Class XVII.] WORKS FOR TIIE BLIXD PUBLISHED BY THE PERKIXS INSTITUTION. 417
TITLES.
The Bible, containing the Old Testament - — — -
The New Testament (small) — — — — — — —
The New Testament (large) - — — —
(The several books sold separately at correspondingprices).
The Acts of the Apostles --------
Lardner’s Universal History - — — — - — —
Howe’s Geography - — — — — — — — -
Howe’s General Atlas - — — — - — — -
Howe’s Atlas of the United States - — — — — -
Howe’s Atlas of the Islands -------
English Reader, First Part — — — — — — —
Flnglish Reader, Second Part -------
Dairyman’s Daughter - -- -- -- -
The Harvey Boys - — — — - — - — -
The Spelling-book — — — — — — — — —
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress -------
Baxter’s Call - - — — — _ — —
Murray’s English Grammar -------
Howe’s Blind Child’s First Book - — _ — - —
Flowe’s Blind Child’s Second Book -
Sixpenny Glass of Vine - — — — — — — -
Life of Melancthon — — — — — — — — —
Book of Sacred Hymns - — - — — —
Howe’s Blind Child’s Manual — ------
Constitution of the United States ------
Book of Diagrams - — — - — — - — —
Viri Romas — — — — — — — — — — —
Peirce’s Geometry, with Diagrams _ _ _ - —
Political Class Book - — — — — — — - —
First Tables of Logarithms -------
Second Tables of Logarithms — — — — — — —
Principles of Arithmetic - — — — —
Astronomical Dictionary - — — — — - — -
Smellie ’s Philosophy of Natural History - - - —Olmsted’s Rudiments of Natural Philosophy - — —Cyclopaedia - — — — — — — —
The Book of Common Prayer — — — — — — —
Guide to Devotion - — — — — — -
Book of Psalms - — — — — — - — — -
Book of Proverbs - -- -- -- --
Number
of
Vols.
Size.
Fateof Pub-lication.
Number
of
Pages.
of
SquareInches ina Page.
1
i Prices.
i
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e
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6
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1842
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117
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624
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430
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finished in 20 volumes very soon. Want of funds is thetemporary and only obstacle.
About the time that the Perkins Institution was esta-blished at Boston, another was set up in Philadelphia . Ameeting of benevolent persons was called on the 21st ofJanuary 1833, when arrangements were made to open aschool for the instruction of the blind, and Mr. J. R.Friedlander was placed at its head. This school becamethe Philadelphia Institution for the Blind by Act of In-corporation, 27th of January 1834. Tiie blind owe muchto Mr. Friedlander for the Philadelphia contributions totheir literature. On the 21st of November 1833, he heldhis first public examination, and astonished the public bythe progress of his pupils in reading, writing, geography,music, &c. The pupils read fluently from tangible lettersexecuted by themselves with pin-types. These weresmall pieces of wood about two inches long, having aletter cut in relief on one end, and the same letter formedat the other by steel points. Maps of the world and ofthe United States were also exhibited, made by perforat-ing the outline from behind. The result of this exhi-bition was highly satisfactory. In his address, Mr.Friedlander set forth the great advantages that wouldaccrue to the blind by a general system of instruction.He repeated the usual unanswerable arguments againstthe adoption of arbitrary characters, and stenographic orphonetic systems, and strongly recommended the use ofour own alphabet. He followed generally Haiiy’s plan ofinstruction. Early in 1833, Jacob Snider, a young gen-tleman, native of Philadelphia , applied his mind to thecontrivance of a method of printing in relief. The alpha-bet at first adopted was a mixture of the upper and lowercase italics, and the relief was produced by heavy pres-
sure on thick paper between two sheets of copper havingthe letters deeply cut. The embossing was thus on bothsides. His first attempt, after printing a few elementarysheets, was on the Gospel of St. Mark, which he com-pleted by the end of 1833, in a large quarto volume, andpublished early in January 1834. An account of his firstAmerican book for the blind may be found in Poulson’sAmerican Daily Advertiser of the loth of January 1834.The four Gospels were soon after printed in Roman capi-tals; but being found too bulky and otherwise objection-able they were abandoned, and a smaller, more compact,and sharper type, in the Roman capitals, was adopted.For the list of books printed at the Philadelphia press, seeTable, p. 418.
It appears that the Boston and Philadelphia Institu-tions were founded almost simultaneously, and that theirpresses and system of typography were established with**out being apprised of the efforts of each other. Time,however, has at length remedied this diversity. Thetypography of the Philadelphia books is exceedingly wellexecuted, and compares most favourably with the best ofthe Glasgow books, but the press has ceased to work,and printing in capital letters will not probably be re-sumed. From the preference which the present distin-guished and intelligent Director of the PhiladelphiaInstitution, Mr. William Chapin, late Superintendentof the Ohio Institution, is known to entertain for theBoston system of typography we may reasonably hopethat when printing shall be resumed there it will be withHowe’s alphabet. It is the opinion, however, of Mr.Chapin that all the American Institutions should unite,not only in the use of the same alphabet, but that theyshould all contribute to support one press. It may be
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