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 "^yr
 
 B. 0. BAXEH 
 LAWYZP 
 DALLAS. Tl/.
 
 ISAAC PITIMAN.
 
 BIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF 
 
 ISAAC PITMAN 
 
 (Inventor of PhonograpJiy.) 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS ALLEN REED. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED, 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 GRIFFITH, FARRAN, OKEDEN and WELSH, 
 
 Newbery House, Charing Cross Roau. 
 
 And SYDNEY.
 
 pc^ ^ ^^ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Many sketches of the Hfe and hibors of Mr Isaac Pitman 
 have been given from time to time in magazines and news- 
 papers at home and abroad, but nothing has hitherto ap- 
 peared in the nature of a continuous and fairly complete 
 Biography. I have attempted to supply the deficiency 
 ^ from such materials as have been at my disposal. If I 
 tn possess no other qualifications for the task, I have at least 
 K the advantage of having had a very long personal ac- 
 E9 quaintance, which early ripened into friendship, with Mr 
 Pitman and most of the members of his family, and of 
 ?? having been for many years a fellow-laborer in the move- 
 a: ments, which, more than half-a-century ago, he originated. 
 The latter circumstance has rendered it almost necessary 
 that I should, here and there, make some allusion to the 
 t duties I have had to fulfil in connection with the early 
 propagation of Phonography and the later public recogni- 
 tion of Mr Pitman's efforts. I would willingly have 
 omitted all such references, but they have been almost 
 forced upon me in the preparation of this memoir, and I 
 could hardly have passed them by without running the risk 
 
 448ii53
 
 ii. Preface. 
 
 of an imputation of false modesty. In order to avoid errors 
 of statement, I have asked Mr Pitman to read the proof- 
 sheets of the work, and he has been good enough to do so. 
 As far, therefore, as he is himself concerned, the record 
 may be regarded as authoritative. It was not without 
 reluctance that his assent to the publication was obtained ; 
 but, having waived the objections natural to a retiring dis- 
 position, he has at length given me his friendly help in my 
 endeavors to place before the public some account of his 
 life's work. No responsibility, of course, attaches to him 
 except in regard to the matters of fact here related in con- 
 nection with his own personal history. For the other 
 parts of the work I am alone responsible, and whatever 
 imperfections they may exhibit must be laid to my account. 
 
 Nov., 1890. T. A. REED.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Pitman Family — Early Life and Education.— Reminis- 
 cences. Study.— Learns Taylor's Shorthand. — Enters the 
 Borou^'h Road School. — Barton-on-Humber. — Wotton- 
 -under-Edge. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The " Comprehensive Bible."— A Self-imposed Task.— His Offer 
 to Mr Burster.— Mr Bagster's Gratitude. — Marriage. — Em- 
 braces the Doctrines of the New Church. — Dismissal from 
 "Wotton.- The Position of Shorthand.— First Edition of 
 Phonogi-aphy. — The Spring of 1887. — "Stenogi-aphic Sound- 
 Hand." — Description of First Edition. — Residence in Bath. 
 Post Office Reform.— Mr Pitman's Proposal of an affixed 
 stamp for prepayment of Postage. — The "Penny Plate." 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Lecturing Tours. — Spelling Reform. — The " Phonogi'aphic 
 Journal." — Visit to Glasgow. — Movable Types. — Early Lec- 
 tures. — Nottingham Festival. — Birmingham Festival. — 
 Influential Support. — John Harland on Phonogi-aphy. — 
 John Bright and Phonography. ^Opposition to Phonogra- 
 phy. — Vegetarianism. — The Phonetic Society. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Phonotypy. — Dissemination of Phonography. — Type Set from 
 Shorthand Notes. — Queen's Head Passage. — Science of 
 Language.
 
 VI. CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The 1847 Alphabet.— The Partnership with Mr Ellis.— The 
 " Fonetik News." — Policy of the Paper. — '' Plea for Spel- 
 ling Reform." — The Bible in Phonetic S])elling. — London 
 Phonetic Soiree.— The '" Vocabulary."— The '" Phonogra- 
 phic Instructor."— IPhonogi-aphers rapidly increasing. — 
 A Universal Alphabet. — The Presidentship of the Phonetic 
 Society. — Albion Place.— Parsonage Lane. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 Duodecimal Numeration. — Meeting at Manchester. — Sir "W. C 
 Trevelyan's Prize.— Prof. Max Miiller.— Phonetic Print- 
 ing.— Presentation to Mr Pitman. — A Suitable Home for 
 Phonography. — Parsonage Lane. — Method of Daily Work. 
 — Early Rising. — Signs of Progress. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Music. — Table of Vibrations. — " Sancte Spiritus." — Lessons on 
 the Organ. — Mr Pitman's Correspondence. — Habits of 
 Life. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Retrospective. — Phonography in Commercial Life. — Position 
 of Phonography. — Waste of Time by the Common Writing. 
 — Longhand Abbreviations. — Illegible Writing. — Litho- 
 graphed Volumes. — The " Dairyman's Daughter." — " Vis- 
 ible Speech." — The " Reporter's Assistant." — The Phonetic 
 Institute. — Personal History. — Kingston Buildings. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 An Accident.— Shorthand Types. — The Phonetic Alphabet. — 
 First Stage of the Spelling Reform.— Second Stage.— The 
 New "Institute."— Troubles with Engine and Printing 
 Machine. — Difficulties with the " Journal." Bath Free 
 Library.— Prof. Max Miiller on Mr Pitman's System of 
 Spelling. The School Board and Spelling Reform. Con- 
 ference on Si)elling Reform.— Spelling more Difficult than 
 Reading.— The Spelling Question.
 
 Vll. CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Phonography Makinj^ Headway. — The Society of Ai'ts and 
 PhonoH'i'aphy. — The S])elliiiK Reform Association. — The 
 "Five Rnles." — Visit to Edinbui'gh. —Infringement of 
 Copyright.— Meetinef at Exeter Hall. — Death of Mr Fred. 
 Pitman. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Jubilee of Phonography. — Preliminary Announcement. — 
 International Shorthand Congress. — Opening Meeting. — 
 Phonographic Celebration. — Presentation of the Bust. — 
 Mr Pitman returns thanks. — Luncheon with the Lord 
 Mayor. — American Tribute. — Presentation at Bath. — Pre- 
 sentation at the Holborn Restaurant. — The New Phonetic 
 Institute. — A Shorthand Letter. — Home Life. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Present Position of Phonography. — Rapid Progress of Late 
 Years. — Shorthand and the Education Code. — Statistics. — 
 Phonographic Publications. — Phonography Unive. sal. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Kingston House, Bradford ... ... ... 10 
 
 Mr Pitman's House, Wotton-under-Edge ... 17 
 
 Mr Pitman's second Schoolroom at Wotton . . 30 
 
 Facsimile of the First Page of the Phonograplnr Journal 3G 
 
 Portrait of Isaac Pitman at the age of thirty-two 55 
 
 Phonetic Institute, Albion Place .. ... ... 75 
 
 ,, „ Kingston Buildings ... ... 127 
 
 New Phonetic Institute, Bath .. ... 171 
 
 Facsimile of a Shorthand Lettei* ... ... 175
 
 EIOGRAPJIY 
 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Isaac Pitman was born at Trowbridge, AViltshire, on the 
 •Ith of January, 1813, being the second son, and the 
 third child, of a family of eleven children — seven sons and 
 four daughters. The sons were christened Jacob, Isaac, 
 Abraham, Joseph, Benjamin, Henry, and Frederick ; and 
 the daughters were named INIelissa, liosclla, Jane, and 
 INIary. Abraham died at the age of fifteen ; all the rest 
 lived to be active luembers of society. Six of them became 
 teachers of public schools, five having first passed through 
 a course of training at the Borough Road College of the 
 British and Foreign School Society, London. The head- 
 master of the College, Mr Henry Dunn, said to the father 
 of this teaching family, " Send me as many more as you 
 can spare." Jacob Pitman, architect, died at Sydney, 
 N.S. Wales, in jNIarch, 1890, in his eightieth year, Melissa 
 at fifty-five, and Frederick at fifty-eight years of age. 
 Seven of the family are now living. Samuel Pitman, their 
 father, was for many years clerk and overseer of the 
 factory of ]\Ir James Edgell, Trowbridge, which, in the 
 early years of the ])resent century, was the principal 
 town in the West of England for the manufacture 
 of cloth. Isaac received the rudiments of an English 
 1
 
 2 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 education in the Grammar School of his native town. From 
 a list of the names of the pupils, kept by the schoolmaster, 
 Mr Nightingale, it appears that he left school on the 8th 
 of October, 18.25, in the thirteenth year of his age. He 
 would have continued longer at school, but for a physical 
 weakness, occasioned, it is now believed, by the condition 
 of the small, low, ill-ventilated schoolroom in which the 
 boys assembled. They numbered from 80 to 100, and the 
 size of the room was about 25 ft. by 15 ft., and 8 or 9 ft. 
 high. The boys were stowed away in two layers, one in 
 raised desks round the room, and the other in classes on 
 the floor. Young Pitman's sensitive constitution could not 
 endure the vitiated atmosphere of the place, and he was 
 often obliged to be taken into the fresh air to recover from 
 a fainting fit. This circumstance brought his school-time 
 to an early close. No one, it seems, in those pre-sanitary 
 days, dreamed of laying the blame upon the schoolroom, the 
 only explanation being found in the boy's weakly constitu- 
 tion. No fainting fit occurred after he left school. From 
 his earliest days he was fond of reading, and his studious 
 habits received every encouragement from his father, a man 
 of considerable intelligence, and a strict disciphnarian. The 
 greatest regularity and punctuality prevailed in the family. 
 To loiter in the street for a game of marbles on the way to 
 .school was a serious offence, and punished as such. But 
 Isaac was not inclined to indulge in this or other boyish 
 pastimes. There is, indeed, a family tradition that he once 
 exhibited a healthy tendency to mischief by joining an elder 
 brother in an assault ujjon an apple tree in the garden. The 
 offenders were discovered, and forthwith ordered to "go to 
 the desk'' — a formidable piece of discipline reserved for 
 serious delinquencies. The culprit was required to stand
 
 EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 
 
 at the desk, extend his arms befon; him, and show " a square 
 back/' on which descended a black leather stiaj), ])art of 
 the household furniture, the number of strokes being 
 regulated by an established code of Draconian strictness. 
 Another family tradition is, that this instrument of disci- 
 pline vvas once missing at a time when it was required, 
 and " father '' was very angry — the only occasion, it is 
 said, on which he lost his temper while endeavoring to 
 obey the wise man's precept, " Chasten thy son while 
 there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." 
 The strap was afterwards found under the bed-clothes of 
 the cradle. 
 
 Isaac is said by his brothers and sisters to have been a 
 religiously-disposed youth. He was brought up as a 
 Baptist, his mother being a very devout m.ember of that 
 denomination. The writer has been told that a few days 
 before the departure of this good woman to the other life, 
 she said to her second daughter. Rose, "In the bottom 
 drawer of that chest," pointing to one in the room, " under 
 the other things, you will find the white dress in which I 
 was baptized. I have preserved it for my burial." Its 
 preservation was not previously known in the family. It 
 is said that she was never heard to laugh aloud ; but her 
 face always wore a pleasing, or a patiently resigned, ex- 
 pression — generally the former. 
 
 Besides the instruction which the children received 
 in the day, Mr Pitman senior, who always took the 
 deepest interest in their education, instituted an evening 
 school at home, and engaged an intelligent lady and a good 
 pianist. Miss New, to teach the four older ones, between 
 the ages of eight and thirteen, for two hours twice a week, 
 one hour being given to the piano, a quarter of an hour to 
 I*
 
 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 each pupil ; and the other hour to gi-ammar and other 
 youthful studies. The piano was then beginning to super- 
 sede the harpsichord and spinet. The first instrument 
 on which the children j)layed for about two years was an 
 old-fashioned triangular harpsichord. After they had 
 acquired some })roficicncy in fingerings they were rewarded 
 with a real " Broadwood " of five-and-a-half octaves^ 
 then considered a good compass. So overjoyed was Isaac 
 with the opportunity of playing on this instrument that 
 he regarded it as a gift from Heaven, and gave shape 
 to his gratitude by saving up his pocket money till it 
 amounted to five shillings, which he converted into a silver 
 crown piece and quietly dropped the glittering coin into 
 the collecting-box at Zion Chapel, all imknown to his 
 brothers and sisters to this day. This home school was held 
 for two or three years^ and was discontinued on the removal 
 of the family residence from Nos. 3 and 4 Timbrell Sti-eet to 
 Trowbridge Down, No. 4, where, about 1826, Mr Pitman 
 built a house with workshops behind for the manufacture 
 of cloth. A pair of globes was now added to the means 
 of family instruction, and the '' use of the globes '^ was at 
 once added by Isaac to his other subjects of study. Soon 
 after his removal to Bath in 1839, at the request of Miss 
 Evans, who conducted a large ladies' school at No. 1 Iloval 
 Crescent, he instructed the young ladies in this branch of 
 knowledge. 
 
 In the youth and early manhood of ]\Ir Saunu^l Pitnuin 
 (born 1787, died 18G3,) the French lievolution convulsed 
 England as well as the Continent. Of literature there was 
 then but a scant supply, and the. only science that had 
 been much cultivated since the restoration of learning in 
 the fifteenth century was astronomy, which Mr Pitman
 
 REMINISCENCES. 
 
 studied with ardor, together with the so-called science of 
 astrology. This he mastered in all its details, being inti- 
 mately acquainted with that abstruse Ito. volume, "Sibly's 
 Astrology." Tiie horoscopes of" the eleven children were 
 j)laced in the Family Bible. An additional copy of the 
 iioroscopes of both parents and children was also made, 
 which the author has had an opportunity of inspecting. 
 Ill his later life Mr Pitman senior abandoned the notion 
 that the events of life are regulated through the medium of 
 j)hinetary movements, and gave uj) his astrological studies. 
 One more reminiscence may be given of Isaac's youth, 
 and his mother's instinctive love. Two years after he left 
 home, and had served his school eighteen months, in the 
 summer holiday of 1833 he paid a visit to his parents. 
 Reaching home ni the twilight — the house in Silver Street, 
 Trowbridge, in front of the factory — he was surprised, on 
 entering the house, to tind himself in someone's arms, and 
 that fingers were feeling the tip of his nose. On being 
 released, he found that his mother had been trying to 
 assure herself, by a dimple in the nose, that it was 
 indeed her own Isaac. 13y this incidi;nt he first became 
 aware of this little facial mark, so well preserved in Mr 
 Brock's bust. Gossips say it is a " second thought " on 
 the part of dame Nature, who decides *o make a unit 
 instead of twins * This first visit home is.remembered by 
 
 * S. R. "Wells, in his " New Physiognomy," p. 210, says : — 
 " Two lateral prominences at tlie end of the nose, indicate the 
 faculty of correspondence. This sign, when lai'ge, makes the 
 nose appear as if it were divided into two lateral halves. A 
 person with this sign large has a clear perception of the fitness 
 of things, and the correspondence of one thing with another, 
 and an equal sense of proprietj' in manners, dress, and everj'- 
 thing else."
 
 6 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 the family as having been marked by an affecting- religious 
 service. It occurred on the eve of the day before his 
 return to the North. The family was called together to 
 evening prayer. Isaac read Acts 20. 17-38, and offered 
 prayer. They were all solemnized, and gladdened by the 
 hope that they should yet " see his face again." 
 
 The poet Crabbe was Rector of Trowbridge from 1813 
 to 1832, and during their boyhood the Pitmans were 
 active in his Sunday School, the father being superinten- 
 dent, and his two eldest boys, Jacob and Isaac, teachers, 
 the one being about 10 and the other 8 years of age. 
 The Baptist place of worship which the family attended, 
 Zion Chapel, had not then established a Sunday School. 
 In a few years this necessary adjunct to a Church was 
 established, mainly through the exertions of Isaac's father : 
 his two eldest sons became teachers, and led the singing 
 by their flutes. 
 
 On leaving school, Isaac became a junior clerk in the 
 counting-house of the factory of which his father was 
 manager, being at his desk every morning at six o'clock. 
 When, as sometimes happened, there was no work to be 
 done, he would take a country walk for an hour. In 
 these walks, and at home, he got through a great deal of 
 general reading, much of it of a serious description, 
 Watts^s "Improvement of the Mind" was one of his 
 favorite volumes, and he believes that it had a great 
 influence in the formation of his habits and character. 
 Fi'om his earliest days, books and music were, as he has 
 himself expressed it, his " two loves." One of the books 
 which he made his companion in these morning walks, 
 from Pole-barn lane (at the bottom of which was the 
 factory) into the country, was " Lennie's Grammar."
 
 STUDY. 7 
 
 The conjugations of verbs, lists of irregular verbs, adverbs, 
 ])iepositions, and conjunctions, and the 3G rules of syntax, 
 he committed to memory, so that he could repeat them 
 seriatim. The study of this book gave him a transparent 
 English style. There was also a local library to which his 
 father subscribed, one of the earliest lending libraries 
 established in the country, and Isaac was one of its most 
 diligent readers. He w-ent regularly for fresh supplies of 
 books, and in this way became well acquainted with tiie 
 English classics, being, as he tells us, as familiar with 
 Addison's Sir Roger, Will Honeycomb, and all the club, 
 as he was w'ith his own brothers and sisters. At this 
 early age he was greatly delighted with the "^^ Iliad," 
 and thought he had made a discovery of an extremely 
 interesting book, never having heard it mentioned by 
 anyone. Besides the treasures of the local library, the 
 young Pitmans had the advantage of occasional parcels of 
 books from London. Their father had obtained an intro- 
 duction to the publishing house of Tegg, 73 Cheapside, 
 from whom he was able to buy books at trade price, — "a. 
 privilege," says Mr Jacob Pitman, "of w^hich he availed 
 himself to a large extent, purchasing a number of books 
 which we had never seen before, and this gave a great 
 impetus to our studies.'' Isaac never expected to wield 
 the pen as an author, but at an early age his reading of 
 the Spectator, from the first number to the last, inspired 
 him with a desire to do something in letters. 
 
 He was in the habit, from the age of twelve, of copynig 
 choice pieces of poetry and portions of Scripture into a little 
 book which he kept in his pocket, for the purpose of com- 
 mitting them to memory. Two of these little pocket albums 
 have been preserved. Their contents arc very various.
 
 8 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 One contains extracts from Pope, Milton, Cowper, James 
 jMontg-omery, the Psalms, and Isaiah, interspersed with 
 the Greek Alphabet, the Signs of the Zodiac, arithmetical 
 tables, and other items of useful information. This book 
 is dated May 31st, 1825. The penmanship is extremely 
 neat and distinct. A later })Ocket comj)anion contains a 
 neatly-written copy of Valpy's Greek Granniiar, as far as 
 the Syntax, which he committed to memory; a chrono- 
 logical table, etc. In his morning walks, at Barton-on- 
 -Humber, he committed to memory the iirst 14 chapters 
 of Proverbs. He would not undertake a fresh chapter un- 
 til he had repeated the precedmg one without hesitation. 
 Up to the age of sixteen, he greatly increased his know- 
 ledge of books ; but he rarely had the opportunity of 
 intercourse with educated persons. One result of this was 
 that, while familiar enough with written words and their 
 meaning, he was at fault w ith regard to their pronunciation. 
 A large portion of the language of books he had never 
 heard in conversation, and the misleading or ambiguous 
 spellings of these numerous words often led him to 
 pronounce them (mentally) inaccurately. Happily, he 
 was conscious of this defect, and did his best to remedy it. 
 Of many hundred words, known by the eye only as dumb 
 symbols, he learned the accentuation by his reading and 
 j)assionate love of " Paradise Lost." With characteristic 
 energy and thoroughness, he set himself a task which to 
 most persons would be little less than repulsive, and which 
 probably few have undertaken. He carefully read through 
 \A alker's Dictionary, with the double object of extending 
 his knowledge of words, and of correcting his errors in or- 
 thoepy. 'I'he words which he thus discovered that he had 
 mentally mispronounced were copied out with their proper
 
 STUDY. 9 
 
 diacritic symbols of pronunciation. They numbered about 
 two thousand, and their correct pronunciation had to be 
 fixed in the meuiory l)y repetition. The chief difficulty in 
 tliis task lay in the fact that a false jjronunciation or 
 accentuation had to be unlearned. This reading of 
 Walker was made at about the aye of seventeen. He 
 read through the book a second time, with the same 
 object, soon after he was settled in his school at Barton- 
 on-IIumber. 
 
 It was this study of Walker, especially the Introduction 
 to the Dictionary, that determined the literary bent of 
 iiis subsequent life. He there saw for the first time a 
 scientific classification of the sounds of the language, 
 and their relations to each other. There, too, he more 
 clearly discovered the defects and redundancies of the 
 connnon alphabet, and the glaring inconsistencies and 
 absurdities of the current orthography, on which he was 
 destined in after years to make so determined an onslaught, 
 but which, at that period, were regarded by him with the 
 customary literary awe. His study of shorthand — with 
 which his name is now so closely identified — did not begin 
 till about 1829. A copy of Harding's edition of Taylor's 
 system fell into his hands, and he was greatly interested 
 in reading therein an extract from Gawtress's Introduction 
 to Byrom's system, in which the advantages of the art 
 were eloquently set forth. The book was published at 
 3s. 6d. — the lowest price for any work on shorthand in 
 those days — and, not deeming it ])rudent to expend so 
 large a sum, he borrowed the book from a cousin,* read it 
 
 * This cousin, Charles Laverton, was of a very studious turn 
 of mind, and he and Isaac Pitman were intimately associated 
 in their literary pursuits, and were much attached to each
 
 10 
 
 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 through, copied the alphabet and the arbitrary characters, 
 and learned to write the system with sufficient facility to 
 be able to report a slow speaker. 
 
 About two years after Isaac had entered the service of 
 Mr Edgell, his father set up as a manufacturer on his 
 own account, as already mentioned, and the young clerk 
 was transferred to his father's countinsi-house. The 
 
 Kinj^s/o/i House-, Bradford. 
 
 family residence and the business were removed in 1829 
 to the house and factory in Silver Street ; and in August, 
 1831, Isaac gave up his clerkship for a more congenial 
 occupation, — that of a school-teacher. He was sent to the 
 
 other. Lavcrton learned sliortliand as an aid to the ministry 
 for which he was studyiiifj. He left Eiiprhind for Harvard. 
 College, Boston, U.S.A.; but on walking from the ship to the 
 landing-i)lace, slipped from the jjlaiik and was drowned.
 
