874 sats \ 8 replies \ @deyner1984 2 Feb \ on: Fun Fact Friday - Best Fun Fact Gets 10,000 Sats meta
Lewis Carroll ("Alice's Adventures in Wonderland") was a chronic insomniac who often felt the urge to write at night. Living as he did before electric lights were common, he invented what he called a "nyctograph", or night-writer, along with a notation system of nyctography for writing without the aid of a light.
FUN FACT!
Parts of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" were entirely written that way and today, you can even find (and try to read) that same book completely printed in the Nyctographic Square Alphabet devised by Lewis Carroll.
https://www.evertype.com/books/alice-nyctograph.html
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904808786/evertype-20
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Ha! Apparently the guy couldn´t sleep quite well when he was working into some of his masterpieces and during the night, some nice ideas came to his mind and he just wanted a quick way to write in the darkness and transcribe the next day.
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OK, but wait, how does nyctography help?!
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I read the guy sent a letter to a magazine (to explain the use of this tool) saying that for him, waking up in the middle of a cold night to light a candle and write some ideas or parts of his creations was not suitable because too many facts like, for example, texts written in plain English in mid dark were not legible the upcoming morning for him (ink based devices to write and the guy was sleepy) + sometimes the ideas were so brief that waking up to go to a desk got him to forget the idea completely so this device was used right from his bed without the need to wake up. Apparently he slept with this tool behind his own pillow. It was easy for him to use it i guess.
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