 Some sources depict Braille learning about it from a newspaper account read to him by a friend, while others say the officer, aware of its potential, made a special visit to the school.In either case, Barbier willingly shared his invention called "night writing" which was a code of dots and dashes impressed into thick paper.These impressions could be interpreted entirely by the fingers, letting soldiers share information on the battlefield without having light or needing to speak.