 SCHOLASTIC DUTIES. 11 
 
 British and Foreign School and College, Borough Road, 
 London, to be trained as a British School teacher. After 
 five months' study and drill in teaching, he was sent to 
 Barton-on-Humber, to take charge of the school which 
 had been established there on the funds derived from 
 Long's Charity. A few years after this event, his father 
 removed his residence and business to Bradford, and took 
 the factory connected with Kingston House, to which the 
 family then moved. The house is a picturesque building, 
 erected by John of Padua for Sir Walter Hungerford, 
 about the year 1570. It derives its present name from 
 the last Duke of Kingston, whose property it was, and 
 from whom it descended to the Manvers family. After 
 Samuel Pitman left, it was reduced to the condition of a 
 farm-house. In 1857, Mr Moulton bought the ])ropcrty, 
 and restored the house to its original beauty. 
 
 At the age of nineteen, in January, 1832, Isaac entered 
 ujjon his duties at Barton-on-Humber. The school was 
 an endowed one, the master's salary being j670 a year, 
 which was afterwards raised to £S0. The ninnber of 
 boys was 120. 
 
 Mr Pitman remained at Barton until 183(5, wlien he left 
 to enter on another scholastic engagement at Wotton- 
 under-Edge, Gloucestershire, It is curious to note that 
 the Barton School trustees had not sufficient funds in 
 hand, when Mr Pitman left, to pay him his full stipend ; 
 and the ^balance of £11, then owing to him, has not 
 been discharired.
 
 12 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 At Barton an incident occurred w Inch, as it is intimately 
 connected with Mr Pitman's career as a shorthand inventor 
 and at the same time illustrates his industry and his love 
 of accuracy;, should be chronicled with some minuteness. In 
 October, 1835, he conducted the services at the Methodist 
 chapel in the village of Ulceby, and happened to see for 
 the first time, at the house of his host, Mr John Hay, a 
 farmer of some standing, a copy of Bagster's " Compre- 
 hensive Bible," which he borrowed. He had been in the 
 habit of using in his private reading, the 8vo. Beference 
 Bible of the Bible Society, presented to him by the 
 Committee of the Borough Iload College. He set himself 
 the pleasant and profitable task of reading it carefully 
 through, together with all the marginal references. On 
 the Sunday when he took his appointment at Ulceby, 
 he had nearly finished reading the Old Testament on this 
 j)lan, and, in the course of it, he had detected and noted 
 thirty-eight errors ni the references. He was anxious to 
 ascertain whether these errors were repeated in Bagster's 
 "Comprehensive'' collection of five hundred thousand 
 marginal references. The preface stated that while the 
 j)arallel passages of the Reference Bible of the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society, and of some other reference Bibles, 
 bad been admitted without verification, those of some 
 other Bibles, of less repute, had all been verified. On 
 examining the volume at his own home in Barton, he 
 discovered that, of the thirty-eight errors in the Bible
 
 A SELF-IMPOSED TASK. 13 
 
 Society's edition, fifteen had been i)erj)etuated in the 
 " Coin])reliensive." Tliereupon he resolved to write to 
 the Bible Soeiety and to Mr 15a<:ster on the subject. 
 His letter to the former was as follows: — 
 
 "Barton-on-Humber, loth October, 1835. 
 
 "Gentlemen, — Thinking that you would be glad to receive 
 any correction that could be made in any of your i^ublications. 
 (which in themselves are above all correction, but not perfect 
 in that arrangement of their parts which has originated with 
 tilt' reason of falUble men.) I submit to your notice the follow- 
 ing list of parallel passages which in reading through the Sv(j 
 Refei'ence Bible I found had been misprinted. Many of them 
 I was able to rectify by knowing what part of Holy Writ cor- 
 responded to the text. Others of the mistakes I have amended 
 from the ' Com]3rehensive Bible,' but for some of the wi'ong 
 parallel texts I cannot discover the true reading. [Here was 
 given the list of errata.] Some of these emendations are of 
 little importance, others are corrections of gross errors. Many 
 of the chapters [mentioned in the references] have not the 
 number of verses attributed to them. 
 
 " Praying that your Society may have more and more of the 
 Divine blessing upon its operations, and [still] more faithful 
 service froni everyone connected with it, I remain, yoiu-s in 
 Him by whom the prophets wrote and s])oke, 
 
 Isaac Pitman. 
 
 '■ P.S. — You will observe that I have corrected only the Ohl 
 Testament : indeed, I have not finished it, being now in 
 Zcphan'nih." 
 
 This letter was never acknowledged, but, in subsequent 
 editions of the Society's volume, the thirty-eight false 
 references noted by Isaac Pitman were either corrected or 
 omitted. 
 
 The letter to Mr Bagster was as follows : 
 
 ■■ Barton-on-Humber, 15th October, is:?5. 
 "Isaac Pitman to Mr Bagsier.— ^iv, — In reading through 
 the Svo Reference Bible of the Bible Society, I found about 4o
 
 14 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 -nToua' numbers [in the figures for chapter and verse] in the 
 parallel passages, and sometimes one book put for another. 
 Some of them I corrected by my slight acquaintance with the 
 Sacred Word, such as ' 1 Ki.' being put for ' 2 Ki.\ and siniilar 
 mistakes. Not being able to discover the proper parallel 
 reading of about half-a-dozen. I procured the loan of your 
 ' Comprehensive Bible ' from a friend, thinking that I might 
 fully depend upon it. Some of the mistakes I cannot correct 
 from this, the errors being copied into it. 
 
 '■ I have made it my custom for two or three years, in my 
 morning and evening reading of Scriijtui'e, to refer to every 
 l^arallel place ; in some measure appreciating the value of the 
 plan. If you would like to place a copy of your Bible imder 
 my care, to be considered your property, I would make a con- 
 stant and careful use of it, and give you the benefit of the 
 corrections or mistakes which I might discover in reading it 
 through. 
 
 ■'I hold the mastership of the British School here, having 
 been sent in 1832 by the B. and F. School Society, Boro' Road. 
 It strikes my mind that the Svo Bible in which I have dis- 
 covered the errors was given me by the Committee of that 
 Institution, July, 1832." 
 
 The offer was obviously too good a one to be rejected. 
 Mr Bagster readily accepted it^ and sent to his correspon- 
 dent a copy of his Bible by the next coach from London. 
 This was followed by a second copy divided into seven 
 portions, each portion to be returned when read. The 
 magnitude of this self-imposed task may be seen from the 
 fact that the marginal references in Bagster's well-known 
 edition amount to five hundred thousand. By mapping out 
 his work in his customary methodical way, Isaac Pitman 
 calculated that he could accomplish the task in three 
 years, besides attending to the duties of his school. It 
 was begun, as has been said, at Barton, and was completed 
 at Wotton-under-Edge two months earlier than the 
 allotted period, namely, in August, 1838, and this not-
 
 MARRIAGE. 15 
 
 withstanding the time occupied in the chanj;c of residence 
 and in the piibUcation of the first edition of his system of 
 shorthand in 1837. To assist him in his work, he pre- 
 pared a copy of the ]']ngHsh version of Bagster's Polyglot 
 Bible by writing on the outside top corner of each page the 
 commencing and concluding chapter and verse, and in- 
 serted projecting slips of paper as guides to the books and 
 chapters. With this aid, he was able to refer to any given 
 passage with the least possible expenditure of time. The 
 number of errors detected in this laborious and minute 
 revision was considerable, often amounting to one in each 
 [)age ; and in the books where the references were the most 
 numerous, as in the Psalms and the Epistles^ to about 
 three in two pages. The electrotype plates of the Bible 
 were duly corrected in accordance with these emendations, 
 and all the subsequent editions of the work have had the 
 full benefit of the examination. It is no wonder that 
 Mr Bagster felt grateful for this gratuitous assistance from 
 an unknown hand. It led to a lasting fiiendship between 
 him and Mr Pitman, and in 1843 Mr Bagster presented 
 to his young coadjutor a splendidly-bound copy of the 
 royal ko edition, having on its cover a silver shield, with 
 this inscription : — 
 
 "Presented to Mr Isaac Pitman, as a token of esteem, and in 
 remembrance of the friendly diligence with wliicli he labored 
 to secure the Typographical Accuracy of this edition of the 
 Sacred Scriptures, by Samuel Bagster, Mai-ch, 18-i:3." 
 
 While at Barton, Mv Pitman married the widow of Mr 
 George Holgate of that town. On leaving Barton, as has 
 been already stated, he went to Wotton-under-Edge, 
 where he was invited by a committee to establish a school 
 to be conducted on the British and Forei";n School system.
 
 16 ISAAC PITMAN, 
 
 The number of boys was about the same as in the school 
 at Barton, and the same salary was given to the master. 
 Everything v»'ent on smoothly enough until Mr Pitman's 
 religious convictions underwent a change, which brought 
 upon him the hostility of some of his former friends. 
 He became a membei" of the "New Church." At the 
 end of a long " Letter to a Friend," entitled " Reception 
 of the Heavenly Doctrines Vindicated, '^ inserted in the 
 "Intellectual Repository," 1837, p. 557, he says, "I con- 
 sider the view I have of the spiritual world, of the inter- 
 nal sense of God's Holy Word^ and of the Person of the 
 Lord our God and Savior, [" the Almighty," Rev. 1. 8,] 
 etc., with which I have become acquainted through the 
 Writings of the New Church, as similar to that arising 
 from a curtain being raised, and I am now able to see as it 
 were an ocean of light "—quoting the language of 
 Huyghens, the astronomer, on seeing through a powerful 
 telescope one of the nebula; of the starry heavens. It is 
 understood to be ]\lr Pitman's intention to reprint in 
 reformed spelling this " Letter" and some other papers on 
 the same subject which appeared in the " Intellectual Re- 
 pository " for 1886 and 1838 ; and no doubt many pho- 
 nographers and others will be interested in reading this 
 exposition of his theological opinions. The " New Church" 
 has had few more ardent disciples than the inventor of 
 Phonography. 
 
 The new views embraced by Mr Pitman eoidd not be 
 tolerated by the more orthodox sup])orters of his school, 
 and he shortly afterwards received notice of dismissal. 
 His defection from the Evangelical ranks was almost 
 regarded as a scandal ; and, at the Tabernacle built by 
 Rowland Hill, the minister, alluding to the event which
 
 BIRTH-PLACE OF " PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 17 
 
 had just occurred, told his congregation (Mr Pitman 
 himself being present) that " if he held such religious 
 sentiments he should expect to be hunted out of the town 
 like a mad dog.'' But these things, which now seem 
 hardly credible, occurred more tlian half a century ago; 
 and " many things have happened since then." A change 
 in theological convictions, happily, no longer means social 
 ostracism or persecution. 
 
 Mr Pitman's House, Wotton-under-Edge. 
 
 It was during his residence in Wotton-under-Edgc, and 
 while the revision of the references in the " Comprehen- 
 sive Bible " was in progress, that Isaac Pitman turned his 
 attention to the popularizing of shorthand. The practice 
 
 2
 
 18 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 of the art in those days was very limited. Even among 
 newspaper reporters shorthand was by no means a sine 
 qua lion. Verbatim reporting was a rare accomplishment, 
 and a rapid longhand writer with a good memory was able 
 to meet the requirements of most provincial papers in the 
 reproduction of public speeches. Some Parliamentary 
 reporters, too, dispensed with the aid of shorthand, and 
 even affected to despise it. There were a few, and only 
 a few, shorthand-writers practising in the Law Courts 
 and before Parliamentary Committees. Besides these, and 
 a limited number of newspaper reporters throughout the 
 country, there were no professional practitioners of the art. 
 It was occasionally used, as we have seen in the case of 
 Isaac Pitman's cousin, by college students to assist them 
 in their educational course, but few even of these continued 
 its practice in later life. For commercial purposes, the em- 
 ployment of shorthand may be said to have been compara- 
 tively unknown. Business men had not made the happy 
 discovery that, instead of writing their own letters, they 
 might sit in an easy chair and dictate them to a phonogra- 
 pher, who M'ould afterwards transcribe them into longhand : 
 and even in lawyers' offices, where busy quills were constantly 
 at work, and where shorthand would have been, as it is 
 to-day, of inestimable value, it had never found an entrance. 
 If, however, the art was but little known, it was not for 
 want of stenograj)hic systems. There were shorthand 
 authors in abundance, each proclaiming his system as 
 superior to all others. To say nothing of the earlier 
 methods of Bright (1588), Shelton (1(520), and many 
 others that have long since practically passed into oblivion, 
 there were the more recent and better known systems of 
 Mason, (republished by Gurney,) Taylor, and Lewis.
 
 FIRST EDITION OF "PHONOGRAPHY." 19 
 
 Gurney had been before the public for nearly a century, 
 Taylor just half that period, and Lewis a quarter. The 
 systems of Palmer, Byrom, Iloldsworth and Aldridge, 
 Mavor, Doddridge's republication of Rich, and others, 
 were also in the field, and boasted of a certain number of 
 disciples. But most of these books were too cxj)ensive to 
 secure a wide circulation. The first edition of Taylor was 
 published at a guinea ; Gurney was sold at half-a-guinea ; 
 Lewis \9s. C)d., and the tth edition at eight shillings; and 
 the cheapest adaptation of Taylor, three and sixpence. 
 Deeply impressed with the value of shorthand, which he 
 had written about seven years, Isaac Pitman had a strong 
 desire that all the elder boys in his school, and finally 
 every lad in the kingdom, should have an opportunity of 
 learning it. He had no idea of publishing or inventing a 
 system of his own. Fairly satisfied with the results to be 
 obtained by the practice of Taylor, he prepared a little 
 Manual of the system, which he thought sufficient for his 
 purpose, to be illustrated by two plates, and sold for three- 
 pence. In seeking a publisher, he naturally turned to his 
 friend Mr Bagster, who readily acquiesced in the sugges- 
 tion that the book should be issued from his establishment ; 
 but before printing it, he showed it to a reporter of his 
 acquaintance, in order to get his opinion as to its merits. 
 In returning the manuscript, the reporter said : " The 
 system Mr Pitman has sent you is already in the market. 
 If he will compile a new system, I think he will be more 
 likely to succeed in his object to popularize shorthand ; 
 there will be novelty about it." This opinion was in due 
 course communicated to the compiler, who straightway 
 resolved to act upon the suggestion. Still taking Taylor 
 as his basis, he decided on j)airing the consonants in their 
 
 2»
 
 20 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 shorthand representatives as they are paired in sound, 
 p and b, t and d, etc., as Taylor had done in the single 
 instance of/ and u. He then made a distinction between 
 the so-called long and short vowels, as in mate, mat ; me, 
 met ; and provided special signs for the vowel sounds in 
 father, maw, moon, hook. This was in the spring of 1837. 
 During the entire summer, all his leisure hours were 
 devoted to the making of shorthand alphabets and experi- 
 menting with them, and his midsummer holiday of three 
 weeks was wholly given up to the same work. He did 
 not even pause on the memorable 20th of June, when 
 everybody else was rejoicing over the accession of the 
 young Queen : " Not,^' says Mr Pitman, " that I loved 
 Her Majesty less than other people, but that just at that 
 time I loved Phonography more." Only those who have 
 actually engaged in experiments with shorthand symbols 
 can appreciate the amount of tabulation and other labor 
 which they involve. The conventional pairing of the 
 vowels as long and short in pine, pin ; no, not, where the 
 sounds are essentially different, was soon found to be un- 
 scientific, and inadequate to a representation of English as 
 spoken. The experiment of pairing the sounds of the 
 vowels as in ^jea?, jjit ; jJote, pet ; ma, mat ; caught, cot ; 
 coat, cut ; food, foot, was entered upon with fear and 
 trembling, and with little hope of success; but practice 
 soon proved that it was the true method of notation, and 
 time has shown it to be the most useful in practice. The 
 work grew a])ace ; and the outcome of these months of toil 
 was, a completed manuscript copy of the first edition of 
 the now famous Pitman system. It was forwarded to Mr 
 Bagster in November, and on the 27th of that month it 
 modestly presented itself to the world in the form of a little
 
 FIRST EDITION OF "PHONOGRAPHY." 21 
 
 fourpenny book, entitled, " Stenographic Sound-hand." 
 It consisted of 12 pages, Sh in. by 5 in., and contained two 
 Plates. There was no title-page ; a leaf could not be spared 
 for it. The title of the book, printed on a label, and pasted 
 on the " Bristol-board " (thin card-board) cover, runs thus : 
 
 STENOGRAPHIC 
 SOUND-HAND, 
 
 BY 
 
 ISAAC P I T IM A N . 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 SAMUEL BAGSTER, 
 
 At his AVarehouse for Bibles, Testaments, Prayer Books, 
 
 Lexiions, &e., in Ancient and Modern Languages, 
 
 No. 15, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 Also sold by the Author, "Wotton-under-Edge ; 
 
 and Iiy all Booksellers. 
 
 PRICE FOUR-PENCE. 
 
 The presentation of the system is given in the tirst Plate, 
 which is here reproduced. The phonographic reader will at 
 once recognise in it the main features of Mr Pitman's present 
 alphabet. The simple vowels are the now familiar ah, eh, 
 ce ; aw, oh, oo, the tirst and third having changed places; 
 and all the principal consonants, ;/, s circle, t, d, th[en), I, 
 r, m, k,g, ih{in), n(j, y, remain unchanged; similar sounds, 
 asj3, h, t, d, etc., being represented by similar signs, the 
 difference being only in the thickness. The use of an initial 
 hook to represent the addition of / and r, one of the promi- 
 nent characteristics of the Phonography of to-day, is also 
 shown at this early date. There is a very moderate list of 
 prefixes, aflfixes, and ''grammalogues.'^ Compared with the 
 present highly developed system, with complete lists of 
 abbreviating principles and contractions, this little Plate 
 appears almost amusing in its incompleteness. But Home
 
 23 
 
 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 &/.a^<f 
 
 'SA^^^./?yi{xA/uy: CA?6197^(> ^^^/uZ/y^Z^; 
 
 
 OC ■ a, ct/rv. 
 CO I zi/^. 
 
 'Ay. 
 
 fit- . C'f^j fctf* 
 .^3 "^ '^ -- 
 
 
 '(/ 
 
 
 /^ 
 
 T 
 
 t^rt'^ A "r^-^t 
 
 "/'■ "/" 
 
 T 
 1' 
 
 V 
 Z 
 
 TH. 
 
 
 /K^< ,j«V>%- 
 
 tH^. 
 
 ad, -/^ , 
 
 / // // 
 
 
 
 ^/)c>-(^Co Cy>'n^e>^n-/7iy>t^ .yo^yy^-Z'CcJ c.-~j> ^ -^ (L '^'^ 
 
 /a 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 
 
 /A. 
 
 
 
 ■A 
 
 was not built in a day. The phonographer now looks upon 
 this immature production with feelings7somewliat akin to 
 those with which the railway engineer of the present day 
 regards the jjrimitive '' Rocket," or the "Puffing Billy."
 
 STENOGRAPHIC SOUND-HAND. 
 
 23 
 
 y/^«^, t 
 
 _ .yv, ; ^ -^ C I / I f^ . . x\Ul 
 
 j.^\y)\y yr- f\j'(^,U \y.{[ j.\^\ / ^^-^■ 
 
 Bec^nrds Zith^y rujchy^ Srisi-ol 
 
 The second Plate contains a diagram showing the for- 
 mation of the consonants of the alphabet fi-oin segments 
 of a circle and straight lines traced in various directions]; 
 examples of joinings; and three illustrative specimens of
 
 24 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 the new " Sound-hand " writing, namely, the Lord's Prayer^ 
 Psalm 100, and Swedenbovg's "Rules of Life." 
 
 In addition to the Plates there are twelve pages of letter- 
 press. The first of these is a brief introduction explana- 
 tory of the general uses of shorthand. Then follows an 
 exposition of the system as set forth in the plates, the 
 author claiming for it at the outset the merit of being " a 
 system of shorthand shorter than any practical system yet 
 published," and calling special attention to the fact that 
 " the words are written exactly as they are pronounced." 
 He frankly admits that previous shorthand authors have 
 to a certain extent adopted the phonetic principle, mainly 
 in regard to the consonants ; but he claims for his new 
 ** Sound-hand " the exclusive credit of providing a sign 
 for each of the twelve vowels given in Walker's notation 
 [ee, eh, ah, au, oh, 66, and their corresponding short sounds, 
 /, e, a, 6, u, 66), and giving them a proper classification. 
 He also points out that even in the consonantal arrange- 
 ments of his predecessors no provision has been made for 
 the two sounds zh, in " measure," and the heavy th, in 
 " breathe," each of which finds a place in his own alphabet. 
 Certain shorthand rules and explanations are then given to 
 the student, together with a few crude suggestions as to 
 methods of abbreviation to be employed for reporting 
 purposes. " Contractions of long words may be made by 
 adjoining one word to another, or by making a comma 
 under." " Another method of saving time is to join little 
 words together." " Theological, parliamentary, and law 
 j)hrascs, may he written by the initial letters of the words 
 joined to each other." Such are the sim])le and not very 
 original devices which are provided for the student who is 
 desirous of using the system for reporting. " These aids,"
 
 STENOGRAPHIC SOUND-HAND. 
 
 says the author, " will enable a writer to follow the swift- 
 est speaker in the world that is worth following " — a rather 
 vague qualification, it must be confessed ; but then he 
 adds — showing how little he had then traversed the wide 
 field of abbreviation Avhich he Avas destined to exj)lore — 
 " Should other methods of abbreviation be required by a 
 slow writer they may be found in shorthand treatises." 
 The author, however, even at this period, Avas contemjdat- 
 ing further advances, for he tells us that he is preparing a 
 " Manual of Stenography," including an analytical sketch 
 of the English language and its application to shorthand 
 characters ;" also a scheme of an alphabet according to 
 nature, Avhich shall be published another day if it is worthy 
 of publication, to ascertain which, this card, containing the 
 principles, is thrown out as ^feeler." 
 
 The shorthand above the diagram in Plate 2, is : — 
 " This alphabet contains sixteen vowel sounds, twenty-live 
 single consonants, and twenty-four double ones ; total 
 sixty-five letters, including every vowel sound in the lan- 
 guage, and every combination of consonants that will 
 commence a syllable, all drawn from this diagram." " The 
 system," says the author, " must stand upon its own legs 
 if it stand at all ; or, to change the figure, it must roll 
 upon its own wheel, and if it sink into oblivion after a 
 reasonable trial of its capabilities, it Avill be because it de- 
 serves no better fate. By the author it is practised and 
 taught daily, without any inconvenience arising from heavy 
 letters ; and after eight years' extensive use of the best 
 system hitherto published, ]Mr Taylor's (sometimes mis- 
 called Harding's, and lately sent forth without any refe- 
 rence to Mr Taylor's name) and an examination of many 
 others, he hesitates not to say, it is as good again as that.
 
