When William Moon printed the first sheet of raised characters in his new alphabet on a wooden hand-press a hundred years ago he kindled a torch which has given continual light to thousands of his blind fellow men in all parts of the world. From this single sheet has grown a movement which had brought independence, enjoyment and achievement to thousands of blind people all over the world.

Those who celebrate the centenary of the Moon printing press in Moon's home town of Brighton on the 17th November know that it was not until 1827 that the first book for the blind was published in England, and that inability to read had long been the greatest handicap to their general education.

In the first half of the 19th century there were some 20 different methods of embossed printing. Two years before he went blind William Moon studied a number of these systems, but when teaching found that most of his blind students were unable to decipher the letters or to memorise the contractions. Moon, therefore, began to devise a system of his own, with very simple outlines.

Old people and others unable to master the complications of the more elaborate codes have found Moon's method delightfully simple; in a few hours they find themselves able to read.

Moon's alphabet is composed of 19 unaltered or simplified Roman letters and 7 other simple outlines. There are 9 characters for recurring combinations of letters such as "ment" and for punctuation marks. Numbers were originally denoted by hooked signs, but in 1937 a numeral sign was adopted to turn the first ten letters of the alphabet into numbers.

It was not until 50 years had passed that the inventor discovered that his characters resembled the most ancient of alphabets, the Hittite, Moabite and Egyptian, and that he had unconsciously adopted the "ox-furrow" style of many early writings by printing his lines so that they were read alternately forwards and backwards, up one furrow and down the next, with guide lines at the end of each line. Moon cannot be read as quickly as Braille and is more bulky, but people who lose their sight in advancing years (who form the majority of the population of every country) can master it easily through Braille would be too difficult for them.

Within a few weeks Moon was bombarded with demands for portions of the Bible printed in his new alphabet and he began a task that was completed only ten years later when the Moon Bible was available in 58 volumes, totally over 4,000 pages, occupying one cubic yard and weighing more than one and a half hundredweight.

Soon after its invention the Moon system was adapted to other languages, Irish being the first and Chinese the second. Today the records show that parts of the Bible and devotional passages have been printed in 419 languages and dialects.

In 1870 a few books in Moon were sent to the United States and proved to be so popular that an urgent request was made for as many volumes as could be spared. In response, two thousand volumes were presented to New York City for distribution to the principal cities. A year later the University of Philadelphia bestowed on William Moon the honorary degree of LL.D. as an expression of their appreciation of his work. The diploma itself is preserved in the building in Brighton where Dr. Moon began his life's work.

In the beginning all books printed in Moon were published from the inventor's home, but extensions were added later and, when the Moon Society was formed in 1880, Dr. Moon conveyed the premises and plant into the hands of trustees. Two years later he made his only visit to the United States, touring extensively with his daughter Adelaide. As a result of his visit free lending libraries for the blind were established in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Pittsburg.

The production of Moon type was carried on only in England until 1931, when the United States Congress granted an annual appropriation of $100,000 for the purchase of books in embossed types by the Library of Congress, and plant was adapted by the Braille Institute of America at Los Angeles to produce books in the Moon system.

Dr. Moon died in 1894, at the age of 76. For nearly fifty years he had devoted his life to the welfare and education of the blind, instilling in his son and daughter such zeal that they continued his work until their death twenty years later. Dr. Robert Moon had by then become secretary of the Pennsylvania Home Teaching Society and it was he who began, in 1905, to publish the Moon Magazine, a monthly publication which has continued without interruption ever since. Miss Adelaide Moon took charge of the work in England and negotiated with the National Institute for the Blind in the hope that the Moon Society would become, as it eventually did, a branch of that Institute.

The interest of readers has always been in the forefront of Moon Society policy. During the last twenty years 319 titles have been published - 1,888 volumes of biography, essays and belles letters, fiction, history, poetry, drama, travel and adventure, science and religious works. The Bible is still the best selling publication in Moon, with "Pilgrim's Progress" second in popularity.

Many of the classics have been published in unabridged editions and retold as short stories. Abbreviated editions are popular because they take up less space. "Westward Ho!" takes 16 volumes of about 80 pages each in the original version, for example, and only one volume of 31 pages in the abridged version of Anthony Praga, first published in the Sunday Express.

Since "The Last Days of Polycarp" over 1,300,00 volumes have been printed. A weekly newspaper is nearing its 25th anniversary, three monthly magazines, one of short stories, one of topical articles and one devotional, a quarterly magazine for the deaf-blind, knitting patterns, playing cards, calendars and other important items also flow from the Moon Press, and the entire output is sold to the blind and to libraries for the blind at a quarter of the production cost, the balance being met by public gifts.

Before 1848 there have been isolated cases of blind men and women who with courage and brains and initiative have overcome their affliction and led useful lives, but the blind community as a whole had always been poor and helpless. Today, through the work of pioneers like Dr. Moon, there is scarcely a walk in life in which the blind are not succeeding.

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