A civilian and very useful invention, the result of a military request (6 photos)

On May 18, 1767, a man was born in Valenciennes (France), who later became the author of what was innovative for his time and very unusual development.





The family was noble, although not particularly wealthy. That's why Nicolas-Charles-Marie Barbier de la Serre expectedly chose a military career. Which did not develop particularly actively, but did not stand still: the young man rose to the rank of artillery captain. And then the end came monarchy, and the new government especially favored representatives aristocracy. And Barbier left France.



Charles Barbier

When the situation had more or less stabilized, he came back home. A star was already shining in the political and military firmament Napoleon. Which announced the national cry: we need to create a special a tool that would allow urgent reports to be read in full darkness. After all, this will provide the opportunity to bypass the enemy on the move changing plans and combat missions. And then paper notes and waving the lanterns in the night no longer looked particularly respectable.

Nicolas thought about it, because he was seriously interested in cryptography. AND the result of reflection was several trial systems based on French alphabet. But the task was complicated by the fact that the sounds in it significantly less compared to letters. And then the cryptographer decided start from the phonetic notation. And for simplicity I removed insignificant elements - punctuation marks, spaces, capital letters.





The basis was the Polybius square - a simple replacement code and one of ancient coding systems. So in 1808 the “night alphabet” appeared - a method of encoding messages that allowed their recipients to read texts using the blind method - without light and without unnecessary noise.



"Night ABC" Barbier

The creator decided to test his method on students schools for blind children in Paris. The director of the first institution treated indifferent to the proposal. And the second one became interested. Blind people have already used it the old method of recording Gayuya, but it was complex and cumbersome, whereas Barbier's alphabet turned out to be simpler and more convenient.



Louis Braille

Among the test participants was a 12-year-old teenager, who lost his sight in an accident while he was baby. The boy's name was Louis Braille, and he found the alphabet very convenient and promising. And he was so inspired by it that he improved it, reducing to six dots arranged in two rows. And after a few years created his own alphabet, which is used all over the world blind people.



Completed punch card

By the way, Napoleon and his generals treated the “night ABC" is cool. It didn't seem promising to them. But the descendants shared the opinions of the French emperor. And Barbier's alphabet served prototype of a punched card, which appeared 80 years after its development French cryptographer.