 26 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 This observation might certainly be spared for the sake of 
 modesty, and also with regard to those readers who have 
 learned Mr Taylor's and Avill noAV give this a fair trial ; but 
 we know well that, with many persons, stenographic per- 
 severance is a rare virtue ; and the experiment, with its 
 result, is here mentioned for their sakes. Among the 
 author's pupils are more than twenty boys (in his school), 
 about the age of ten years ; and it may confidently be 
 asserted that they could not have learned so easily any 
 other system extant." Mr Pitman concludes by some 
 pious reflections on the world's degeneracy, one illustration 
 of which he sees in the imperfections of English spelling; 
 and by an anticipation of a bright period in store for 
 humanity when " order will be restored," when, among 
 other things, " shorthand will be the common hand," and 
 the Bible, thus printed, " will exist no larger than a watch, 
 and be as constantly used for the discovery and regulation 
 of man's spiritual state with reference to eternity, as the 
 pocket chronometer is for the discovery and regulation of 
 time with reference to the present life." In a note, he 
 estimates that a readable shorthand edition of the Bible 
 could be printed 2j inches square, and three-quarters of 
 an inch thick. 
 
 Keif to the Shorthand Examples, Plate 2. — la, The plainest 
 practical ijlan of putting pen to paper for tlie production of 
 peerless poems or profound and powerful prose for the Press 
 or for private pursuits ever published. 3//, Tea, tin; pay, pet; 
 father, fat ; daw, dot ; show, shut ; coo, could ; fine, duke, boy, 
 vow. 5cr, Fear thou the Lord in thy youth ; hate and avoid evil ; 
 love and pursue good ; and so walk in the paths of life. ^f\ 
 Anguish, bb, bd, bf; 8«, db, dd, df; 8(/, sp, st, sf , sk, sr, sm ; 
 Dtf, sb, sd, sf, sg; 9(?, rbl, pkr; ^g, ft", mm, prpr; lOt/, least, all, 
 oil ; right, our, raw ; case, us, see ; among, owing ; \\c, sprain, 
 strong, screw; 1 1/', splinter, swing; 12/;, principle, instruct; 12<7,
 
 STENOGRAPHIC SOUND-HAND." 27 
 
 possible, toaster, whisper; \'-ia, niaxini, sticks; 13r, queen, re- 
 quest ; l3e, exist, languish; I3g, lin; 14a, beyond, statistics, 
 open, alter, altitude ; 14/', mood, tune; I5a, transact, wisdom; 
 childhood, without, forward, professions, contents, incomplete, 
 missionaries ; iGa, thoughts, comes, thou mayest ; 300, 00,000, 
 300,000, second, third, fourthly ; 17a, comma, semicolon, colon, 
 period, admiration, interrogation, irony, parentheses, brackets, 
 hyphen, quotation marks ; 1 7/, notwithstanding, nevertheless, 
 indispensable, incomprehensible, satisfactorily; l8e, as it is said, 
 there are, kingdom of heaven. His Majesty's ministers, practice 
 of the Court. 
 
 £67/ to Rules uf Life, Plate 2. 1. To read often and to medi- 
 tate well on the Word of God. 
 
 2. To be always content and resigned under the dispensations 
 of Providence. 
 
 3. Always to observe a propriety of behavior, and to preserve 
 the conscience clear and void of offence. 
 
 4. To obey that which is ordained, to be faithful in the dis- 
 charge of the duties of our employment, and to do everything in 
 our power to make ourselves as universally useful as possible. 
 
 Always to remember '' The Lord will provide." 
 
 A year-and-a-half after the ])ublication of "Stenographic 
 Sound-hand," June, 1839, Mr Fitnian, who, as we have 
 seen, was dismissed from the post which he occupied at 
 Wotton-under-Edge, took up his residence in Bath, where 
 he estabhshed a school at No. 5 Nelson Place, which he 
 conducted till 1843. In 1839, the first edition of his 
 little shorthand volume, of w'hich 3,000 copies had been 
 printed, was exhausted. There can be no doubt that its 
 circulation was largely promoted by the fact of its being 
 issued from a respectable and well-known house like that 
 of the great Bible publisher of Paternoster Kow. With 
 such an imprimatur, no one was likely to suspect it of 
 being a mere catch-penny publication. 
 
 About this time, the agitation for postal reform was at 
 its height, and Isaac Pitman eagerly looked forwartl to
 
 28 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 the establishment of the Penny Post^ not only as a public 
 benefit^ but as a valuable aid in the dissemination of his 
 system. Prior to 1810^ the average postage of a letter 
 was ninepence-halfpenny^ and any enclosure, however 
 small, made the postage double. The amount of paper 
 allowed by the authorities was limited to a single sheet, 
 without reference to its size, and a correspondent who had 
 a great deal of matter to communicate commonly made a 
 point of writing on as large a sheet as could be purchased. 
 Isaac Pitman constantly resorted to this method, and 
 some of his letters written at this period were great curi- 
 osities, from the quantity of writing they contained. He 
 made a calculation that one of them was as long as 
 the Gospel of Matthew. Rowland Hill's well-known 
 pamphlet, " Post Office Reform : its importance and 
 ])racticabi]ity," had taken the public by storm. It was 
 first published in 1837, a few months before the appear- 
 ance of " Stenographic Sound-hand." In this pamphlet 
 he clearly demonstrated that the existing high rate of 
 postage crippled public and private correspondence, and 
 he suggested that a uniform rate of a ])enny should be 
 made for each letter under half-an-ounce, to be collected 
 by means of an affixed postage stamp. 
 
 Of course, the scheme was vigorously opposed and de- 
 nounced as wild, absurd, and j)reposterous. The Post 
 Office oflicials especially stood aghast ; and the Postmaster- 
 General, Lord Lichfield, declared that of all the visionary 
 schemes he had ever heard, this was the most extravagant. 
 A Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed 
 to consider the subject. It held sixty-three sittings, heard 
 a vast body of evidence, and finally re])orted in ftivor of a 
 great reduction, and a uniform rate ; not venturing, how-
 
 + /rvefiM i Drawn by /P'fman.S./Ve/jon P/ace. BATH. PRICE ONEl PENNY. Mounted on Canvass i liounrJ int 
 
 RULES for '^/RITWC lUuztrattd b\ EMMPIES^ 
 I ■ V^riU ity sound as pique f^ehj ^> 
 
 siOht/5//M Forz«inhV,Oi o:)\i<>W V., 
 ori.a50\\^\ or%\\.ai neoociale '^^ W 
 fhru write, ks. as boA_«/" ii.as exi'st 
 "^ oA l<sh.i7j noxious~^/^/- q wa/A" k 
 ifel r?/;« oftht dou6/e arfreb/e io\fe/s 
 rnoi^/; cf'*i fpronounre this /gttfr//Agw\\o 
 tiirh-'.itrhe aipiroltjos ouet;n'~— 'quart 
 '~) Y /> e i w /i 5 v/htn cortimencing a 
 sytiotfte. in whictr cas6 rhty never occur 
 exc4f:''n combination nithanot/tervowel. 
 S Kill hi found undir thi doiibiiltriMe 
 wife/yoj- Yorkshire =-V west) wlte'""^^ 
 "i-Esptdally obsirve the proper sound 
 of till, short vowels, every one of whic/i 
 in the common hand is outofl)iace. 
 thus. ueat'~] knit'n ageXedge/ 
 psalm «— s. Sam (Samuel)r- s.raw»<^ 
 rol^l tonefc^runLpoalV' pullV* 
 3. Prcnounct the trowels as they 
 sound in the a/fihabeticol words 
 and examples placed to them. Pro- 
 nounce every consonant at once b^' 
 means of the small vowel pu I to it. 
 Learn by heart the natural order of 
 the s,-nalevowelsh.single consonants. 
 OS be/o'w. New names are given to some 
 ofrlit single cons? to express rheir 
 true sound, or to keep them in unison. 
 4. Mark the difference bet wet r> 
 spispr, sti str, schischr. skisUr 
 \ <. f 1 r / ._ ^ 
 at the conimencennent of words also 
 psi rps.tsA.rts, chsirchs, UsA. rks 
 
 X \ L J / y _. -^ 
 
 otthe cono\\is\or\ofwords.SeeJoi/7in^ Table 
 
 5.0 lointd ro a hook -^/^ small ieftei 
 becomes a dot, as spl V snt ^ Its L 
 Mi^S-c. spr^N IS instead of\rii i forii, 
 6. Vowels behre conS(fnants are plocrdto 
 the\^ :7/"perpendic-.>larA leaning strolies. 
 as eat'l weie,hrl wef'l eyes') apeXowl 
 ■'^ir^'^g/?!^ above horizontal strokes, 
 as eageri — aim,-«^Anne..^ walker.^— 
 7 Velvets after cons'^ ao to the right. 
 <».'i.mder a.r iov/*tof.l> high's cov. — 
 O. The vowels places are counted 
 from the be^i n n i n^^ of the cons!s,.^ i 
 their derivativts take the first place. 
 OS she Vldaw r ply\ weeki_noi5e 
 j^jroyalj/ Q,.^, ^ their derivatives 
 lake the szcowA place or middle oi 
 theccns.'as a\\'f eat'l uppei^vache_J 
 oary and A.O & their derivat'v(.%hovi 
 the\\\\ri placeor ^nA.as PaN. loo<^ 
 duel-nowi^. house~i, youth •( 
 
 9. When a.oi o are put to cons'.' 
 1hty may point any tiay. when 
 they standalone for words thev 
 akvays leanlo the right. (J5 whom v 
 
 10. A vowel between two cons," 
 fi neither of them the loop s)/i* in 
 placed thus, a f i rst 0^ ser.on d plac;. 
 vcweyait&r thefirsl cons!« teamL 
 ccd'l Tweedl'lTifleT void<. net I 
 boat'*^ A^Wtrd'place vowel yoes hihi e 
 the last cons.Vs rack/ loom^duke 
 La man^^_^ mouth'"^^ shaft ^ 
 
 11. The loop* dot s lolfino vowtik 
 when a voivtJ is put close tc'one. it 
 belongs to the cons' connected with 
 if.os pass\i secure i_^ sfckle s — 
 
 12. Iflvio vowels come between two 
 cons" give one to each, as poet^ 
 
 13. When two vowels be^in 
 o/'end a word, put one closi 
 lithe other at a Utttt dis - //'^ 
 to nee as iota '1. oasis 9 
 Isaiah")^ Victoria *^#r 
 X^.IVeverjoin a sho?r//> 
 strai ^\ letter (vrhich J. 
 IS always a double 
 or treble cons') to a 
 letter in the sarrte iv 
 reotion, butvinte the 
 single cons" font, or 
 taht off the pen. os%^\ 
 K_or^. noi^ Steam 
 
 ed'C,<7rf/7ff/' [started I 
 l5.5Hn a/^ern ir.anrfj 
 belcrer.is curved thus A 
 agnations.,'' portion 1 
 \/miss ionar\ v-w^ 
 
 »iSi, B\T\J\H\\\TH 
 
 w 
 
 
 4ci 
 
 '/yy^ 
 
 </ 
 
 IT 
 
 y~|'-| ^x 
 
 SVh l RUf V 
 
 PHON 
 
 ,galsi 
 
 cL(L 
 
 £2. 
 
 W" 
 
 ^j^ 
 
 wCKCF 
 
 UT 
 
 vrvrc 
 
 VOWELS 
 
 the. set. 
 say, mgl&. H 
 a Bath. "^ 
 a/ 1 awe. ought 
 0. note.. "^ 
 Ig . who-m. 
 in, if. sin 1^ 
 mef^ sent ■<• 
 and, an. gl 
 
 of. not. 
 
 nyt"^ sun 'is/ 
 
 put sfiou/d-st 
 
 
 45' The underlined letters 
 indicate the sounds of 
 the vowels. Letters mark- 
 ed t/i us * are foreign 
 ^provincial sounds. 
 PSALM 100 r~^ . ^,^ 
 
 Vi-,"'32 DO U B LE VOW ELSt.^»/».».^w,, 
 e. between. 
 
 ye. year-s. 
 Yates i 
 
 * yya wl 
 
 — ysyyn <:_y 
 
 yoke -s- 
 
 (eoj you-r-s. 
 
 * (new. tube L^ 
 
 ^t, yester- 
 
 yardA [day. 
 
 \ul: 
 yA 
 
 4-3-\-\ beyond. 
 
 young young- 
 * [^ter ^ 
 / by. tht 
 (pjne \^ 
 
 M\L. 
 
 was 
 
 wej-e won, 
 
 would - St 
 
 ._ (A c) voice [liow 
 
 (do) thou. about 
 
 8 TREBLE VOWELS ,„M-w,.y ...«,,/ 
 
 whi' ^miTXptim [»W)/ 
 WAd\^(blb) * [wine \woil\~i\ (Mri) wound, (did 
 
 LlOk 
 
 ML 
 
 M. 
 
 MIR. 
 
 a way. where 
 * \wotk: «— 
 water wall ( 
 woe wove. V 
 woo woiof\ 
 wjth, wil.'t 
 well. when, 
 thwack: (__i 
 what. 
 
 r 
 
 ) 
 
 ^ 
 
 f I 
 
 .2 ^~\ 
 
 VI 
 
 
 '") 
 
 "^■t 2 ) 
 
 
 ■ V 
 
 P^ALMIJJ\ A _ . A 
 "(- \' 1 ( /^) \ 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYERS Matthew, 6.S> to 13. Ornamental 
 
 ./ ^» /■ J ■ ^ f \ • -__. " " 1 , ^ ^ \ 3 ■ , » )) 
 
 - U, I . 'i >. . ^. , |,« .-, I , . 
 
 L ,(i.rl^)\ f . -^ <v V' - • • \ . -''V . • _ V^ X 
 
 d.A 
 
 D, 
 dn 
 
 CHt, 
 ^1 
 ch.l 
 chr 
 chn 
 
 J. 
 ■id 
 
 'j:' 
 
 .!■' 
 
 Up. upan. 
 
 wrapped/^- 
 
 principle. 
 
 \ ixdid^diam"' 
 
 ^e.-en. but 
 
 be/ore. bilily 
 
 robbed <^ 
 
 publn''^readlk 
 
 re -mem ben 
 
 out. time. 
 
 t;/l. /tffh. 
 
 truth, \rans. 
 ten. town 
 day. do-ne. 
 (JiscoiT.' dom. 
 
 deliver-y 
 
 dean D.^ 
 down. London, 
 which. fC/) 
 fetched \ 
 
 children. 
 
 natural 
 question-^ 
 Jesus, general 
 obliged \ 
 individual 
 Jerusoletn 
 ma.yin,~y* 
 
 NCLE&'JC 
 
 K. 
 
 ././ 
 Kl 
 KA 
 k 
 
 ,gd 
 CI 
 &. 
 g.n 
 
 .ft 
 fl 
 Fr 
 fn 
 
 L 
 
 M 
 
 w 
 
 V.r 
 
 JH 
 
 fk,\ 
 
 th,l f 
 
 liny Ursan may receive lessons- from the Author 6v post gratuitously. Cac/t Ifsson must bt enclosed in a paid letti:.
 
 ■d.yiithMocfiap/trs from fht Ai' T IMaiii Rty2/,hs aidifionnltxarcucs.l! LCHOo'J i tiat/sfer i.'> Hrernryster Row. IS40. 
 
 IK? 
 
 >J6. /l/<?^fc fhe stroke s in theiA 
 
 7^^ coses only, when a if. "v/ 1 
 
 '^^^\cc>nfO"is on/y iia vow«l,j 
 
 Vj\oj ves-)5ighl when s is 
 
 \(«-\repeated cii :;easeJassi- 
 
 ^^^zesia/jf nfien a nor:/ 
 
 begins tvif/j a vowel loi- 
 
 \o\\(;A 6y s.osiiV.L. ''■ I 
 
 enfls with a vowfl prt ^ '^ 
 
 ded byi ,is lerKicn.v)' 
 
 i «htnt\ei you ifwf 
 
 sumptuous '2 cr I 
 yiMII rules relalini/ T/o 
 tht stiarp consonant 
 [, l.ch.U.f, Ih. s. sh. 
 arc also applicatlt/i) 
 ihurcorrtspond? flats, 
 I) d. J. ^. V, tji. 2 zh. 
 
 MO. 
 
 M,When%\\or\ stands iW'Uz. oounl ihc 
 wwtis' places downwards, aj shoo ^' 
 law '''allow. ^' Whrn either hrter is 
 lOined to the loop s only write it 
 dannwards.as issues^ lace ( sale '^ 
 \9.ffaAeiant/ i,\ni\ lyi/l} (7 tick »hert 
 eithtr letter stands alone os or/ rye / 
 ocGi^ti,^ lichen it is succeeded by the 
 loop s cnly.as ahse<t'alrs .>' oceans ,'- 
 
 20. Thektftrs ctin t rch must never 
 stand a lo ne , nor with the loop s 
 only added, because of %\\'' f^ rl 
 
 21. Each letttrin tht Alphabet stands 
 for the words put to it. {except the 
 pKornples in short hand). I all others 
 of the same sound, as ' I and ey^.'^c 
 lor ether Hords write all the consomwh 
 that sound/joining them together.) i 
 theprinoi/ial vowels. <j.r appeared . 
 
 22. S .'nay tt added to an Albhabetical 
 ivard without taliing otf the peri. 
 .IS words J thoughts (o hands 
 thinks^ Orfier letters must 6e sepa 
 raied.as established \ distinction^ 
 Z'i.The horizontalAhalf sized cons'j 
 (hrTindi-c) wnen repristnt/'ng words. 
 stand at the top of the lint forwards 
 contain.' first />loce I'oive/s and of 
 tht bottom for vtprds contf second 4 
 \Y.\xi place vow'tls. In the Alphabet, 
 'tiesc wards ore divided by a colon. 
 
 24. ////middle place coivf /r(o, wa kj 
 1 1 hen standing a I o n e .yo (7//^8 boHo m 
 of the line, as away ■ ^et„ one > 
 
 25. Compound words must be redu- 
 cid to their primitives, and written 
 mar together, as within' without "i 
 dltortettiei' somewhalX yourselves-* 
 
 '26 Disjoin PiefiK-s i A(tix.'S i7i 
 ntere'st'f Phonugraphy -vj" or \ — 
 for a pi u ra I - 1?//'* odd i. OS SLrbscrlp- 
 rion-jV.^ lensmenls i^» earldoms J\ 
 27 Com A con are written by a li^ht 
 dor before The next cons.'<J/ comply 
 "* consider! 4 accom *K7 heavy dor 
 oi accommodate •accomplished ' \j 
 28/"orm^>>tf/'i7' small dot afvet 
 rlip last consTiJJ' starting [Mi: />/i/^/ 
 in^s is a iarde dOt.<7j wofkiCOs — .■ 
 ZV If a word reaches too Tow cr 
 does not join .well, lake off the pen, 
 as constituted n ctiarge^ble y(^ 
 
 30 Clioosi the eisf manner of writing 
 <j word as part ^rior^,zrmor'^not — ,/ 
 
 31 Cenetvlly oMi't h. for the sake 
 .-./■ brevity OS comprehensive'^^-^^ 
 
 32 /(tlrst^/(?ce toner standintj at 
 /■/j^ beginning o/ a word, should be 
 icW*!w.//7 point of time, bet'ore the com'. 
 to wnich itis blaad.as peaceable \^ 
 
 33 FIGURES. HVritt the digits thus 
 A 2, 3. 4. S. 6. 7,. <9. 9. 
 
 , V c >^ ^ °) :^ I ^_- 
 
 futa// otfier numbers in short- 
 fiand words. OS 70^46^orjoin 
 the dijils.blacJng o line under. 
 as .196 Ls aeeA ISW t 6862 I 
 
 34 STOPS. Conrtnct '' Stmcolon : 
 Colon" Pencd..cr lean i i f il inch 
 spaces. Hyphen... Iron;^ i />c/<7/n(j- 
 liOf7^^S all ofhtr slops ic marks 
 as usual, /folic. See fsalm /JJ 
 Acce/ir. decent j! noble v\den_yJL 
 farrv If'prese-it';. present ''<j In flee - 
 /Vo/7x,ris.'fall*^(7i Is iTsc.or sc?" o/T?. 
 "a Reader flactise i firsevere /\ V%«. 
 
 X>NSONANTS.i^ 
 
 
 ■ht'„ 
 
 'Or^ 
 
 ■ can Hz. 
 
 .C!Ove 
 
 'ithir. 
 
 occJ. 
 
 '/C7d 
 
 :phij 
 ving. 
 
 -St. J, 
 
 •>7io.^ 
 •r (^ 
 'hw. 
 
 .Tuent, 
 iver 
 
 fume, 
 /onlf 
 '.oven, 
 ■hat/^ 
 \ 
 
 n 
 
 he" 
 
 vtdt 
 
 '/her') 
 
 .sht 
 sh.l 
 SH.t 
 shn 
 
 m 
 
 zM 
 z/t^ J 
 
 L 
 Jp 
 Jb 
 Jt 
 Jd 
 M 
 
 •0 
 .//' 
 
 ./<? 
 .//■ 
 Jit 
 
 M 
 
 savi soaetv^o.^ 
 us.sa//^.Q<im. 
 isini/ii'/i.ceJis/lai. 
 Sfstf/p scriplion 
 h-is:hos. whose, 
 it IS /srcte/ 
 sha/f ship. 
 
 washed^ 
 e-speo'ol.S^ir^ 
 os-sute. sftort. 
 
 ouc/tons_^ 
 
 enthusias'^'- 
 
 * {azui^ >* 
 
 uiual. 
 
 treasury \. 
 
 occosion^^ 
 
 LOfiD. also, 
 
 /le/p.i^y.aWy 
 
 e/6ow X 
 
 c/ifficult-y 
 /hi/c/. wor/d 
 f//chK,lo/d\ 
 
 //?idu/ge^ 
 
 mt/l< r~ . 
 
 \wo/f \ 
 aJphabeticalUi_ 
 
 .^vso/ve ^K. 
 heolt/i. 
 
 J/h 
 
 i 
 
 Jsh 
 
 r 
 
 Jzh 
 
 r 
 
 /.r 
 
 r 
 
 ,/tn 
 
 .--^ 
 
 Jn 
 
 ^_j 
 
 S( 
 
 / 
 
 IS^H 
 
 ,I,IS^ 
 
 .rp 
 
 \ 
 
 ,rb 
 
 \ 
 
 „rt 
 
 J 
 
 .rd 
 
 \ 
 
 ^tc/i 
 
 y 
 
 -n 
 
 y 
 
 .fi< 
 
 — 
 
 .re/ 
 
 5 
 
 althiough. 
 olr&ody. 
 
