 18, 1818 – October 9, 1894) was an Englishman who created Moon Type, the first widely-used practical reading alphabet for the blind.

Moon was originally from Horsmonden, Kent. By 1839 he had become totally blind and had moved in with his widowed mother and sister in Brighton, East Sussex. He taught embossed reading codes developed by several people (Alston, Frere, Gall, and Lucas) to local boys who were blind, but found that the boys considered these systems difficult to learn. He first formulated ideas for using embossed letters in 1843 and they were published in 1845.

Moon achieved several distinctions during his lifetime: he was elected to fellowships of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Arts in 1852 and 1857 respectively; he was also awarded an honorary LLD degree by the University of Philadelphia in 1871.^[1]

Contents 1 Footnotes 2 Bibliography 3 See also 4 External links

Footnotes

1. ^ Day & McNeil 1995, p.499.

Bibliography

• Day, Lance & McNeil, Ian (editors). 1995. Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. Routledge.

See also

• Moon type

External links

• Biography of William Moon
• A Brief Account of Dr William Moon
• Another site on Dr Moon and his system
• Dr William Moon (RNIB)

This British biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)