While taking a group that needed an interpreter through a museum exhibition, I learned about a man who failed at religious and legal careers but became a great benefactor to a certain minority group after he noticed two siblings doing something interesting on the streets of Paris. Though he did not invent the concept, he developed it sufficiently that his pupils were able to take it to other countries and found schools to teach it. Who was he, and for what is he known?

Silver_Knight

Charles-Michel de l'Epee might have been denied ordination as a Catholic priest, and been denied a license to officiate as a lawyer, but he was quite successful as the "Father of the Deaf." He founded the first public school for deaf children in Paris. The idea for teaching sign language came from watching two deaf sisters communicate with each others through gestures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abb%C3%A9_de_l%27%C3%89p%C3%A9e Sep 21 07, 9:06 PM

lanfranco

Yes, indeed, SK, Charles-Michel de l'Epee it is. And I had quite an interesting time with the sign-language interpreter, learning out how certain concepts involving 15th-century metal casting could be eloquently and accurately expressed in Sign. I've just gotten a new stock of maces in. You get one in gilded bronze. Sep 21 07, 9:29 PM