 ALMtCttTY. 
 
 foil en ^ 
 ■/ arR. or, 
 our. reco"- 
 s/tarfos ■{ 
 suiur6s\ 
 
 he ar/, shcrt, 
 n^rc/ heard. 
 
 church/^ccsre^. 
 cfiaty&s/ 
 
 work. ^oryU 
 
 buro, Swdden- 
 
 .// 
 
 ~\ 
 
 arv 
 
 ^ 
 
 \.rth 
 
 ^ 
 
 ,rth 
 
 ) 
 
 ,rsf> 
 
 J 
 
 .rzh 
 
 J 
 
 cr/- 
 
 y 
 
 arrn 
 
 .^ 
 
 ,rf> 
 
 ^ 
 
 M 
 
 - 
 
 ,rnp 
 
 ^ 
 
 .mf 
 
 
 .mo 
 
 i 
 
 m:/ 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 m.t 
 
 ^ 
 
 icarf '~"~i leN 
 
 preserfe^^ 
 
 earth, fiirth. 
 
 Hfon'-hy. 
 
 marsh Z) 
 + [cirr/e^-^ 
 
 rea/. rule, 
 fbrm^ncernf nd 
 
 .'I'crnitjg 
 rr'f'me./nay. 
 am multi.ment 
 
 important, 
 
 mee^mighf, 
 afnid-st:mad-& m/} 
 
 \mercy. | H 
 M.''mere:more\ h.r 
 
 n:l\ %^ 
 leNC 
 
 •^^ 
 
 on any: no 
 
 w/7inco"unco' 
 
 wonf.intc: neni 
 
 unto.\n\% anti 
 
 hand, under 
 
 freflc/T}^i t 
 
 change^ 
 
 journa/Z, 
 
 norhonor-ob/e 
 
 /htriglnglf^ 
 
 languaije 
 
 distinct. 
 
 fhi/tk: thank 
 
 sing/e\ang?^ 
 
 he himhoc^ 
 
 her-e (hood. 
 
 SuMM/l/fyoft/'eS//va£COr/Sr^(SM!j/is<f'S&ti.'foite/s. 2Liauids. Ifi/asDls /Aspirate- 
 fhttounce eochcf/he 65 TREBLE. CONSONANTS atonoeos^^ri -^.Ipt j.rt.d -i.rvd. & 
 Jot i I thepastte.'7se,>is added to .; hooked letter by making it ha If length, as 
 tl f Hd rtltled j'tv^ rvd^idesei^/ed J^ These Tnhk Cons" represent the post tenses of 
 tht ver6s placed totheDoubleCons'^ from which they are derived os carried .- 
 Hole S^^^represents spirit-ual. str"! strong. strength: skr.— scriptur |i 
 THE LORDS INVITATION Matthew /I 28fo5a Writttn in 'full 
 
 _^ -^ '- ^ ^ M ^ < --' "^v i^=< • ^ "% - -^ 
 
 :'v L «- ^ ^-. . ^ f 'C V- : 'l ^- .-..-_ « <' ^ "^ ■ 
 
 'nyLonquigc may k utriittn in fhonog!»ilh a /titling diffennce in iht sound of Aitnt UtUn. 
 ^frfmh I. -».^'" "' ^y L. L V l^ C .V U "-<•_/""' ~ T <,.,^ 
 
 can write about (J dozen turse.' from the 3ib/e /eai' no spa:^^ between fhe fmes fv- fhe ccrrections
 
 INTRODUCTION OF PENNY POSTAGE. 29 
 
 ever, to a-commend a penny post, which it was tliought 
 would, for a time at least, prove a loss to the revenue. 
 The result was that the postage was reduced at first to 
 fourpence, and ultimately, on the 10th of January, 1810, 
 to a penny. The Government offered a prize of .£.200 for 
 the best method of collecting the pence for prepaid letters, 
 and among the many competitors was Isaac Pitman, who, 
 in September, 1839, submitted to the Lords of the 
 Treasury a proposal to collect the postage by means of 
 stamps : " Let plates," he said, " be engraved in small 
 squares of an inch space, the plates being 20 inches by 12 
 =240 squares, the price of which at \d. o. stamp, when 
 struck off on paper, will be £\.'' He also pointed out the 
 advantage to the public of being able to transmit small 
 sums by means of such stamps. " The stamps," he said, 
 with a prophetic instinct, '' will become equivalent to the 
 current coin of the realm, ai'd remittances of small 
 amounts might be made in them." 
 
 The manuscript of the second edition of Mr Pitman's 
 shorthand system was ready in the autumn of 1839, but 
 its publication was deferred till the Penny Post came into 
 operation on the 10th January, 1840. It then appeared 
 in the form of the accompanying Penny Plate. Nothing 
 could have been more opportune than the new postal 
 facilities. They were the second tidal wave on which the 
 system had been carried forward. The amount of cor- 
 respondence in " Phonography," as it was now called, 
 even in those early days, was very considerable, and it 
 could not have been conducted under the old prohibitive 
 rates. This was illustrated by a singular incident two 
 years afterwards. In the recently-established Phono- 
 graphic Journal, a request was made by Mr Pitman that
 
 30 
 
 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 Mr PitmaJis second Schoolroom at Wotton-uiider-Edge. 
 
 Mr Pitman's School at WottonVas opened in January, 1836, in a long room 
 ■which the Committee had engaged in Sim lane, called " The Folly." It is 
 now occupied as a cottage. In about a year the growth of the school ren- 
 dered it necessary to remove to the first floor of a disused factory in " The 
 Steep," at the bottom of Long street, represented in the above engraving. 
 The building is now used as a Church Institute. "When Mr Pitman was 
 dismissed by the Committee, he established a private school on the British 
 and Foreign system in a room at the top of Long street. 
 
 on the last day of the year (1812) his correspondents 
 would send him a letter enclosing a ])enny stamp, as a 
 gratuity to the Bath postman who delivered the editor's 
 letters. Two hundred and sixty-one persons responded 
 to the appeal, and the result was a substantial Christmas- 
 bo.K for him.
 
 " PENNY PLATE OF PHONOGRAPHY. 31 
 
 Light pamphlets as well as letters could now be sent 
 cheaply through the post ; and ]\Ir Pitman availed 
 himself of the new facilities by sending gratuitously six 
 copies of his Penny Plate to all the schools in Somer- 
 setshire, together with a circular letter calling attention 
 to the advantages of the new system, and requesting 
 the recipient, if unable to devote attention to the art, 
 to hand the copies to someone who would be likely to 
 take an interest in the subject. The author well re- 
 membei-s receiving from his own schoolmaster in Bristol 
 one of the copies which had been thus transmitted ; but as 
 it contained little else than the alphabetic characters, lists 
 of " grammalogues," and a few exercises, all engraved in 
 letters of the tiniest dimensions, it was ill-adapted to the 
 capacities of a lad of thirteen, and it was accordingly laid 
 aside. The sheet embodied certain changes on the first 
 edition, which the author's experience in writing out the 
 entire Bible, and in other practice, had suggested to him.
 
 32 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Besides issuing his shorthand works and conducting an 
 extensive correspondence, Mr Pitman utilized his Mid- 
 summer and Christmas hohdays by making lecturing tours 
 in different parts of the kingdom. The places and dates 
 for lecturing were fixed some time in advance, and the 
 bills were printed at Bath and forwarded by post for dis- 
 tribution. He took with him a supply of books, which he 
 sold to teachers and booksellers, and in his lectures he 
 called public attention to them. His success was very 
 varied. In some places he met with a poor reception ; at 
 others he succeeded in arousing a keen interest in his system. 
 His Christmas holiday, December, 1840, was spent 
 thus : — Leaving Bath early in the morning, he walked to 
 Stroud, the road being covered with snow, carrying a parcel 
 of books weighing about 151b., lectured, and the next 
 morning walked to Oxford, visited most of the Colleges, 
 leaving copies of the Penny Plate and tracts, through High 
 Wycombe and other towns, to London and Bath. 
 
 In the following Midsummer holiday he started from 
 Bath, and in twenty-three days visited in turn, Devizes, 
 Salisbury, London, Ipswich, Norwich, Yarmouth, Hull, 
 Barton-on-IIumber, Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, 
 returning to London by steamer and to Bath by the newly- 
 opened Great AVestern Ilailway. Sunday occurring dur- 
 ing the voyage from Edinburgh to London, Mr Pitman 
 assembled as many of the passengers as wished to attend 
 worship on board, and preached. At Edinburgh he could
 
 SPELLING REFORM. 33 
 
 only sell a few copies of tlu; system. At Xeweastle 
 he received greater encourageiiient. He had largf and 
 attentive audiences, and made many converts, one of them 
 being Mr T. P. (now Alderman) Barkas, wIk^ himself 
 shortly afterwards became an active proi)ati'aiulist oi" the 
 new faith ; for as such it had now come to be rcu-ardcd ; 
 and a bond of brotherhood was established among its 
 adherents. This was largely due to J\lr Pitman's own 
 indomitable energy, his enthusiastic, yet quiet tempera- 
 ment, and his profound belief in the '' cause " which he 
 had initiated. At that time his highest hope was the 
 popularising of shorthand. In a year or two he became 
 the champion of a double reform, which he advocated with 
 a never-tiring activity. His shorthand scheme was pro- 
 pounded not as a mere professional instrument in the 
 hands of the reporter, or an occasional aid to the student, 
 but as a method of saving a large proportion of the time 
 ordinarily spent in writing. He boldly asserted that his 
 system was applicable to all, or almost all, the purposes to 
 which longhand is applied, and he especially advocated its 
 use for all kinds of correspondence. Enforcing the nuixini 
 that '' to save time is to prolong life,'' he invited all his 
 countrymen to become phonographers, and waxed eloquent 
 on the benefits that would inevitably flow therefrom. 
 
 Very early in his crusade he proposed that the phonetic 
 principle, a sign for a sound, which he had made the basis 
 of his shorthand, should be also applied to the com- 
 mon reading alphabet, and that words should be spelled 
 as they are pronounced. This, he contendrd, would 
 remove the absurd anomalies of English orthography, 
 immensely facilitate the acquisition of the ability to read, 
 and promote a more accurate and uniform iirotnuiciation
 
 34 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 of English words. It was here that he encountered the 
 gravest opposition. Few persons would object to the 
 application of the phonetic principle to a new set of short- 
 hand symbols ; but the notion of interfering with the sacred 
 pages of the spelling-book, and setting up a new standard 
 of orthograph)^, was repellent to every conservative literary 
 instinct, and sent a shudder through the frame of almost 
 every educated man. It was true that English orthogra- 
 phy had undergone numberless changes since the days of 
 Caxton, that the early printers spelled pretty much as they 
 pleased, and that the existing spelling was a mere haj)- 
 hazard, unsystematic contrivance, for which no reasonable 
 or unprejudiced person had a good word to say : no mat- 
 ter — English spelling, like the English constitution, had 
 grown, had become consolidated, and so far identified with 
 the national literature that it would be little short of van- 
 dalism, or even saciilege, to touch it. Many phonographers 
 even hesitated before giving in their adhesion to a reformed 
 printing alphabet. But the band of reformers multiplied. 
 Mr Pitman kept up a constant correspondence with them, 
 and thus inspired them with some of his own enthusiasm. 
 
 In 1842 he brought out the first number of the Phono- 
 graphic Journal, which, under a slightly altered title, has 
 been continued to the present day. He was lecturing in 
 Manchester in the winter of 184-1, and happening to be at 
 the office of Messrs Bradshaw and Blacklock (now Henry 
 Blacklock, of Albert square) , he made his first acquaintance 
 with the art of lithogra])hy, and was told that if he would 
 write a page of shorth<uul on '' transfer ])aper" he could 
 have an exact copy of it printed. This was at once done, 
 and from that day lithogra])hy became the faithful handmaid 
 of stenography. .Mr Pitman went home to his lodgings with
 
 THE " PHONOGRAPHIC JOURNAL.'^ 35 
 
 a large sheet of transfer paper, and straightway wrote out 
 in shorthand the first number of his Journal, of which a 
 thousand copies were printed. Several hundred were cir- 
 culated in Manchester; some were sent to .Mr Bagster, in 
 London ; and the remainder were taken by Mr Pitman to 
 Glasgow. The Journal consisted of eight pages. The 
 first article was an introductory address on the subject of 
 I'honography, containing a brief history of its invention 
 and publication. It told of a " new era^^ in the devclo))- 
 ment of the art, or " science," as it was then inaccurately 
 called, and ventured upon the prophecy that the thousand 
 phonographers then said to be in existence would be doubled 
 during the year, chiefly by the instrumentality of the 
 Journal. This was followed by a short article entitled 
 " Reasons for Printing the Title of the Journal in Long- 
 hand." Then came an article on " The Advantages of 
 Shorthand in general," and the last page was occupied by 
 a brief notice of ^[r Pitman's visit to Manchester during 
 his Christmas holidays in furtherance of the new move- 
 ment. Two public lectures and one private one were 
 delivered, on the occasion of that short visit, and two 
 })honographic classes were formed, numbering ninety-one 
 persons. " We shall now," says Mr Pitman, " proceed 
 to Glasgow in a few days on the same errand." This was 
 his mode of " filling up," as he calls it, the few weeks' 
 interval in summer and winter which his school vacation 
 placed at his disposal. Of a real holiday, in the ordinary 
 sense of the word, he never even dreamed. 
 
 A facsimile of the first page of this Phonographic Journal 
 is here presented. Of the two branches of the Reading 
 and Writing Reform, Mr Pitman justly considers the 
 " Spelling Reform " as the greater.
 
 36 ISAAC PITMAN, 
 
 vT 1 . « -, ^ Fnu. 2 or 
 
 No.l JANUARY. 1842. „j 
 
 EDITOR. Isa.n:c. Pi^rrjiT^.. 5.j\tLsoK PLau.. BaTH- 
 PUBLISHER BoL^sler . Id, PaUfKOstt-r -R.o:v. LONDON 
 Sold also by all Books* Hers 
 
 ' ^ I- A 1 V_^ ' ■ r 80 " ^. ~> ^ o \ . ^. / ^ 
 
 L -I ^;>- ^ <1 '(^ . ^ .1 • ( ^ -^ J . ' ^-^ 
 
 . r • x'-^ ^ ) ■ 'Lv ~ . '^ -^Ao 3'^ o C "I ' 
 
 Facsimile of the First Pat^c of the " Plumogrophic Journal.'
 
 VISIT TO GLASGOW. 37 
 
 Tlie next number of the Journal told of the Glasgow 
 visit. It was a Hying one. Between the 7th and the 20th 
 of January Mr rituian contrived to lecture at the Glasgow 
 University, the Andersonian University, the Grammar 
 School, the Mechanics' Institute, and other places, to form 
 classes, and take the pupils, about 80 in number, through 
 the elements of the system. Many of the college students 
 were among these pupils. The following unsolicited testi- 
 monial was handed to Mr Pitman before he left Glasgow, 
 by two distinguished professors, but was not ])ublished till 
 1817. (See Phonetic Journal, p. 809.) : — 
 
 ■■ Glasgow College, 13 Jan. 184.2. 
 " We have examined with great interest Mr Pitman's analysis 
 of the sounds of language which is made the basis of his system 
 of Phonography, and we consider it not only ingenious but also 
 as founded throughout on correct philosophical i^rinciples. 
 His system of Phonography we have not had time to examine, 
 but as it rests on so good a basis, we can have no doubt of its 
 possessing great merit. 
 
 James Thomson. 
 William Ramsay." 
 
 Prof, Thomson's two sons, William (now Sir William 
 Thomson) and James (Queen's College, Belfast,) were 
 taught Phonography by Mr Pitman dunng this visit to 
 Glasgow. 
 
 The subsequent numbers of the Journal, which appeared 
 monthly throughout the year, were chiefly occupied with 
 accounts of the dissemination of Phonography in different 
 parts of the kingdom, with reading exercises for pupils, 
 and with some rather crude suggestions with reference to 
 phonetic j)rinting. The desirability of printing Phono- 
 graphy, if possible, with movable metal typos was very 
 early recognised, and efforts were made to devise a suitable
 
 38 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 fount for the purpose, but in view of the immense number 
 of types that would be needed for any such scheme, it had 
 to be abandoned. In the August number of the Journal 
 there is a singular proposal, apparently the j&rst of its 
 kind, for a series of types not only for the single letters of 
 the phonographic alphabet but for the compound letters. 
 " About 92 consonants would be needed, namely, 46 light 
 letters and the same number of heavy letters for the corres- 
 ponding voiced or flat sounds." In addition to the con- 
 sonants, 23 types would, it is said, be required for the 
 vowels, which were to be represented as written. Other 
 types also are suggested for the aspirate, the pretix "con," 
 and some other letters. Nothing is said about distinguish- 
 ing capitals. It was soon discovered that so large a number 
 of movable types would be impracticable, and in the 
 October number of the Journal there appeared a proposal 
 for an alphabet formed upon the Roman model, containing 
 no double consonants, but giving separate characters for 
 the double vowels of the w and y series. Other sugges- 
 tions, in connection with phonetic printing, nere made in 
 subsequent numbers, but no fount of types was ordered for 
 use. Subscriptions, however, were solicited for the purpose. 
 
 Among the other contributions in the Journal worthy of 
 notice, was a phonographic representation of a song en- 
 titled " The Witch," in the Dorsetshire dialect, the exact 
 pronunciation being of course exhibited. It is an interest- 
 ing illustration of the value of INIr Pitman's system, even 
 in its early stage of development, in recording dialectical 
 peculiarities. 
 
 It is noticeable that in the later numbers of the Journal 
 the phonographic characters are larger and clearer than in 
 the early numbers, and Mr Pitman's style of writing for the
 
 EAKLY LECTURES, 39 
 
 liihographer's stone exhibits a decided improvement. The 
 first number, as ah'eady stated, was printed in Manchester; 
 but there is a Hne at the end of the volume (December) 
 stating that (from February) the work was " written by 
 I. Pitman, Hthographed by J. Ilolway, IJath." 
 
 In the next year, 1813, Mr Pitman foimd himself able, 
 indeed compelled, to give up his school in Nelson place, 
 liath, and thenceforward he devoted his entire energies to 
 the development and propagation of Phonography and 
 phonetic spelling. By this time other laborers had come 
 into the field, to whose co-operation the progress of the 
 new movement was greatly indebted. His brothers, Joseph 
 and Benjamin, following their elder brother's example, lec- 
 tured throughout the country, sometimes together and 
 sometimes se[)arately. The writer of this Biography, when 
 a youth of 17, joined Joseph Pitman in 1813, and for three 
 years lectured and taught classes with him in many of the 
 principal towns in the kingdom ; and having acquired some 
 facility as a phonographic writer, was able to demonstrate 
 by practical experiments at the lectures and elsewhere, the 
 capabilities of the new system in the hands of an expert 
 penman. Among the other lecturers and teachers who 
 joined the early crusade were Henry and Fred. Pitman, 
 George Withers (who continued to be a phonographic 
 teacher till his death in 188Gj, F. E. Woodward, T. Walker, 
 W. G. Ward (afterwards Mayor of Nottingham , James 
 Clarke (late editor of the Christian World), T. P. 
 Barkas, of Newcastle- on -Tyne, John Haywood and J. 
 Mogford. Some of the classes were very numerous, 
 the pupils being numbered by hiuulrcds. In the north 
 of England, especially in Lancashire and Yorkshire, the 
 subject was taken up with great energy and enthusiasm.
 
 40 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 In Manchester the first phonographic "■ Festival," as it was 
 called, was held in a schoolroom. It was a social tea- 
 gathering of phonographers, at which a number of speeches 
 were delivered by the more ardent disciples. One of these 
 was Mr W. Hepworth Dixon, then a very young man, who 
 gave emphatic testimony in favor of the Pitman system, a 
 knowledge of which he had just acquired. " I cannot say," 
 he remarked, " that I have carried out the system to any 
 great extent, but, from what I have studied of it, I can say 
 its beauty is such that it carries its own recommendation." 
 Later in the year another "Festival" was held in Not- 
 tingham, on which occasion, we are told, " 450 persons sat 
 down to tea, the number being afterwards increased to 600." 
 The demonstration was organized by the pupils of Messrs 
 Joseph and Benn Pitman, who had conducted, large classes 
 in the town. Mr Barkas occupied the chair, and Mr Isaac 
 Pitman had come from Bath to attend the meeting. There 
 was the usual flow of eloquence suitable to the occasion, 
 with quotations from ]Milton and other less distinguished 
 poets. If the glowing periods in which the approaching 
 phonogiaphic millenium was hailed all duly chronicled in 
 the pages of the Phonotyjnc Journal, as the monthly organ 
 was now called) create a smile as they are read nearly half 
 a century latei', it will not be forgotten that most of the 
 orators were young, and spoke with the natural ardor of 
 new discipleship. It is only thus that new movements 
 have a chance of making their way, and sensible people 
 will not be too severe on the effusive oratory and exagge- 
 rated expectations of early jjioncers ; since, as has been well 
 said, it is difficult to get a jjroportionate amount of atten- 
 tion j)aid even to a good cause, unless some persons are 
 found to advocate it with dis[)roportionate energy.
 
 BIRMINGHAM FESTIVAL. -41 
 
 a\ month or two later another gathering of a similar 
 character was held in liirminghain, in the Assembly Room 
 of Dee's Royal Hotel. It is memorable in phonographic 
 history by the circumstance that Mr Thomas Wright Hill, 
 the father of the Postal reformci", was among the jirincipal 
 speakers. lie went from London to Birmingham with 
 Mr Isaac Pitman, who had been invited to spend a day 
 with him at Tottenham. Mr Hill expressed a warm inte- 
 rest, not so nuich in Phonograj)hy as in Phonotypy; or, 
 as he called it, Phonotypography. Phonetic spelling, he 
 declared, was not so much an innovation as a restoration ; 
 and he attached the greatest value to it as an educational- 
 ist. '^ You will/' he said, " give me credit for being able 
 to form a judgment in this matter when I say that I have 
 been employed in teaching the pronunciation of the Eng- 
 lish language for nearly the whole of the ])resent century." 
 Mr Hill, indeed, had devised a phonetic system of his own, 
 which he had jmblished as a tract. Among the other 
 speakers at the meeting were Dr jMelson, an expert steno- 
 grapher, who occupied the chair, and Mr Isaac Pitman, 
 who, in the course of his sijccch, said tliat in passing 
 through London, he had amused himself by reading the 
 names on miles of sign-boards, and had not seen one which 
 was spelled on strictly i)honetic principles; and further, 
 that he had searched the Gazetteer in vain for the name of 
 a single place whose pronunciation was in entire acccrd 
 with its orthography. 
 
