A whole book weighed 400 pounds! By age eleven, Louis had read all fourteen books in the school. He wanted to read more books. So every evening, he tried to find a way for blind people to be able to read books. One day, Captain Charles Barbier, a French soldier, came to speak at the school. Barbier had invented night-writing. This system used dots for the letters of the alphabet. Soldiers could feel the dots with their fingers and read with no light. Barbier thought night-writing could also help blind people.
Barbier's system was difficult, but it gave Louis an idea. He worked night after night to make a simple system with dots. By age fifteen, he had finished his system. He showed it to other students in the school, and they love it.