 The public interest excited by the lectures delivered and 
 the classes formed by the early phonographic pioneei's 
 about this time was very great. The reports in the news- 
 papers called additional attention to the subject, and many 
 men of learning and influence gave the movement their
 
 42 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 liearty support. Thus, in Edinburgh, during the visit of 
 F. Woodward and T. Walker, Hobert Chambers took the 
 chair at one of the lectures, learned Phonography, and 
 wrote an interesting article on the subject for Chambers's 
 Journal (Oct. 5, 1844), which did the movement great 
 service. In Sheffield, when Joseph Pitman and T. A. Reed 
 were lecturing and teaching in the town, the poet, James 
 Montgomery, took the chair at one of their meetings, at 
 which he recited some \erses that he had written on the 
 art,* and gave an account of some phonographic experi- 
 ments which he had witnessed at his own house. Again, 
 in Brighton, during the visit of the same lecturers, Rowland 
 Hill, the Post Office Reformer, presided at a phonographic 
 soiree, and expressed the interest he felt, not only in 
 Phonography as a shorthand system, but in phonetic spel- 
 ling generally. His father, as has been already stated, 
 had taken part the year before in a similar gathering at 
 Birmingham. But perhaps the most important addition to 
 the ranks of the spelling reformers at this period was Mr 
 (now Dr) A. J. Ellis, who is known as one of the most dis- 
 tinguished phoneticians and philologists in England. He 
 had read in the Athenceum a short account of the Birming- 
 ham celebration, and immediately sent for copies of Mr 
 I'itman's publications. To learn Phonography was for 
 him but the work of a few hours, and in the course of a 
 day or two he wrote a letter in the new system to Mr 
 i'itman, which proved to be the commencement of a cor- 
 respondence that continued, almost without intermission, 
 for four years, during which Mr Ellis was a diligent con- 
 tributor to the Phonetic Journal. 
 
 Some well-known journalists also gave in their adhesion 
 * See Phonoti/pic Juunial, 1844, p. 125.
 
 JOHN HARLAND ON PHONOGRAPHY. 43 
 
 to the phonographic movement, in tlie interests not simply 
 of the art of shorthand hut of f;cneral education. Fore- 
 most among them was John King, the j)roprietor and editor 
 of the Suffolk Chronicle, who constantly advocated the 
 phonetic cause in his own journal, and started a monthly 
 phonographic magazine. Another friend of the new system 
 was John Ilarland, the famous reporter, and afterwards 
 one of the proprietors of the Manchester Guardian. He 
 wrote a system of his own, and was recognized as a highly 
 skilled professional shorthand writer. He reported Joseph 
 Pitman's lectures in Manchester at great length, and at 
 the close of the rej)orts added the following emphatic testi- 
 mony to the merits of Isaac Pitman's invention : — 
 
 " We might conclude here, having fultilled our duty in 
 faithfully recording the announcement of an invention of 
 some importance. But justice requires that we should 
 candidly express our opinion of Phonography, inasmuch 
 as through accidental circumstances its author, on a 
 former occasion, had some reason to complain of erroneous 
 statements in a notice of his lecture in our colunuis. 
 Phonography we believe to be the only mode at once 
 philosophical and practical, of writing language by signs 
 accurately representing the sounds or elements of which 
 all language is composed. In these days of general 
 acceleration, its universal use would be a great benefit to 
 the civilized world, how^ever chimerical the anticipations of 
 such an extension may and do appear. It has hitherto 
 received far too little attention from those philosophical 
 inquirers whose dicta have so much weight with the more 
 practical minds of the community. It is, in fact, a vivid 
 picture and transcript of any and every language spoken 
 on the earth ; having as universal an application as the
 
 44 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 notation of musical signs^ with this superiority — that it 
 represents not only sounds like musical notation, but 
 sounds which are the images and signs of ' thoughts that 
 breathe, and words that burn/ These are its chief merits ; 
 but it has others, among which it may be stated, it is 
 now adapted to the purposes of reporting, so as to be 
 equal in point of expedition and legibility to most of the 
 systems of shorthand extant ; and we believe that it con- 
 tains within itself the power of becoming superior to all, 
 with the further improvements and augmentations which 
 a careful revision on the part of its author and his pupils, 
 in the course of a few years, will be able to give to it. 
 We have often letters of inquiry as to the best system of 
 shorthand for young students ; and we take this opportu- 
 nity of saying once for all that, with the advantage of 
 consulting Messrs Pitman by post, on any difficulty that 
 may occur to the learner, and even for the correction of 
 his exercises, etc., there is no system extant that we would 
 sooner recommend to the inquirer. We understand that 
 the next step in the promulgation of this art is to obtain 
 a fount of types, in which to print it, and so introduce 
 Phonotypy as well as Phonography.' ' 
 
 Among the men of mark who, at this early period, had 
 a good word to say for the new movement, was Mr John 
 Bright, who presided at a lecture given by JNIr Joseph Pit- 
 man in Rochdale, and was greatly struck by the ])ractical 
 demonstrations that were given of the merits of Phonog- 
 raphy. " I am greatly astonished/' he said, " at what I 
 have seen. I think no person can have been at this lec- 
 ture or attended the one that was given this day week, 
 without being convinced that all that has been promised by 
 this science may easily be performed; and that it is so
 
 JOHN BRIGHT AND PHONOGKAPHY. 45 
 
 exceedingly simple as to be easily learned by everyone of 
 ordinary capacity ; and if it be learned by a very large 
 number of the people, the j)ublic benefits to be derived 
 from it are entirely incalculable. It may l)e said, also, 
 that, to make it very valuable, it is necessary that great 
 multitudes should learn it. Shorthands are of vcvy little 
 use if they are only known to a select few ; for men are 
 not writing always to the same men ; and if ever it is to 
 come into general use, it must be, I think, by very large 
 multitudes learning it ; and I see no reason why, in this 
 town, we should not have a class of four or live hundred, 
 or more. If five hundred knew it well, and used it, many 
 thousands would be forced to learn and practise it from 
 necessity. In this age, when we are talking so much 
 about education — when we ought to be doing so much 
 more than we are — this science appears to me likely to 
 tend to increase the love of reading and writing, and of 
 education generally ; and it seems to have sprung up at a 
 time when, like many other improvements, it was most 
 needed ; and when, in all probability, it will be seized upon 
 with the greatest avidity. I may say for myself, that I am 
 extremely obliged, personally, to the inventor, and to the 
 gentleman who has come among us and given us these 
 lectures ; and hope to be much more so, when I become 
 acquainted with the science. We are extremely indebted 
 to them for the very handsome manner in which they have 
 come forward, in offering to teach, gratuitously, all such as 
 find it difficult to pay; and, unfortunately, there are too 
 many such in these days. I trust there will be no want of 
 those who can pay, to remunerate them for this handsome 
 offer which they have made towards those who cannot 
 pay. 1 shall be glad if this town, which, on many occa-
 
 46 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 sionSj lias stood foi-emost among the towns in Lancashire 
 on some other questions, should not be behind in one so 
 important as this." It may be remarked here that in later 
 years Mr Bright's daughter (now Mrs Clark) learned 
 Phonography, and became her father's amanuensis, often 
 writing from his dictation in the new characters. 
 
 From some other influential quarters there was, as might 
 have been expected, a good deal of opposition. The Leeds 
 Mercury, whose reporter, like Mr Harland, wrote a system 
 of his own, opposed Phonography when it was introduced 
 into the town, and declared its claims to be inadmissible. 
 IMost, if not all, its reporting is now done by phonog- 
 raphers. The reporter of another newspaper, the Ipswich 
 Journal, also attacked the system with much vehemence 
 and acrimony. Another opponent was the Rev. Edward 
 Bickersteth, who, oddly enough, saw in Phonography an 
 enemy to religion itself. Denouncing, in his work entitled 
 " The Promised Glory," the infidelity of the day, he made 
 the astounding assertion that " Mesmerism, Phrenology, 
 Phonography, Chartism, and Socialism, are the stalking- 
 horses behind which the most Satanic Hes and the most 
 absurd blasphemies are sent forth against the Word of 
 God."* Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet, as he was then 
 called, composed a short poemf ridiculing Phonography^ 
 the Spelling lleform, and the " modern babblers " who 
 were advocating them. But these things only served to 
 call public attention to the subject, and as replies were 
 always forthcoming, the movement was benefited rather 
 than injured by these notes of opposition. 
 
 * In the second edition of the work, " Phonograpliy " was 
 expunpTc'd from the sentence quoted, 
 t Phonoiypic Journal, 1845, p. 158.
 
 VEGETARIANISM. 47 
 
 Mr Pitman's labors at Bath were daily increasing-, owing 
 to the constant demand for his works. His printing was 
 for six years done at the office of Keene's Bath Jaurnat. 
 In December, 1845, he decided on having it done under 
 his own immediate superintendence; and with this view, he 
 established a printing-office in his house, 5, Nelson place, 
 and at once began to print his own books. Here he not 
 only compiled the various works published at that time, 
 but often worked ''^at case^' as a compositor, read all his 
 proofs, kept his books, and conducted, single-handed, all 
 the correspondence of the office. During 181 1, he set the 
 pages of phonetic types that appeared in the Phonotyp'ic 
 Journal eveiy month, in Messrs Keene's office. His 
 power of work, which is said to be always characteristic of 
 true genius, was astounding. His regular hours of labor 
 were from six (occasionally from five) in the morning till 
 ten at night. His habits were methodical in the extreme, 
 and his mode of living was strictly temperate, if not 
 abstemious. He rigidly al)staiiied from intoxicants and 
 from flesh diet, and never smoked. He has himself given 
 us an account of his reasons for adopting vegetarianism, in 
 the following letter, which appeared in the Times for 6th 
 February, 1879, in reformed spelling : — 
 
 Ser, A frend sujests tu me that I ou^lit tii reit a later tu 
 the Times, plasing mei leif-eksperiens in konti'ast with the 
 editorial suming-up on Mr W. Giljson- Ward's vejetarian leter 
 in the Times ov last Tlmrzday. The konkluzhon areivd at iz : — 
 " So Ions a-z no speshal kail iz tu be made on the sti'ength, a 
 piiirli vejetabel deiet may sufeiz." Az uiei leif liaz been wuii 
 ov eksepslional aktiviti, tlie fakt that it liaz been maintaind on 
 a vejetabel deiet ou!?bt tu be known, nou that a diskiishon on 
 deiet haz been admited intu the Times. 
 
 Mei deietetik eksperiens iz simpli tliis, — Abuv forti yearz ajjo 
 dispepsia woz kariing me tu the grave. Medikal adveizerz
 
 48 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 rekomended animal food three teimz a day iusted ov vnins. 
 and a glas ov wein. On this rejimeu I woz nuthing beterd but 
 i-atlier grew -niirs. I avoided the meat and the wem, gradiuali 
 rekuverd uiei dijestiv pouer. and hav never sins kno^mi, bei eni 
 pain, that I hav a stnmak. 
 
 Theze f orti yearz hav been spent in kontiniuus labor in konek- 
 shon with the invenshon and i^ropagashon ov mei sistem ov 
 fonetik shorthand and fonetik speling, korespondens, and the 
 editorial diutiz ov mei weekli Jurnal. Though siksti-feiv [66] 
 yearz ov aje, I kontiniu the kustom I hav folowd all through 
 this period, ov being at mei ofis at siks in the morning, sumer 
 and winter. Til I woz fif ti yearz ov aje I never tuk a holiday, or 
 felt that I wonted wun ; and for about twenti yearz in the f erst 
 part ov this period I woz at mei desk foiu'teen ourz a day, from 
 siks in the morning til ten at neit, with two ourz out for mealz. 
 Twenti yearz ago I began tu leav of at siks in the evening. 
 
 I attribiut mei helth and pouer ov endiurans tu abstinens 
 from flesh meat and alkoholik drinks. I kan kuni tu no uther 
 konkluzhon when I see the efekt ov such ekstended ourz ov 
 labor on uther men who eat meat and drink wein or beer. 
 
 I hav riten mei leter fonetikali, az iz mei kustom, and shal 
 feel obleijd if it be aloud thus tu apear in the Times. 
 
 EiZAK Pitman. 
 
 Fonetik lu.stitiut, Bath, 27 Jtn/iueri, 1S79. 
 
 The letter was <;ivcn in the Times in full phonetic 
 spelling, with old letters. It has since been considered 
 advisable to advocate, at first, a partially' reformed spelling, 
 as in the above specimen. 
 
 In a biogra])hical notice of Mr Pitman in the Food Re- 
 funn Magazine for April, 1881, the immediate occasion of 
 Mr Pitman's adoption of a vegetarian diet is mentioned. 
 
 " Mr Pitman's whole life has shown that when he has 
 made up his mind that a thing is right he follows the idea 
 prom])tly with action, as manifested when, having come to 
 the conclusion that intoxicating drinks were injurious, he 
 knocked the bung out of his beer barrel and poured the
 
 VEGETARIANISM. 49 
 
 contents into the sewer. Unfortunately those who embrace 
 the principles of total abstinence from intoxicating liquors 
 arc too often blind as to the evils of tlcsh-eating and the 
 fact that it is a provocative to the drink crave. Medical 
 men failing to do good with their medicines, Mr Pitman 
 resolved to take his case in band himself, and, aided by 
 the following incident, resolved to become an abstainer 
 from fish, tlcsh, and fowl. 
 
 "A number of fowls were kept principally for the sake 
 of their eggs, and occasionally one of them was doomed to 
 the pot or the spit. The boy who did the killing business 
 declined the job when it came to the turn of his jiet fowl 
 to be killed. Requiring obedience to orders, the lad was 
 directed to hold the fowl's head upon the block, and then 
 Mr Pitman aimed a blow at it with the hatchet ; but his 
 unpractised hand only half did the work, and the bird with 
 its partially severed head tiew about the yard. This un- 
 pleasant business of killing 'our poor relations^ set Mr 
 Pitman thinking, and the questions arose, ' Is it right to 
 require another jjcrson to do what I do not like to do 
 niyself ? ' 'Is tlesh meat necessary as an article of food ? ' 
 His answers being in the negative^ he has never eaten 
 flesh-meat since, yet he has had sound health, and believes 
 he could not have done an equal amount of mental and 
 physical work upon a ' mixed diet.' " Although Mr 
 Pitman never takes flesh meat, it should be stated that his 
 dietary includes eggs, milk and butter. 
 
 Nothwithstandiug Mr Pitman's power of work, he at 
 length found himself unable to cope with the increasing 
 business of the office, and he was compelled to obtain assis- 
 tance, especially in the mechanical department. Training 
 lads to the work, he was able to relieve himself of a good 
 
 4
 
 50 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 deal of the routine drudgery which, in his plodding way, 
 he had hitherto taken upon his own shoulders. This 
 ■enabled him to give more time to the preparation of his 
 books, periodicals and tracts. Of the tracts he printed 
 and distributed vast numbers, trusting to these and to his 
 own personal correspondence for making his system known. 
 With all this labor on his hands he found time to correct 
 the shorthand exercises of students. This he did gratu- 
 itously. Indeed, in his Journal for December, 1842, he 
 publicly expressed his willingness to correct the exercises 
 of any persons who had at any time received lessons from 
 himself or his brothers, or who were too poor to send even 
 a small nominal fee. 
 
 A good deal of this labor of correcting the lessons of 
 learners was afterwards done by other hands. In February, 
 1843, there appeared in the Phonotypic Journal a sugges- 
 tion made by the author of this work for the establishment 
 of a " Phonographic Corresponding Society,^' to consist 
 of members who desired to correspond with each other in 
 shorthand. The idea was readily taken up in different 
 parts of the kingdom, and, at Mr Pitman's suggestion, it 
 was arranged that one of the functions of the members of 
 the Society should be the gratuitous correction of the 
 lessons of learners through the recently-established Penny 
 Post. The next Journal contained the names of twenty- 
 seven members, including those of Isaac Pitman and his 
 two brothers, Henry and Fred ; and from month to month 
 considerable additions were made to the list. Among the 
 earliest to join the new Socitty were Hcpworth Dixon* 
 
 * Mr Dixon never ceased to take an interest in Phonography 
 and phonetic spelling. This interest he occasionally manifested 
 in the columns of the Athcnaum, of which he was for many 
 years the editor.
 
 THE PHONETIC SOCIETY. 51 
 
 who was then the secretary of the Ancoats Lyceum, 
 Manchester ; and Mr A. J. ElHs, the distinguished philolo- 
 gist and phonetician, then residing at Dorking. The 
 names of many other young men and women who after- 
 wards made their mark in literature or some other depart- 
 ment of labor, may also be found in the first yearns list of 
 members. The Society was in later years called the Pho- 
 netic Society, which name it still retains, and now it receives 
 an addition of about 4,500 members yearly, all of whom 
 undertake the gratuitous correction of learners' exercises. 
 In addition to the Phonographic Corresponding Society, 
 numerous local associations of a similar character were 
 formed throughout the country, often as the result of 
 lectures and classes. Of these the records are to be found 
 in the early numbers of the Journal.
 
 52 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 It was not until 1813 that i\lr Pitman seriously set to 
 work with phonetic printing by means of movable types. 
 To accomplish this it was necessary to procure about twenty 
 new letters^ to supply the deficiencies of the common 
 twenty-six letter alphabet. Many experiments were made 
 in order to discover the most suitable forms for the new 
 letters required, and the mode of using them; and Mr 
 Pitman, in this, as in regard to his shorthand, sought and 
 obtained the co-operation of many friends. He also, 
 through his Journal, solicited subscriptions to defray the 
 cost of the founts. It is unnecessary to describe in these 
 pages the many different schemes propounded, whether for 
 a complete new phonetic alphabet, or for an adaptation of 
 the existing alphabet with or without additional letters 
 with diacritic marks. In the Phonotypic Journal of 
 January, 1844, Mr Pitman was able to address his friends 
 in " phonotypy," and " thus offer you the result of the 
 first experiment made with the fount which your liberality 
 has enabled me to provide." In this opening address he 
 freely acknowledged the efforts made by his predecessors 
 in the same direction, the failure of which he attributed to 
 the want of a public desire and demand for a Spelling 
 Keforni such as he had himself been, with some success, 
 endeavoring to create. Henceforward phonographic short- 
 hand and phonetic printing went hand in hand. With 
 singular devotion ]\Ir Pitman, whose j)ersonal expenses 
 were absolutely insignificant, applied a large i)ortion of the
 
 DISSEMINATION OF PHONOGRAPHY. 53 
 
 profits derived from his works to the promotion of a 
 reformed spelling. The literature of the Spelling lleform 
 did not pay its expenses; and though subscriptions were 
 received from time to time from other persons interested 
 in the movement, they had to be largely supplemented by 
 j\Ir Pitman's own contributions. 
 
 The extent to which Phonography had become popu- 
 larized may be estimated by the circumstance that the 
 system had reached a sixth edition in 1844 and a seventh 
 in 1815. In the latter year Mr Pitman found time to 
 attend a public phonographic soiree at Ipswich, (held in 
 commemoration of the labors of iMessrs Joseph Pitman 
 and T. A. Keed, who had delivered many lectures and 
 conducted large classes in the town,) and he was also 
 present at the third annual meeting of the Birmingham 
 Phonographic Society. At this meeting he told his 
 hearers that he was sending out from his Bath office 7 cwt. 
 of books per month, and was receiving about ten thousand 
 ])honographic letters a year ; that ten lecturers were con- 
 stantly engaged in teaching his system; and that 1,054 
 members of the " Phonographic Corresponding Society '^ 
 were more or less actively employed in its private dissem- 
 ination. In this year also ]\Ir Pitman began to print the 
 Bible with phonetic types, but, as might have been ex- 
 pected, the phonetic alphabet received further improvement, 
 and when he had printed as far as the Chronicles, the work 
 was abandoned, and the sheets sent to the grocer. The 
 Pkonotypic Journal was published monthly entirely in the 
 same character ; and the Phonographic Correspondent was 
 lithographed every month in his clear and beautiful style 
 of phonographic penmanship. 
 
 At the close of the same year a noteworthy incident
 
 54 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 occurred in regard to the practical application of the pho- 
 netic system of shorthand. An anti-corn -law demonstration 
 was held in Bath, and Mr Pitman attended and reported 
 Cobden's speech on the occasion for Keene's Bath Journal, 
 at whose offices the phonetic publications had for some time 
 been printed. Instead of transcribing his notes in longhand 
 in the usual way, he contented himself with rapidly reading 
 them through, and dropping in a vowel here and there for 
 the sake of additional legibility, and then handing them to 
 the newspaper compositors, some of whom had been in the 
 habit of setting-up from his shorthand MS. The speech 
 was duly printed from these revised notes. This feat — for 
 such it really was — was duly chronicled in the Bath Journal 
 of 8th December, 1845, in the following paragraph : — 
 
 " In connection with the report of the excellent addresses 
 delivered at the great demonstration on Thursday, of the 
 opinions of a very large majority of the citizens of Bath, 
 which will be found in our columns this week, we would 
 call the attention of our readers to a fact indicative of 
 Eeform in other matters as well as in the Corn Laws. By 
 the kindness of Mr Isaac Pitman of this city, whose sys- 
 tems of writing and printing by sound have made such 
 astonishing progress in all parts of the kingdom, we are 
 enabled to give a neai'ly verbatim report of the excellent 
 speech of R. Cobden, esq., which our compositors have set 
 up from Mr Pitman's phonographic notes, there being no 
 necessity for their transcription. AVith all other systems 
 of shorthand writing, not only was there never known such 
 a thing as a reporter passing over to the compositor his 
 notes of a speech an hour and a quarter in delivery, but 
 he is often unable to decipher them himself. All that was 
 necessary in this case, Mr Pitman has assured us, was to
 
 TYPE SET FROM SHORTHAND. 
 
 55 
 
 give the speech one reading the next morning, and fill in 
 a few vowels. We arc convinced that we shall in a few 
 years, by this invaluable system, save all that immense 
 
 amount of toil which our present reporters liave to undergo 
 
 in deciphering and transcribing their notes for the press.' ' 
 
 About this period a portrait of Mr Titman was painted
 
 56 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 by Mr J. B. (now Colonel) Keene^ son of the editor of the 
 Bath Journal, and its present proprietor. He was one of 
 the earliest writers of Phonography. From this painting a 
 steel engraving was produced, of which we give a copy. 
 j\lr Keene also wrote a little poem on Phonography, which 
 was published in the Phonohjpic Journal for 1843, p. 96. 
 
 The sale of the phonographic publications had now so 
 much increased as to interfere with the Bible-publishing 
 business of Messrs Bagster & Sons; and in 1845 they 
 opened a shop in Queen's Head passage, adjoining No. 15 
 Paternoster row, for carrying on the phonographic pub- 
 lishing business. In the following year Benn Pitman took 
 charge of this depot, and in 1847 it was transferred to 
 Frederick Pitman, then 19 years of age. In October, 1849, 
 he removed the business to the commodious premises. No. 
 20, Paternoster row, and thenceforward all the London 
 publishing work passed through his hands. Some risk 
 was expected to attend the experiment of setting up a 
 special establishment apart from ^lessrs Bagsters, with 
 whose house Phonography had been identified for nine 
 years, but the result amply justified the change. Here, as 
 at Queen's Head passage, Mr Fred. Pitman was assisted by 
 his father, ]\Ir Samuel Pitman, who, in his old age, had the 
 satisfaction of witnessing the success of his sons, and giving 
 them the benefit of his co-operation. Those who visited the 
 depot in those days will not forget the shrewd and sagacious 
 sayings and doings of Pitman pere, who was for some years 
 a well-known character in the Row. He learned Phonogra- 
 phy, and could read it with ease, but never wrote it fiuently. 
 
 During the next two or three years Mr Pitman continued 
 to issue his phonographic and ])honotypic publications, in- 
 cluding ''Paradise Lost" in phoiiotypy, and to urge in every
 
 SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. 
 
 possible way the claims of the Spelling Reform movement. 
 Mis correspondence became more and more extensive, every 
 day bringing him sixty or seventy letters, chieHy in short- 
 hand, most of which were answered by his own hand. He 
 also connnenced a " History of Shorthand " in the Phono- 
 iypic Journal, and continued it through many successive 
 numbers. The phonetic movement continued to spread 
 throughout the country by means of classes, lectures, 
 " festivals," and other demonstrations. Mr Ellis was a 
 frequent and zealous contributor to the phonetic literature 
 of the day, and his scholarship was a great acquisition to 
 the cause. A " Phonetic Council " was also formed, whose 
 members assisted in the formation of the new alphabet, 
 and in giving publicity to the movement. Mr Pitman 
 was constantly experimenting with new types, and doing 
 his best to arrive at a practical alphabet which should 
 effectively represent the sounds of the language. An 
 impetus was given to the movement by a highly apprecia- 
 tive article in the Aihemeum of the 19th December, IS tO, 
 from which some paragraphs may be usefully quoted : — 
 
 " It is a singular anomaly in the history of intellectual 
 development, that, while every department of positive 
 science and system of philosophy has been prosecuted and 
 agitated in modern Europe, so little earnest and continuous 
 attention has been bestowed upon language — the instru- 
 ment of all science, the medium of all literature, the very 
 basis of civilization. If a correct logic be necessary in 
 inductive reasoning, and a sound method indispensable in 
 the investigation of natural phenomena, a philosophical 
 system of language is still more important, and a more 
 catholic necessity. 
 
 " The whole tribe of languages admits of a very simple
 
 58 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 and primary classification — namely, hieroglyphic and pho- 
 netic. The first is purely symbolic, and uses signs to ex- 
 press ideas. The second is founded on the alphabetic 
 principle, and uses signs to represent sounds — which recall 
 the ideas to which they are wedded when pronounced or 
 read ofi" the written page. The first is the more obviously 
 natural method, and was probably the first in use : the 
 other is, however, the simpler and more effective instru- 
 ment. Diodorus Siculus informs us that both systems 
 obtained in Egypt ; and that the hieroglyphic was prin- 
 cipally made use of by the caste of priests (as being ex- 
 tremely difficult to acquire,) to conceal their mystic know- 
 ledge and recondite theogony. The less difficult they 
 taught the common people — a fatal mistake, which says 
 little for the sagacity of the Egyptian intellect. The 
 relative value of these different systems of communicating 
 intelligence has not yet been morally and politically appre- 
 ciated. The first is vast, unwieldy, and almost unuseable : 
 the other is plastic and expressive. Quiescence or activity,, 
 respectively, characterizes the nations which have adopted 
 the one or the other. China, with its stationary civiliza- 
 tion and unprogressiv6 literature — Western Europe, with 
 its revolutionary intellect and conquering science — are the 
 true exponents of the forces which lie beneath the two 
 methods. 
 
 " The Teutonic languages, of course, belong to the great 
 class of alphabetic tongues ; but a departure, n\orc or less, 
 from the normal principle, has taken place in each, and in 
 none more than in English. The last has departed so 
 widely from the purely phonetic character, that out of 
 70,000 words in its vocabulary, not n\ore than 70 — or 1 in 
 1 ,000 — are pronounced precisely as ihey are spelled. How
 
 SCIENCE OP LANGUAGE. 59 
 
 few persons, even of those most i)rat'tiscd in reading and 
 writing, are there who can spell correctly every one of 
 these 70,000 words ! Yet if they were really, as they are 
 ostensibly, phonetically represented, there could arise no 
 doubt. The elements of the pronunciation would combine 
 with the ease and eouiplctencss of chemical affinities. As 
 it is, the vocabulary is a work of memory. Each word must 
 be made a separate subject of study ; and hence, a life be- 
 comes too short for the acquirement of the whole. The same 
 difficulties attend most of the other European tongues. 
 
 "The phonetization of language is, however, more than 
 a mere possibility ; and the adoption of a science of 
 phonology, at least perfect in theory, and in practice 
 felicitously adapted to the purposes of life, is not the 
 idle dream of the speculative student. 'We have here,' 
 says Sir John Herschel, speaking of an analysis of his 
 own, ' the fewest lettei's with which it is possible to write 
 English. But on the other hand, with the addition of 
 two or three more vowels and as many consonants, mak- 
 ing about forty characters in all, every known language 
 might probably be effectually reduced to writing, so as to 
 preserve an exact correspondence between the writing and 
 pronunciation ; which would be one of the most valuable 
 acquisitions not only to philologists but to mankind; 
 facilitating the intercourse between nations, and laying the 
 foundation of the first step towards a universal language, 
 one of the great desiderata at which mankind ought to aim 
 by common consent.' The works now lying before us [the 
 Fhonotypic Journal and Milton's ' Paradise Lost,' in 
 phonotypes,] are indications of another earnest attempt, 
 which has been for some time in progress, to achieve that 
 reform in the representation of our language to which many
 
 60 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 eminent philologers have marshaled the way. Some account 
 of the views which — by lectures, aucl class-teaching, and a 
 journal of their own, and publications like that of ' Paradise 
 Lost ' — these logical reformers are seeking to enforce, may 
 be worth bringing under the notice of our readers. 
 
 " At the head of this new movement, is Mr Isaac Pitman, 
 of Bath. His attention was directed, it seems, to the 
 anomalies of our alphabetic system, by the elaboration of 
 a method of shorthand, of which he is the inventor. 
 Without any acquaintance (as he himself states,) with the 
 labors of others in the same field, he had been induced to. 
 reject the Eoman alphabet as inadequate to represent the 
 sounds of our mother tongne ; and adopted as the basis of 
 his short-hand system, the best analysis of vocal sound that 
 he could obtain. jMuch time and labor were expended in 
 perfecting this analysis; but when it was complete, it was 
 at once evident, says Mr Pitman, that a system which so 
 simplified written, would answer the same purpose for 
 printed language. Many experiments were consequently 
 made ; and after three years have been consumed in getting 
 the best forms of type, and improving the subsidiary" details 
 of the system, ' Paradise Lost.' is issued as the first com- 
 plete work from the phonetic press. 
 
 " The phonological science of Mr Pitman is based upon 
 the assumption that the primary aim of orthography is to 
 express the sounds of words, and not their histories. The 
 etymological relation of a word has no influence upon its 
 pronunciation ; and, therefore, according to the normal 
 alphabetic theory, ought to have none upon the spelling. 
 The pronunciation and the representation should exactly 
 coincide. To effect this, a new alphabet was required — 
 the Roman one being notoriously faulty — containing as
 
 SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. 61 
 
 many letters as there are simple, indivisible sounds in the 
 language. The detection and classification of these primary 
 sounds were the first processes, and led to the following 
 result. The voice (in so far as the enunciation of English 
 is concerned) has but twenty-one radical elements; — namely, 
 six vowels, two coalescents_, one aspirate, and twelve con- 
 sonants. The six pure vowels, however, have each a shoit 
 sound, which it is considered expedient to represent by a 
 sej)arate letter. Seven of the consonants have also a heavier 
 sound : — Thus F is deepened into V ; T into D, etc. 
 Besides these, it is deemed expedient to use single letters 
 to express four of the frequently recurring diphthongs, 
 [7, oi, ou, <?,] and two double consonants, [ch,j,'\ — making^ 
 in the whole, /o?-/y distinct letters. 
 
 '' These forty primary and coinj)ound .-ounds, arc, in 
 combination, considered equal to the perfect vocalization of 
 each and every English word. It is obvious, that an 
 alpliabet of forty letters cannot be expressed by the old 
 twenty-six types, even if these had distinct and well-ascer- 
 tained powers — which, however, every student of the lan- 
 guage too well knows they have not. New forms of letters 
 have, therefore, been invented, to supply the new sounds 
 with typical exponents. Two principles are asserted to 
 have presided at the selection of the new types ; — rigid 
 adherence to phonetic truth, and as little alteration as 
 possible in the appearance of the printed page. To arbitrate 
 between these somewhat conflicting demands has been the 
 great problem with the phonologers. They believe that 
 tlu;y have solved it ; and have obtained an alphabet repre- 
 senting the radical elements of speech, true to all the re- 
 quisitions of science, and practically adapted for all the 
 purposes of life.
 
 62 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 " The object supposed to be achieved by this phonetic 
 method of printing is principally educational. The years 
 now devoted to learning to read and spell will be, it is 
 promised, commuted to months. On the phonetic plan, it 
 is believed that a man of ordinary intelligence might learn 
 to spell and pronounce every word in the English language 
 with the unerring certainty of the rhetorician, in three 
 months. 
 
 "A system which even plausibly offers such advantages 
 is not unworthy the inquiries of our readers. But the 
 philosophical ambition of the phonotypists has far wider 
 limits. They do not merely aim at the phonetization of 
 the English tongue ; but, regarding their analysis of sounds 
 as containing the radical elements of all speech, hope finally 
 thereby to make English the nucleus of a universal lan- 
 guage. They state, we may add, that 150,000 copies of 
 the system of phonetic short-hand have been sold; that 
 thousands of persons in Great Britain and America have 
 been taught the art; and that the Phonographic Corres- 
 ponding Society numbers upwards of a thousand members."
 
 THE 1847 ALPHABET. 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 In 1818 a new departure touk j)lacc in connection with 
 Mr Pitman's monthly Phonotypic 'Journal. In conjunc- 
 tion with Mr Ellis, he had for several years carried out an 
 immense number of experiments, not only as to the forms 
 of the printing types for the phonetic alphabet, but as to 
 the modes of employing them. There was, as indeed 
 there still is, a great diversity of opinion among pho- 
 neticians in reference to the sounds of certain words and 
 syllables, and as to the question whether the stiff and 
 deliberate or the easy and colloquial pronunciation should 
 be taken as the standard in a popular system of phonetic 
 representation. By the end of 1817, ^Ir Pitman and 
 Mr Ellis had come to an agreement on these points, and 
 what was afterwards known as "the 1817 alphabet^' 
 was accepted as the basis of the proposed spelling reform. 
 With a view of taking a more active part in the promotion 
 of this reform, Mr Ellis went to reside at Bath, and 
 arranged with Mr Pitman to purchase his printing plant 
 and take over the monthly journal, henceforward to be 
 called the Phonetic Journal. The purchase was carried 
 out in November, 1847, and Mr Ellis established his 
 printing office at Albion Place. One of the conditions of 
 the purchase was that Mr Pitman was to have the joint 
 use of the office and plant, paying 5 per cent, on the cost 
 of production, for wear and tear. Under this arrange- 
 ment, Mr Ellis brought out the Journal in 1848, and 
 was actively engaged in printing other works with the
 
 64 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 new alphabet^ including the New Testament, the " Vicar 
 of \Yakeiield," and " Rasselas." He also started in 1849, 
 at great expense and labor, the now historical newspaper, 
 the Phonetic News, or, as it was commonly called, the 
 Funetic Niiz. It was hoped that this quasi partnership 
 would have worked satisfactorily, and that by the combin- 
 ation of Mr Pitman's energy and practical experience with 
 the ripe scholarship and more ample means of Mr Ellis, 
 the reform would make more rapid strides than ever. 
 The expectation, reasonable and natural as it seemed, was 
 not realized. Difficulties arose, into the details of which 
 it is not necessary to enter, in connection with the joint 
 working of the printing office. These difficulties at length 
 became, in Mr Pitman's view, so serious, that he resolved to 
 resume phonetic printing in an office under his own direc- 
 tion ; and, with this object, he ordered from Messrs Figgins 
 a supply of type of all sizes, together with the necessary 
 plant. About the same time, Mr Ellis's labors and 
 anxieties had begun to tell upon his health. The produc- 
 tion of a weekly newspaper in the new spelling, in addition 
 to his other publications, proved a greater strain than he 
 could well bear. The Phonetic News appeared weekly for 
 three months, then twice at intervals of a month, and 
 came to an end with the number for May 25th, 1849. 
 Notwithstanding the inevitable ridicule of the comic 
 papers — partly perhaps because of that ridicule — and the 
 diatribes and sneers of the champions of the old spelling, 
 the News did good service during its brief but brilliant 
 career. It was well edited, as it was sure to be in Mr 
 Ellis's hands, and drew public attention to the anomalies 
 of English si)elling, and the necessity of a change, in 
 quarters to which previous publications had rarely, if ever.
 
 THE "fonetik news." 65 
 
 obtained access The attemptj however, was too ambi- 
 tious ; the time had not come for a tirst-elass weekly 
 newspaper in the reformed spelling. jNIr Ellis was too 
 sanguine, and lost several thousand pounds in his venture. 
 The establishment of the Phonetic News being an interest- 
 ing featui-e in the history of spelling reform, it may be 
 well to append the public announcement made of its 
 appearance : — 
 
 "On Saturday, Gth January, 18 19, will be published 
 the first number of the Fmietik Niaz ; conducted by 
 Alexander John Ellis, B.A., containing twelve pages, 
 the size of the Examiner. Price i^d. stamped. Pub- 
 lished every Saturday morning. The Spelling Reform 
 which has for its object to change the absurd, inconsistent, 
 and, strictly speaking, ignorant orthography in which the 
 English language is now most generally presented to the 
 reader, numbers so many supporters in various parts of the 
 British Dominions, and in the United States of America, 
 that the establishment of an English weekly newspaper is 
 imperatively demanded as their organ. This Reform was 
 commenced in 1837, by the publication of Mr Isaac Pit- 
 man's "Manual of Phonography ;" and since that time 
 more than one hundred and fifty thousand persons in Great 
 Britain and Ireland have become its supporters : the pre- 
 sent annual sale of works bearing on the Spelling Reform 
 is one hundred thousand copies, and it is rapidly increasing. 
 Since the completion of the phonetic system by Messrs 
 Pitman and Ellis's joint invention of a Phonetic Printing 
 Alphabet, an enduring foundation has been given to the 
 Reform, and its importance has become more clearly felt, as 
 the sole means of making the education of the poor in this 
 country possible. Large public meetings in various parts
 
 66 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 of Great Britain and Ireland have been held in furtherance 
 ■of this important movement^ in its joint aspect of a revolu- 
 tion in writing and printing. Thousands — nay, millions, 
 we hope — who are at present unacquainted with this 
 mightiest, but peacefulest revolution of the nineteenth 
 century, only wait to have its great principles presented to 
 their notice, in order to embrace them with eagerness and 
 advocate them with warmth and earnestness. To effect 
 this there is but one course open, namely, to establish a 
 Phonetic newspaper, which, by becoming the organ of the 
 phonetic reformers, will give strength and unity to their 
 exertions. The necessary practical arrangements for print- 
 ing and publishing a Phonetic Newspaper have been ac- 
 cordingly commenced, and are already sufficiently advanced 
 to enable the Director of the Printing Department of the 
 Spelling Reform to announce that a Phonotypic News- 
 paper, under the appropriate title of the Fvnetik Niuz, 
 will be issued on Saturday, 6 January, 18-19, to be con- 
 tinued weekly. The conductor appeals confidently to all 
 friends of phonetic spelling, for support in his present 
 undertaking, and assures them that every exertion will be 
 made to render the Funetik Niuz a worthy organ of the 
 Spelling Reform." 
 
 The prospectus goes on to explain the general ])olicy of 
 the paper, and adds : — " The Fnnetik Niuz being- ])ublished 
 in London, will be conducted in all respects as a metropo- 
 litan weekly newspaper. Its contents will be varied, and 
 strictly adapted for family perusal. The news of the week, 
 a condensation of the parliamentary debates, metropolitan 
 and provincial intelligence, a careful abstract of foreign 
 news, original articles on subjects of general interest, 
 reviews of new books, music, and the drama, with other
 
 THE '^rONETIK NEWS." 67 
 
 necessary details, will all find a place in the columns of 
 the Fvnetik Niuz ; which, however, will he distinctively 
 characterised hy a copious iiccoimt of the progress of the 
 Spelling- lleforni, under the joint aspect of phonetic print- 
 ing or phonotypy, and phonetic writing or Phonography^ 
 consisting of communications from those actually engaged 
 in diffusing a knowledge of phon(;tic spelling, reports of the 
 more interesting lectures and public meetings, and original 
 articles in explanation and enforcement of the principles of 
 the phonetic movement. In addition to its peculiar 
 character as a chronicle of the Spelling Reform in general, 
 the Fvnetik Niuz will be the especial organ of the Phonetic 
 Corresponding Society, which important and rapidly 
 increasing body now numbers nearly 2,000 members, 
 scattered over the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, and 
 all working in their several spheres to advance the phonetic 
 cause. All notices from the Director of this society (Mr 
 Isaac Pitman) J and weekly lists of new members, will 
 appear in its columns. The Fvnetik Niuz will consequently 
 be the only recognized medium of public communication 
 with those who confine their attention to the writing depart- 
 ment of the Spelling Reform." 
 
 In reprinting this prospectus, which was issued in pho- 
 netic spelling, the name of the paper is given in the 
 phonetic alphabet of the 2:)resent day. In 1819 it was 
 3^e Fonetic Ni/z. 
 
 During the period of which we are speaking, Mr Ellis 
 published his well-known " Essentials of Phonetics,^' and 
 a second and greatly enlarged edition of his " Plea for 
 Phonetic Spelling " — a popular appeal for a rational ortho- 
 graphy, which long served as a hand-book for spelling 
 reformers.
 
 68 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 In March, 1849, Mr Pitman resumed the editorship 
 and proprietorship of the Phonetic Journal, after a sus- 
 pension of the work for two months. It now appeared 
 fortnightly instead of monthly. AVith his accustomed 
 energy, he continued to issue his other publications for 
 the promotion of phonetic writing and printing. In 
 1850 a report was spread^ through the newspapers, that 
 the Phonetic Printing Institution at Bath had ceased 
 to exist, and that Mr Pitman had lost a large sum of 
 money by the speculation. The report was, of course, at 
 once contradicted, and we find at the same time Mr 
 Pitman stating that his printing office " is in full work 
 and employs eighteen persons, eleven in the printing 
 department and seven in the binding department. In 
 addition to this force, three lithographic presses are kept 
 constantly employed upon the shorthand periodicals and 
 other works at the large lithographic establishment of Mr 
 Hollway in this city (Bath). The regular demand for 
 phonetic publications is greater rather than less than the 
 present means of supply." In the same year was printed, 
 and in February, 1850, was published, the Bible in a 
 phonetic dress. It was issued by j\Ir Pitman in a demy- 
 octavo volume, at the price of \Qs. It was printed 
 according to the Authorized Version, the text being 
 arranged in paragraphs, and the poetical books printed in 
 parallelisms. The same work was also issued with a New 
 Arrangement " in divisions, sections, and sentences, to 
 facilitate reference and quotation." This publication Mr 
 Pitman naturally regarded as an era in the ])rogress of the 
 Writing and Spelling Reform. The editing and proof- 
 reading being done by ]\Ir Pitnuvn, the expense of the 
 work was not great ; about £100 for comj)osition, and
 
 LONDON PHONETIC SOIREE. GO 
 
 £100 for pressvvorkj paper, and bincliiigj for an edition 
 of a thousand copies. 
 
 In the iollowing- year, 1851, Mr Pitman foniid time to 
 attend a Phonetic Soiree held in London during the jjcriod 
 of the first great International Exhibition. The meeting 
 was hekl in the lower room, Exeter Hall, and was attended 
 by a large number (jf friends of the phonetic movement. 
 Among the speakers were Isaac and Penn Pitman, A. J. 
 Ellis, C. Cayley, T. A. Reed, and other well-known 
 advocates of phonetic spelling. It is a noteworthy circum- 
 stance that some difficulty was exjierienced in obtaining 
 the use of one of the rooms in Exeter Hall for a phonetic 
 gathering. The movement was looked upon with suspicion 
 by some of the authorities, and the writer of this Memoir 
 well remembers the trouble he had in persuading them 
 that the proposed reform was not of the revolutionary 
 chai'acter attributed to it, but simj)ly a means of rendering 
 reading and writing a pleasure rather than a toil. 
 
 During the same year Mr Pitman attended the anniver- 
 sary meeting of the Preston Phonetic Sunday Evening 
 and Week-day Evening School, and the Birmingham 
 Phonetic Festival. AVith these exceptions, he was work- 
 ing continuously at his desk, superintending the issue of 
 his publications, and carrying on a vast correspondence, 
 which, without the aid of his shorthand, would have been 
 an absolute impossibility. 
 
 In 1852 jMr Pitman's labors were still further increased 
 by the issue of the Journal weekly instead of fortnightly, 
 and in an enlarged form ; and by the preparation of new 
 editions of the " Phonographic Vocabulary,'' '' Teacher," 
 and other works, involving a large amount of labor in 
 compilation and lithographing. From some statistics pub-
 
 70 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 lislied in the Journal (28th Feb., 1852), it appears that the 
 number of shorthand sheets annually printed about that time 
 averaged upwards of 100,000. Referring to the prepara- 
 tion and issue of the " Vocabulary/^ Mr Pitman remarks : — 
 
 " A fact connected with the publication of this work 
 may perhaps be stated. During two or three years much 
 time was spent in the compilation of the book, and making 
 a fair copy of the shorthand portion. The latter work 
 could not be accomplished until many phonographic out- 
 lines and sets of outlines had been tried in ordinary writing, 
 for the pui-pose of selecting the best. After the typographic 
 part was printed, the copy of the lithographic portion pre- 
 pared, and every word examined by the compiler and Mr 
 T. A. Reed, in company, the work was lithographed in 
 three weeks, about half of each day being devoted to it. 
 As the writer's lithographic employments are now lessen- 
 ing, and from the pressure of other and more important 
 duties, may soon draw to a close, he wishes to mention, for 
 the encouragement of other labourers in this pleasant field 
 of usefulness, that during the last four years, as supple- 
 mentary to his general business, he has lithographed 4,800 
 pages of Phonography." 
 
 The admirable manner in which this enormous amount 
 of work was done will be obvious to every reader of Mr. 
 Pitman's beautifully executed shorthand pages. With 
 becoming modesty, however, he says [Phonetic Journal, 
 1852, p. G7) that he " never hoped to be able to produce 
 anything in this way that could be considered excellent, 
 because his ' transfers ' were, from the stern necessity of his 
 business, produced in a short time, and often amid inter- 
 ruptions. Moreover, he had not been trained to the work 
 — had never written anything merely for practice, but litho-
 
 THE " PHONOGRAPHIC INSTRUCTOR." 71 
 
 graphed the first number of the Phonetic Journal, in 18 12, 
 after an hour's trial with the hthographic pen, and never 
 afterwards wrote anything but for the purpose of its being 
 printed/' 
 
 For the first year or two of the decade j\Ir Pitman 
 appears to have been mainly concerned with his new 
 phonotypic alphabet of thirty-two letters, to replace 
 the alphabet of 18-i7, as arranged by himself and Mr 
 Ellis. The Journal of 1853 is filled with correspondence 
 on this subject. The partisans of the rival alphabets 
 became greatly excited, and assailed each other with the 
 bitterness of theological disputants. The Phonetic Council 
 was appealed to for its decision on a number of moot points 
 in connection with phonetic representation. The votes of 
 the members were duly collected and tabulated. They 
 were generally in favor of the reduced alphabet. 
 
 The demand for ]Mr Pitman's shorthand instruction books 
 was unabated, and in one of the numbers of the Journal 
 (3rd Sept., 1853,) some interesting particulars are given 
 as to the numbers issued. 
 
 " Fifteen thousand copies of the ' Phonographic Instruc- 
 tor,^" says ]Mr Pitman, "have since (June, 185.2) been 
 printed, of which only one thousand remain unsold. The 
 engravings of the work not being satisfactory, we have had 
 the whole of the phonographic illustrations re-engraved, 
 and the other portion of the book re-set in new type. A 
 shorthand fount has been prepared to supply the simple 
 characters, and all shorthand words that cannot be made 
 from the fount are engraved on separate metal blocks, 
 technically called ' blanks,' or quadrats, type height. 
 Of the new ' Instructor ' we have just printed ten thousand 
 copies, thus making twenty-five thousand copies of the
 
 72 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 work printed^ and fourteen thousand sold in fourteen 
 months. . . . The new edition of the 'Manual' was 
 not ready until last November. Of this, two issues of five 
 thousand each have been printed, and the stock is now two 
 thousand only. We have this week put to press five thou- 
 sand more ' Manuals.' The new edition of the ' Reporter's 
 Companion ' was published in March last ; three thousand 
 copies were printed, and two thousand have already been 
 sold." These numbers were at that time considered extra- 
 ordinary for a system of shorthand. It will be seen later 
 on that they were insignificant in comparison with the 
 numbers of the instruction books issued from the press in 
 recent years. 
 
 Most of these instruction books, in all probability, found 
 their way into the hands of students and amateurs, but not 
 a few must have been purchased by prot'escional reporters, 
 many of whom, es{)ecially those not confirmed in their 
 habits by many years' practice of the older systems, were 
 about this time embracing the new method for use in their 
 daily calling. The number of phonographers engaged on 
 the provincial newspapers was rapidly increasing. In the 
 metropolis the progress was more slow, and the number of 
 phonographers in the Gallery was insignificant. It is 
 amusing at the |)resent day, when the great majority of the 
 Gallery reporters are phonographers, to note the statement 
 made in the Journal from which we have already quoted, to 
 the effect that the Editor is " acquainted with the names of 
 three gentlemen who are at the present time engaged on 
 the Mor/iiii(j Post, with one on the Morning Chronicle, and 
 one on the Morniny Advertiser, who use Phonography in 
 the House of Commons; and with one employed on the 
 Times who reports Committees of the House, etc." It
 
 A UNIVERSAL ALPHABET. 73 
 
 would now be difficult to mention " the names of three 
 gentlemen " on any of the morning papers who write any 
 other system than Phonography. 
 
 About this period a stimulus was given to the ])honetic 
 movement by an important Conference held at the resi- 
 dence of Chevalier Bunsen, on the 25th January, 1854, to 
 take into consideration the question, " Whether or not a 
 uniform system of expressing foreign alphabets by Roman 
 characters could be devised and agreed upon." The 
 gentlemen who met were Sir John Herschell, Sir Charles 
 Trevelyan, Prof. Owen, Kevs. H. Venn, F. Trestrail, 
 — Chapman, William Arthur ; Messrs Edwin Norns, 
 R. Cull, E. Underbill, Captain Graham, and Prof. 
 jMax Miiller, representing most of the Missionary, the 
 Asiatic, and Ethnological Societies. The Koyal Academy 
 of Berlin was represented by Dr Pertz. Strangely 
 enough, neither INIr Pitman nor Mr Ellis was invited to 
 this Conference. The proceedings were reported at some 
 length iu the Times, the Athenceum, and other papers, 
 and public attention was thus called to the desirability of 
 a purely phonetic repi'esentation of language. A universal 
 alphabet, it was stated, had been framed by Prof. 
 Max Miiller and Dr Lepsius, but nothing practical came 
 of this ambitious proposal. Prof. Max Miiller, as will be 
 seen later, became a warm adherent of Mr Pitman's 
 scheme, as the most satisfactory method of phonetically 
 representing the English language. Chevalier Bunsen, in 
 the course of his powerful address, stated that "a universal 
 phonetic alphabet is a generally felt desideratum,'' and 
 that it is "comparative philology combined with universal 
 ethnology." 
 
 The Phonetic Society continued to increase in numbers.
 
 74 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 and in 1854 Mr George Dawson became its president. 
 Mr Pitman, nominally its secretary, continued to be its 
 working head, and, indeed, its only official. A proposal 
 having been subsequently made for a new classification of 
 members (numbering about four thousand five hundred), 
 Mr Pitman invited Mr Ellis to accept the presidential 
 chair, notwithstanding the differences of opinion existing 
 between them in reference to the 1847 alphabet. 
 
 " I believe," said ]Mr Pitman, " I speak the sentiments 
 of every phonographer when I say that your acceptance of 
 the office of President of the Phonetic Society would be 
 hailed with delight by every one of the thousands of 
 spelling reformers in this country and in America. . . . 
 For the interest of the phonetic cause in America es- 
 pecially would I urge the propriety of your accepting the 
 office of president of a Society which I have from its 
 commencement, eleven years ago, served in the capacity of 
 secretary. There, where party feeling on most subjects 
 runs high, they suppose that you and I are at variance as 
 men because we have different opinions on phonetics. It 
 is in your power to remove this impression, which is as 
 hurtful to the interests of morality as to the phonetic 
 reform." 
 
 To this Mr Ellis replied : 
 
 " I have read over your article on the proposed new 
 organization of the Phonetic Society, and also your letter 
 to me asking me to be President. It is quite impossible 
 for me to accept the office ; indeed, I am not even aware 
 that it is vacant, having recently seen the name of Mr 
 George Dawson printed as that of the President of the 
 Phonetic Society. You must excuse me from entering upon 
 my other reasons for declining to allow my name to be
 
 ALBION PLACE. 75 
 
 placed at the head of your Society, to which in my own 
 opinion no other name but your own could be prefixed, as 
 it is emphatically a Society of your own creation and 
 upholdini^-. I will only say that I do not decline from any 
 party feeling on the subject of alphabets, any dislike to the 
 soonest possible advent of some phonetic s])elling, any 
 disapproval of Phonography in its present state, or any 
 personal feeling against yourself." 
 
 Under these circumstances i\Ir George Dawson continued 
 to hold office, and occupied that position for several years. 
 
 Another enlargement of the Journal from eisht to 
 
 
 
 I'jr- 
 
 rrrii' ."iir -.:=» '-'^'■r S 
 
 -,,.,.^,.,^: — 'Eia 'iijj^ "SS ■■-liS''-' ' 
 
 -}. mz-tL 
 
 fi fflH*^^ 
 
 
 ^ i^^ -Si^ ifJij-ii:! ^1|H*^I !■ 
 
 ' — iTfaiiiir'if •~tT'r""7.]"r("-j^ 
 
 A'o. J Albion Place.* 
 
 * The inscription is g^ven in the Phonetic Alphabet of the present day. 
 On the building it was " FONETIC INSTITUXON ANJ:) JENEKAL 
 PRINTITJ oris."
 
 '6 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 sixteen pages took place in 1855, and Mr Pitman's print- 
 ing office was removed from Xo. 5, Albion place to 
 Parsonage lane, in the centre of Bath. The new office was 
 the top floor of a large block of buildings used for furniture 
 store-rooms. It was a large and lofty room, 53 ft. by 
 28| ft., and Mr Pitman was fortunate enough to secure it 
 for the low rental of j615 a year. The removal and fitting 
 up of the office occupied a week ; " and during this period," 
 says Mr Pitman, " we have been unable to attend to any 
 letters or orders, our time being taken up with the packing, 
 hauling, uiipacking, and re-arrangement of from fifteen to 
 twenty tons of type, printing apparatus, books, and office 
 furniture ; and the books themselves being out of reach we 
 have been unable to fulfil orders even if we had time for 
 desk work." The locality was anything but an agreeable 
 one, and the approach to the office was dismal in the 
 extreme. A stranger in search of the inventor of Phono- 
 graphy had to grope his waj'' along a dark passage, and up 
 two flights of stairs ; but once arrived in his spacious 
 office everything was found to be the pattern of neatness 
 and order. It was here that j\Ir Pitman, seated at his 
 desk, and surrounded by his printers and assistants, con- 
 tinued for twenty years, with unabated industry, the issue 
 of his phonotypic and phonograjihic publications. He was 
 not slow to avail himself of the reduction just effected on 
 the postage of book parcels to -Id per lb., or 4 oz. for Id. 
 Hundreds of 4- oz. packets of phonetic documents and 
 small books printed phonetically were distributed by ])ost, 
 and phonographers generally were invited to employ a 
 portion of the first week of the new postage regulations in 
 the dissemination of phonetic literature.
 
 DUODECIMAL NUMERATION. 77 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Not content with his numerous phonotypic and short- 
 hand labors, Mr Pitman, at this period, spent a good 
 deal of his spare time in an endeavour to bring about 
 an arithmetical reform. The question of adopting a deci- 
 mal notation had been discussed by Parliament, by the 
 British Association, by the Society of Arts, and other 
 bodies, and a strong feeling had sprung up in its favor. 
 Mr Pitman, while recognising the importance of a more 
 uniform and easy method of reckoning, advocated a still 
 more radical reform than that involved in a general system 
 of decimalization, lie attacked the decimal numeration 
 itself, and boldly supported a duodecimal one. Instead of 
 making ten the basis of the whole system of numeration, 
 he proposed to substitute twelve. The only reason, it was 
 urged, for the adoption of ten, was that men originally 
 counted with the aid of their ten fingers and ten toes. 
 The great defect of a decimal notation was alleged to be 
 that ten could only be divided by 5 and by 2, while other 
 numbers might be chosen that were much more readily 
 divisible. An American writer had suggested an octonary 
 basis, on the ground that 8 could be divided by 4< and 2, 
 or be halved twice. He proposed to sweep away the 
 figures 8 and 9, thus, 1, 2, 3, 1-, 5, 6, 7, 10 (eight), 11 
 (nine), 12 (ten), etc. The number 61 would thus be written 
 100, which could be continuously halved without a fraction 
 down to 1. But Mr Pitman argued that twelve would be 
 a still better basis than 8, being divisible by 3 and 6, as well
 
 78 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 as by 2 and 4. This would of course require the addition of 
 two nf;w figures for 10 and 11, and " 10'^ would then come 
 to signify twelve^ " 11 " thirteen (which would have to be 
 re-named " dozen and one") and so on. With a view of 
 carrying this proposal into practice new types were ordered 
 (o ten, and £ eleven), in minion, brevier, bourgeois, and small 
 pica; and it was Mr Pitman's intention to employ the new 
 notation in his Journal, and to recommend it for general 
 adoption. During 1857-58 he counted everything, as far 
 as possible, by dozens and grosses, instead of by tens and 
 hundreds, with a view of paving the way for the new 
 numeration ; but he was unequal to the task of undertaking 
 a reform of this magnitude^ in addition to the Writmg and 
 Spelling Reform, and after a series of trials he reluctantly 
 abandoned the project, but not the hope of seeing it inau- 
 gurated at some future period In these two years he kept 
 his accounts, and the Phonetic Fund (see Phonetic Journal 
 for 1857-58, and the paging of the volumes), in pence, 
 shillings (a new gold coin of 12s. was to replace the half- 
 sovereign,) and " bancos,^' a gross of shillings, = £7 45. 
 (to replace the Mo note). In his private accounts he 
 adhered to the duodecimal notation till 18G2. The figures 
 732 would represent 7 bancos, 5 shillings, and 2 pence. 
 
 There is little of personal history to note during the 
 next few years. In 1857 Mr Pitman attended a meeting 
 at the Mechanics' Institution, Manchester, during the 
 Art Exhibition held in that city, and delivered an address 
 on the origin and progress of the phonetic movement. 
 The other speakers on this occasion were T. A. Ilecd, 
 who occupied the chair, Henry Pitman, T. Cayley, G. B. 
 Emerson, and T. Walker. The following resolution was 
 adopted at the meeting : — " We, ])honographers and friends
 
 SIR w. c. trevelyan's prize. 79 
 
 of phonetic printing, in ])ublic meeting assembled, being 
 acquainted with the arts of Phonograjjhy and Plionotypy, 
 desire to record our conviction that Phonography, the in- 
 vention of Mr Isaac Pitman, is the briefest and most legible 
 system of shorthand, and that Phonotypy will, as proved 
 by many practical tests, greatly facilitate the education of 
 the poor and ignorant." 
 
 In the year 1857 Mr Pitman experienced a domestic 
 affliction in the death of his wife, after a severe illness of 
 three years. 
 
 In the same year public attention was called to his 
 phonetic labors by a liberal offer on the part of Sir 
 AYalter C. Trevelyan, of two prizes of £100 and £10 
 respectively, " for the two best and approved essays on a 
 reform in the spelling of the English language, by the 
 introduction of a phonetic instead of the present unphonetic 
 system." The essays were to include, "An historical 
 account of the origin and growth of the present imperfect 
 system of spelling ; an analysis of the system of articulate 
 sounds ; and an exposition of those occurring in our lan- 
 guage ; with a notice of the various modes in which it has 
 been attempted to express these sounds graphically, and a 
 suggestion for doing so, in which care should be taken that 
 no letter should express more than one sound, that no 
 sound should be expressed by more than one letter, and 
 that as few new types as possible should be admitted." 
 The competition was to be open to Great Britain and Ire- 
 land, British North America, and the United States. The 
 adjudicators were Mr A. J. Ellis, Dr. R. G. Latham, 
 Professor Max Miiller, l\Ir Isaac Pitman, and Sir Walter 
 C. Trevelyan. Eighteen essays were received from various 
 parts of England and America, but not one of them was
 
 80 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 adjudicated as meriting a prize, all the conditions of the 
 offer not having been fulfilled. Several of the essays, 
 however, were said to show much talent, and Sir Walter 
 Trevelyan, as the offerer of the prizes, gave to the writer 
 of one of the essays (Professor S. S. Haldeman, of Colum- 
 bia, Pennsylvania, U.S.iV.) the sum of £oO, and a further 
 sum of j650 on the author's undertaking to revise, complete, 
 and publish the essay. The Professor published his essay in 
 a 4to. volume of 148 pages. Sir Walter also gave £10 to the 
 writers of four other essays, namely, the Rev. F. G. Fleay, 
 vice-president of Culham Training College, Abingdon ; Mr 
 James Kerr, M.A., the Rev. R. Wells AA^hitford, and the 
 liev. Neil Livingston. In connection with this competi- 
 tion an interesting letter was received by Mr Pitman from 
 Professor J\Iax Miiller, indicating the great interest which 
 he took in the phonetic movement. He wrote : — '• I was 
 well acquainted with the strenuous exertious which you 
 and some of your friends have been making in order to 
 effect a reform in the present system of English Orthogra- 
 phy. I possessed myself of several of your publications, 
 and had derived much information from a book, first pub- 
 lished, I believe, in your Journal, the ' Alphabet of Nature,' 
 by Mr Ellis. What I wrote to Sir W. Trevelyan was only 
 to express my conviction, that though hitherto the reform 
 of English spelling had not met with that success which 
 one might have wished and expected, yet it was sure ulti- 
 mately to effect the desired result ; and that 1 thought the 
 encouragement which Sir Walter intended to give to this 
 movement, by offering a prize for the best Essay on the 
 Reform of English Spelling, very opportune and beneficial. 
 My own line of studies has led me to pay some attention 
 to the general subject of phonetics^ and the origin and
 
 PHONETIC PRINTING. 81 
 
 history of alphabetical writings and I was very much 
 interested in seeing how this science had been applied 
 by you with so much ingenuity to the practical purpose 
 of reforming the English system of spelling, and facili- 
 tating the method of learning to read and write." The 
 correspondence thus commenced subsequently led to a 
 personal friendship between the learned Professor and ]\Ir 
 Pitman which has continued to the present day. Sir Walter 
 Trevelyan also kept up an intercourse with j\lr Pitman for 
 many ycars^ and towards the end of 1858 accepted the 
 office of President of the Phonetic Society, which he filled 
 until his death, 23rd March, 1879. 
 
 Throughout 1859 Mr Pitman's press was constantly 
 employed in printing phonetic books, and there appeared 
 every probability that one press would not much longer be 
 able to supply the increasing demand. In addition to his 
 own works he printed for the Bible Society the Book of 
 Psalms in Mikmak, a language spoken by a tribe of 
 Indians in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia. In the previous 
 year he had printed the Book of Genesis m the same 
 language, and in 1863 the Acts of the Apostles. The 
 four Gospels were also printed phonetically in Mikmak, 
 Luke by Mr Pitman, and the others by the missionary, 
 the Rev. S. T. Band, who died last year, full of yeat-s, 
 honors, and good deeds. 
 
 A wide publicity was given to Phonography about this 
 date by the publication of the system in CasseWs Illmtratcd 
 Family Pwper, of which between 270,000 and 300,000 copies 
 were sold weekly. The work was done under ]Mr Pitman's 
 own superintendence, and an arrangement was made by 
 him with Messrs Cassell in order that his copyright in the 
 system should not be affected by the publication.
 
 82 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 During the same year, it occurred to some of Mr 
 Pitman's many friends and adherents that it was time that 
 an effort should be made to obtain for him a substantial 
 acknowledgment of his constant labors for nearly a 
 quarter-of-a-century in the cause of Phonography and 
 Phonotypy. The project took shape, a committee was 
 formed, and an appeal was made to phonographers and 
 others interested in the phonetic reform for subscriptions 
 to a public testimonial. It was known to many of Mr 
 Pitman's personal friends that, in order to carry on his 
 crusade with effect, he had not only devoted to it a large 
 proportion of the profits arising from the increasing sale 
 of his shorthand books, but had borrowed a considerable 
 sum, which he was anxious to repay.* It was also known 
 that he had incurred a large number of bad debts, due from 
 persons, chiefly in America, to whom his publications had 
 been supplied. A small committee was formed, and Mr 
 Pitman was consulted as to his willingness to receive a 
 testimonial. The Rev. Cyril H. E. Wyche, an ardent 
 
 * Mr Pitman's loans from friends, commenciner in 184G, and 
 ranging from ^£50 to .£250 at a time, as money was required to 
 cany on the printing office, and the improvement of the pho- 
 netic printing alphabet, at length amounted to =£2,000 ; on which 
 he regularly paid 5 per cent, interest, except on one loan of ^50 
 from Sir Walter Trevelyan in 3857, which the lender wished 
 should not boar interest. This small sum was repaid in 18G2. 
 There was one other sum of ,£150 on which, after it had been 
 used two years, the lender would not receive interest, and desired 
 that the principal should be fgiven to the phonetic cause. No 
 security was required in any case. Sir Walter Trevelyan was 
 one of the earliest of these kind helpers. The last instalment 
 of <£250, advanced in 1855, was repaid to him in May, 1877, two 
 years before his death.
 
 PRESENTATION TO MR PITMAN. 83 
 
 phonographer, who was asked to become chairman of the 
 committee, wrote to Mr Pitman as follows : — 
 
 11 York place, Kennington, London, S., 12 Aug., 1859. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have been requested to communicate with you 
 on a subject more agreeable than the little matters of business 
 which usually call for a letter to you. 
 
 It seems that Phonographei's in various parts of the country 
 have come to the conclusion that the present is a fit time for 
 testifying their appreciation of the beautiful Art for which they 
 are indebted to you, as well as the estimation in which they hold 
 your personal character and your unwearied labors in the Pho- 
 netic cause. They desire accordingly to begin raising a sub- 
 scription [for a Testimonial, and they wish to know whether 
 you woiild accept such a recognition, provided, of course, it were 
 offered in a form of which you could approve. 
 
 If I remember rightly, Phonographers of America did, some 
 years ago, subscribe for such a purpose, but you refusedlto let 
 their Testimonial take the form of a personal gift, and requested 
 them to retain the money so raised as the nucleus of a Phonetic 
 fund for the promotion of the Reform in the United States, 
 
 It occurred to my mind at that time that it would have been 
 better had you accepted the offering, and devoted it yourself to 
 this good purpose. I cannot help thinking that something of 
 the kind might very proi)erly be done now. It would be a proof 
 that Phonographers, although divided on some points, yet agree 
 in the high value which they set upon their Art, and in gi-ateful 
 feelings towards its Inventor ; and it would be a practical proof 
 to the American phoneticians that many of the statements put 
 forth in that countiy with respect to yourself are without any 
 real foundation. 
 
 It has been suggested that a Committee of London Phono- 
 graphers should be formed to carry out this good intention, and 
 I have been asked to act as its Chairman ; but before proceed- 
 ing in the matter I wish to know your opinion of it, — whether 
 such a Testimonial would be accepted by you ; and if so, as a 
 secondary matter, in what^form it would be most acceptable, 
 I remain, veiy truly yours, 
 
 Cyeil H. E. Wyche, 
 To Mr Isaac Pitman, Bath. 
 
 6»
 
 84 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 Mr Pitman replied to IMr Wj'che's letter, which he 
 characterized as " one of those rarely-occurriug events in 
 life in which we recognize the Angel of the Divine Provi- 
 dence as soon as he is at our side." He expressed his 
 gratitude for the generous sympathy with Phonograph)^, 
 and the friendly feeling towards himself which the move- 
 ment exhibited, and suggested that the fund proposed to 
 be raised should go towards building a Phonetic Institute 
 — a suitable home for Phonography and Phonotypy, in 
 which his printing establishment should be located. 
 
 " To show the urgency of this want," he said, '' it is 
 only necessary that I should refer to the buildings that 
 have been successively occupied for this purpose. From 
 1837 (the date of the first edition of Phonography) to 
 January 184-6, I put out my printing. I then set up a 
 press in one of the rooms of my own house, 5 Nelson place, 
 and used two other rooms for compositors and a bindery. 
 In January, 1851, to obtain more room, I removed to 
 1 Albion place. Upper Bristol road, (Mr Ellis's printing 
 office in 1848 and 1849;) where the business was carried 
 on, under many inconveniences, in four rooms. In March, 
 1855, I removed to this office in Parsonage lane, where I 
 have sufficient room for my present business, (but not for 
 much increase,) and on a single floor, but I can say nothing 
 else in favor of the place. It is situated in the only filthy 
 lane I have seen in this clean and beautiful city of crescents 
 and squares ; and the pollutions are not physical alone, but 
 moral also ; for on the other side of the narrow lane, two 
 or three steps from my office door, the ' social evil' festers. 
 The dimensions of my office are 53 feet by 28. It is the 
 top floor of a block of buildings occupied principally by 
 cabinet-makers. The rate of insurance is thus so high
 
 i'ARSONAGE LANE. 85 
 
 that I have not insured my stock of type and books. The 
 ground floor is a large gateway leading to a pig slaughter- 
 house that lies at the baek ; there is another jjig slaughter- 
 house in the front of my office, and a sheep slaughter- 
 house that does a great deal of business, next door. Of 
 course noisome smells often arise from these places, and 
 sometimes they have been pungent enough to drive every- 
 one out of the office. The room itself would be more cor- 
 rectly designated a barn than a printing office. During 
 the first two years of my tenancy, one-half of the room was 
 not even ceiled, and I had nothing between me and the 
 sky but an old shattered tile roof that constantly let the 
 rain in. This room is an addition to the original height 
 of the house, and the walls are only six inches thick. 
 Placed thus within tliin walls, under an immense tile roof, 
 we are exposed in summer to excessive heat, and in winter 
 to excessive cold. I have scarcely been free from a cold 
 since I entered this place. Only in the spring and autunm 
 can I do a fair amount of work fur the number of hours I 
 spend here. Often in the evening, when I am the sole 
 occupant of the office, a company of rats will scamper 
 across the floor to amuse me. There is not another place 
 in Bath to which I can remove, nor have I been able to 
 find one elsewhere.'^ 
 
 Mr Pitman's idea was that a suitable building might 
 be erected for j€1,000. "I am not able to build it my- 
 self," he said, '^ because, to say nothing of twenty-two 
 years of personal labor, I have given more than twice tliis 
 sum to the cause in various ways." An appeal was then 
 issued by the committee, of which Sir Walter C. Trevelyan 
 was the chairman, for subscriptions to the Pitman 
 Testimonial.
 
 86 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 The idea of a Phonetie Institute was found to be a little 
 too ambitious at the moment, and its realization was not 
 destined to be accomplished until some years later. A sum 
 of about £350 was collected, for the most part privately, 
 and the presentation was made at a social meeting held at the 
 rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association, Alders- 
 gate Street, ou the 26th of June, 1862. It consisted of a 
 cheque, and a handsome marble timepiece, on which was 
 the following inscription : — 
 
 " Presented, -witli a purse of ,£350, to Isaac Pitman, the 
 Inventor of Phonograpliy, by many friends of the phonetic 
 system, in token of their high appreciation of its many 
 excellences, and of his untiring labors in its extension." 
 
 The writer of the present memoir presided on the occasion 
 and, in the course of his address, related from personal 
 experience some anecdotes of Mr Pitman's method of daily 
 work. He said : — *' Those who have witnessed Mr Pit- 
 man's labors in that remarkable little spot called Parsonage 
 lane, descriptions of which some of you possibly may have 
 read, must have been struck with admiration at the inten- 
 sity of labor and of earnestness which he has exhibited. 
 I could tell you if I had the time, of instances of it 
 that I have myself observed. I have on more than one 
 occasion partaken of Mr Pitman's hospitality at Bath, 
 and on the last occasion he was good enough to invite 
 me to his house, he asked me to go with him to his office 
 the next morning for the purpose of running over some 
 proof-sheets of a work that was then going through the 
 press, — an invitation that I gladly accepted, as I am at any 
 time delighted to show him my willingness to render him 
 any little services I can in the adaptation of the system to 
 useful purposes. We retired to rest at eleven o'clock.
 
 EARLY RISING. 87 
 
 Mr Pitman asked me if he should call me the next morn- 
 ing. I thanked him, and requested him to be good enough 
 to do so. It was then in the depth of winter. In the 
 morning when I was fast asleep some raps came at my 
 door, which after being repeated some few times awoke me. 
 You must know that I am not one of the " rising " genera- 
 tion. I responded in a sleepy kind of way ; the door 
 opened, and I saw Mr Pitman's familiar features. lie 
 entered holding alight, and announced that it was actually 
 five o'clock in the morning. I rose and was speedily 
 dressed, but not in so short a time as Mr Pitman takes. 
 I joined him, and we took a walk of nearly a mile down a 
 very steep hill on a cold December morning, under circum- 
 stances not the most comfortable for sensitive nerves, and 
 at about ten minutes to six we were in front of his office in 
 Parsonage lane. At about six o'clock we were seated at 
 his desk, by gaslight, of course, and for two hours we 
 waded through some pages of the little book upon which 
 Mr Pitman was then at work. Having labored for two 
 hours, we returned just as it was getting daylight, ascended 
 the steep hill leading to Lansdown crescent, and found 
 ourselves in excellent condition for breakfast. I have no 
 doubt that if any other visitor had called upon Mr Pitman 
 just before ten o'clock that night, he would have found 
 him still at his desk, as absorbed as ever in the mysteries 
 of the phonetic art. This is, I believe, a fair specimen of 
 Mr. Pitman's general labors, under which any ordinary 
 mortal would certainly succumb. And when we see that 
 all these labors are devoted to a cause from which he him- 
 self derives little or no personal benefit beyond a bare 
 living, we shall all the more admire the disinterestedness 
 which is so conspicuous a characteristic of the man. "
 
 88 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 The other speakers at the meeting were the Rev. 
 Cyril Herbert Wyche, one of the chief promoters of the 
 testimonial^ Mr Fred. Pitman, ]Mr J. B. Keene (Bath 
 Journal), Mr Austin, the Rev. Ur. Bayley, Mr Wells (of 
 New York , Mr J. T. Young, and Mr C. B. Cayley. 
 The following resolutions were proposed and unanimously 
 adopted : — 
 
 " That this meeting recognises the great excellency of the art 
 of Phonetic Shorthand invented by Mr Isaac Pitman, and is 
 fiilly convinced that the greatest benefits would result from 
 the extensive application of the lahonetic system of writing 
 and printing to the representation of the English and other 
 languages. 
 
 " That this meeting desires to express its hearty sympathy with 
 Mr Isaac Pitman, and admiration of the talent, perseverance, 
 and devotion which he has exhibited in the "Writing and Printing 
 Reform, and in the development of the Phonographic art dur- 
 ing the last twenty-five years ; and trusts that the progress 
 already made in the construction and aj^plication of the phonetic 
 alphabet may prove an incentive to renewed exertions in the 
 future, to himseK and phonographers generally." 
 
 Mr Pitman, in acknowledging the gift took his hearers 
 into his contidence, told them frankly what he proposed 
 to do with the money, and explained the position, finan- 
 cially and otherwise, which he considered that he occupied 
 in regard to Phonography. " I feel," he said, " that I 
 have no right to receive such a sum of money as £350 
 and appropriate it to my own purposes. ... I will 
 tell you what I shall do with it. The introduction of this 
 Phonetic Reform lias been a most expensive affiiir of money 
 as well as tnne. Mr Ellis is the only man, besides myself, 
 who has spent a large sum of money upon it. Mr Ellis, 
 in the course of eighteen months, in which he conducted a 
 printing office, actually spent, and received but a bagatelle
 
 VALUE OP PHONOGRAPHY. 89 
 
 in return, six thousand pounds. That was injudicious, and 
 I am afraid that it was the rapidity with which the money 
 went that has induced him for the last eleven years to 
 slacken his hand, and do very little in a direct manner, 
 though he is still a phonetic reformer, and can never be 
 anything else. I, not having a fortune at my command, 
 could only spend money as it came in, in the conduct of 
 my business — the sale of shorthand and other phonetic 
 books. But though I had no capital, I had a fortune in 
 reversion — my copyright in Phonography, which I may 
 tell you in a friendly way — for this is a kind of family 
 party — is worth to me, capitalized, about i68,000, and will 
 no doubt, increase in value to the end of my life, the 
 income being secure also to my executors for seven years 
 more, according to the law of copyright established in the 
 present reign — the 5th and 6th Victoria. I estimate the 
 value of the copyright at €10,000, and although I would 
 not sell the system for less, I think there is no probability 
 of my having to refuse the offer of this sum. I have lived 
 on a portion of the profit arising from Phonography for the 
 last twenty years, and a very moderate portion too, and 
 all the rest has been spent on the Reform. But I have 
 had to do more than that. I have, or rather had, drawn 
 on the capital, in order to support the cause, to the extent 
 of €2,000." 
 
 Mr Pitman then gave some particulars of his early 
 connection with Mr Ellis, and the steps taken by the 
 latter to carry on phonetic j)rinting at Bath, and to estab- 
 lish the Phonetic News, projects which, as we have seen, 
 illness and large pecuniary losses soon compelled him in 
 1849 to relinquish. " Since that time," said Mr Pitman, 
 " I have had the chief responsibility and cost of phonetic
 
 90 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 printing. I felt sure that at the rate at which Mr Ellis 
 was expending at the beginning of 1849, the Phonetic 
 News would not hold out longer than about three years ; — 
 it ceased in six months. Partly to give phonographers a 
 cheaper medium of communication than the News, and 
 partly because, in truth, I still wanted to have a finger in 
 the phonetic pie, I started the Phonetic Journal again in 
 March 1849, two months after Mr Ellis had given it up on 
 the publication of the newspaper. The Journal has con- 
 tinued to the present day^ and is novv in its twenty-first 
 annual volume. It is larger than Chambers's Journal, is 
 pubhshed weekly, and contains both intelligence of the 
 cause, and interesting, phonetically-printed articles, some- 
 times original, but chiefly selected from the best periodicals 
 of the day. It was necessary for me to incur considerable 
 expense in the re-establishment of my printing office ; first 
 in the purchase of a press, founts of type and other printing 
 plant ; and secondly and chiefly in cutting ' punches ' of 
 new letters for the improvement of the alphabet. The 
 alphabet which Mr Ellis and myself had employed until 
 1851 was so defective that type-founders and printers 
 would not look at it as a possible alphabet for representing 
 the English language in books. Mr Besley, the eminent 
 type-founder, remonstrated somewhat sharply with me for 
 thinking to overturn good-looking printing by bad. ' Your 
 page,' said he, ' is covered with little hooks, and tails, and 
 triangles.^ I spared no labor and no expense in removing 
 this obstacle to the general introduction of phonetic print- 
 ing. I knew we could not succeed without a good alpha- 
 bet, and I drew upon what I have called my reversionary 
 fortune to the extent of j62,000. I found on taking stock 
 in 185G, when the costly experiment of punch-cutting had
 
 SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 91 
 
 come to an end, that that was the amount I was indebted. 
 During the last six years I have paid off one half of that 
 sum. The handsome present you have given me this 
 evening will go a good way towards paying the remaining 
 half; and, according to the present sales of books, the 
 whole will be cleared in five or six years more, and sooner 
 with the increased sales I may reasonably expect. On this 
 money, raised on loan to carry on the Reform, I have paid 
 five per cent, interest, with the exception of two loans, 
 amounting to ^£350, from friends who literally lent ' hoping 
 for nothing again.^ Only under these circumstances 
 should I feel justified in accepting this money; that is, if 
 I had not already spent it upon the phonetic alphabet and 
 its propagation, I should devote it to the Reform in some 
 other way." 
 
 An interesting account was given by Mr Pitman of the 
 different processes employed in the printing of shorthand 
 books, and a statement of the numbers issued from the press; 
 from which it appeared that during the last year (which 
 was an exceptional one, the sales being low in consequence 
 of phonographic teachers and the public being in expecta- 
 tion of a new edition of Phonography, with improvements), 
 he had issued 15,000 copies of the" Phonographic Teacher," 
 3,000 ''Reader," 6,000 "Manual," 2,000 "Reporter's 
 Companion," 1,000 " Phrase Book," of the Phonetic Jour- 
 nal 1,000 a week, halfpenny and penny tracts, 8,000 ; and 
 of First, Second, and Third " Phonetic Reading Books," 
 etc., about 3,000 ; making a total of 90,000 publications in 
 twelve months. Add to these the small gratis tracts circu- 
 lated, and the grand total was above 130,000. " These," 
 said Mr Pitman, " are cheering signs of progress, and I 
 return to Bath with a determination not to work so many
 
 92 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 hours as I have for twenty years, but to work with the 
 same apphcation of mind as of okl. My hours of labor 
 from the beginning of the Reform to about a year ago, 
 were from six in the morning till ten in the evening, taking 
 out three hours for meals and exercise. I have now made 
 a change, and ' knock off' at half-past six. I intend to 
 continue to labor at this good work twelve and a half hours 
 per day, and, with your kind co-operation, I think that 
 will be sufficient to keep the Reform in motion, and realize, 
 in the end, all that we desire." 
 
 Among the most interested visitors at this gathering 
 was Mr Pitman's second wife (Miss Masters) whom he had 
 married in 1861.
 
 MUSIC. 93 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 It has been already stated that IMr Pitman is a great 
 lover of music. The discussion on the subject of uniform- 
 ity of musical pitch, arising out of a report of the Committee 
 appointed by the Council of the Society of Arts in June, 
 1859, naturally attracted his attention; and he drew up a 
 table showing the number of vibrations of each note in 
 comparison with every other note in the octave (the lowest 
 in whole numbers), which he published in the Phonetic 
 Journal for 29th September, 1860, together with an account 
 of the proceedings at the meeting of the Society of Arts 
 held to receive and discuss the Committee's report. As 
 every student of musical acoustics knows, the pitch of a 
 note depends upon the number of vibrations produced in a 
 given time. The C produced by a 32 ft. organ pipe (said 
 to be the lowest possible musical note) is the result of 16 
 double or 32 single vibrations per second; the octave 
 above, or the lowest C of a grand pianoforte, of 32 double 
 vibrations; the lowest C of a violoncello of 64; tenor C 
 of 128; middle C of the pianoforte of 256; and the C on 
 the treble stave of 512. The intermediate notes are the 
 results of vibrations represented by intermediate numbers, 
 always increasing with the rise of the pitch. Mr Pitman's 
 table was as follows ; —
 
 94 
 
 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 
 C 
 
 below 
 treb. Mave 
 
 D 
 
 E 
 
 F 
 
 G 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 3rd ipaee 
 treb. ic&ve 
 
 c 
 
 3rd space 
 treb. bUv* 
 
 2.1 
 
 16.9 
 
 8.5 
 
 3.2 
 
 4.3 
 
 6.5 
 
 16.15 
 
 
 B 
 
 15.8 
 
 5.3 
 
 3.2 
 
 45.32 
 
 5.4 
 
 9.8 
 
 
 15.16 
 
 A 
 
 5.3 
 
 40.27 
 
 4.3 
 
 5.4 
 
 11.9 
 
 
 8.9 
 
 o.G 
 
 G 
 
 3.2 
 
 4.3 
 
 6.5 
 
 9.8 
 
 
 9.11 
 
 4.5 
 
 3.4 
 
 F 
 
 4.3 
 
 32.27 
 
 16.15 
 
 
 8.9 
 
 4.5 
 
 32.45 
 
 2.3 
 
 E 
 
 5.4 
 
 10.9 
 
 
 15.16 
 
 5.6 
 
 3.4 
 
 2.3 
 
 5.8 
 
 D 
 
 9.8 
 
 
 9.10 
 
 27.32 
 
 3.4 
 
 27.40 
 
 3.5 
 
 9.16 
 
 C 
 
 below 
 treb. stave 
 
 
 8.9 
 
 4.5 
 
 3.4 
 
 2.3 
 
 3.5 
 
 8.15 
 
 1.2 
 
 The table^ it was explained, is to be used like a multi- 
 plication table ; thus, lower C with G above gives the 
 vibrations as 2 to 3, while the next note, D with A above 
 gives 27 to 40, etc. In the chord D, F sharp, A, the 
 vibrations of A, to agree with the chord C, E, G, should 
 be 40^ instead of 40, or D should be 26| instead of 27. 
 We thus see, says Mr Pitman, a mathematical demonstra- 
 tion of the distinction which every musical ear feels in the 
 perfection, or roundness, of the C chord, compared with
 
 SANCTE SPIRITUS. 
 
 95 
 
 the chord of upper D, F sharp, A ; and of the difference 
 in quality, as it may be called, between the various " keys," 
 ranging from C natural, through G with one sharp, F with 
 one flat, D with two sharps, B with two flats, A with three 
 sharps, A flat with four flats, to E with four sharps, etc. 
 In his youth, Mr Pitman indulged his love of harmony 
 so far as to compose a hymn tune, an anthem on Isaiah 
 49. 13-17, and the following tune to be sung to a hymn 
 which appeared in the Bath and Cheltenham Gazette for 
 26th July, 1831 :— 
 
 gititctc gpiritus. 
 
 
 When the bu-sy day is done, And up-on his couch the sun 
 
 
 ^1 
 
 \-\—\- 
 
 * — ir 
 
 
 Rests, his course of glo-ry run, Sancte Spi - ri - tus, be with me, 
 
 )^--^:i — I — 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 -p^-d=^— 55-] 
 
 
 ^_ 
 
 
 
 [ 
 
 
 
 Sane - te Spir - it - us, 
 , * * .^ ,_ 
 
 \ ^ ^ ^ • 
 
 
 — «— 
 
 be 
 
 wit 
 
 — S 
 
 h 
 
 ■ ^ 
 
 me. 
 
 1 

 
 96 
 
 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 SANCTE 
 
 "When the busy day is done, 
 And upon his couch the sun 
 Eests, his course of glory run, 
 
 Sancte Spiritus be with me. 
 
 When the twilight shadow falls 
 O'er the humming waterfalls, 
 And zephyr uuto zephyr calls, 
 
 Sancte Spiritus be with me. 
 
 When the vesper murmurs come 
 Through the leaf, and from the tomb, 
 From the sunset's crimson gloom, 
 Sancte' Spiritus be with me. 
 
 SPIRITUS. 
 
 When the moon is roaming high. 
 Like a seraph, through the sky. 
 And the one white clouds floats by, 
 .Sancte Spiritus be with me. 
 
 When the stars, those jewels rare, 
 Fill with diamond-lights the air. 
 And comes on the hour of prayer, 
 Sancte Spiritus be with me. 
 
 Then when knees are truly bent, 
 And the hands are dasp'd intent. 
 And the voice to heavtn is sent, 
 Sancte Spiritus be with me. 
 — H. C. Deakin. 
 
 The anthem was arranged thus : — " Chorus — Sing, 
 heavens ; and be joyftil, O earth ; break forth into sing- 
 ing, O mountains ; for the Lord hath comforted his people, 
 and will have merc}^ upon his afflicted. Sulo, plaintive — 
 But Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord 
 hath forgotten me. Duett, for two Trebles — Can a 
 woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have 
 compassion on the son of her womb ? Yea, they may 
 forget, yet will I not forget thee. Chorus — Behold, I have 
 graven thee on the palms of my hands ; thy walls are con- 
 tinually before me." It was sung with much eclat, his 
 brother Jacob says, on tlie other side of the globe. The 
 author's modesty would not allow him to introduce it even 
 to his friends at Zion Chapel. 
 
 He was a diligent musical copyist. The day of cheap 
 editions had not arrived ; new music was an expensive 
 luxury, and the student of limited means could only obtain 
 it at the cost of severe mechanical toil. Some of young 
 Pitman's manuscript books, filling hundreds of pages, still 
 exist, and they are models of neatness and accuracy.
 
 weldon's register." 97 
 
 At the age of 17 Mv ritinan was able to take charge 
 of the organ in the Conigree Chapel, Trowbridge, for a 
 few weeks, during the absence of the regular organist. 
 After bis removal to Bath, he took lessons on the organ, of 
 Mr George Field ; but bis practice of music abated when 
 he became a Methodist at Barton-on-Humber. Tiiinking 
 that our Lord would not have wasted his time, when 
 on earth, by sitting down to a piano, he gave away a 
 £50 instrument which he had purchased at Hull. It 
 was sent to his brother Jacob, who had left the Tavistock 
 British School, married, and settled at North Nibley, 
 where his wife had established a ladies' school. But 
 Isaac's love of music was not stamped out by this act of 
 self-denial, it was merely held in subordination to what 
 he considered the higher claims of religion. The claims 
 on his time, by the advance of the Writing and Printing 
 Reform, increased to such an extent that about twenty 
 years ago he virtually abandoned the practice of music, 
 contenting himself with being an occasional listener at the 
 many excellent concerts given at Bath during the winter 
 season. 
 
 About September, 18G2, an article appeared in Weldons 
 Register giving a graphic description of Mr Pitman and 
 his daily work. " If," says the writer, " we were asked 
 to name the most diligent and hard-working man we 
 know, it would be Isaac Pitman. It is a treat to visit 
 his printing office in Bath. Printing offices arc usually 
 very dirty and untidy places ; but ]\Ir Pitman's office, save 
 for its furniture, might be a lady's drawing-room. Every- 
 thing is in what, for some unknown reason, is called 
 ' apple-pie' order. In a large room sits Mr Pitman him- 
 self, writing an article, reading a proof, or answering a
 
 98 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 letter. His coi-respondence is immense ; letters and papers 
 ilow in upon him from every part of the world. He 
 attends to all himself. Those who write to him in ordinary 
 handwriting he answers in longhand phonetic spelling, but 
 the mass of his correspondence is in Phonography ; and 
 the speed and ease with which he writes enables him to get 
 through an amount of work which would else seem fabulous. 
 We wish we could reproduce one of j\Ir Pitman's phono- 
 graphic letters on this page. Written on a scrap of ruled 
 paper, half the size of an ordinary page of note-paper, 
 Avould be seen a series of lines, circles, and dots, sharp and 
 delicate as if traced by a fairy, and containing as much 
 matter as an ordinary letter of four pages. A most cour- 
 teous correspondent, he commences in the ancient style, 
 
 * Isaac Pitman to Mr , or Mrs , or Miss ,' 
 
 as it may be, and goes on to say what is necessary in a 
 free, kindly, and concise style, closing his letter with the 
 simple word ^ Farewell.' 
 
 " Letters in this way he writes off by the score, without 
 haste, and with an ease which fills one, used to drudge with 
 the pen in the customary fashion, with pity for his own 
 sad lot. Mr Pitman carries into his printing office the 
 regime of the schoolmaster ; he is a strict disciplinarian. 
 No talking is allowed, beyond necessary questions and 
 orders, and the quiet is unbroken except by the click of the 
 types, or the packing of parcels for the carrier or the post. 
 Seeing his set of apj)rentices so sedulously and silently at 
 work, and the prim order which pervades the ])lace, is really 
 tempting to one's mischievous propensities, and stirs the 
 desire to cry out, ' Boys, do let's have a romp and tumble 
 things about !' We have sometimes amused ourselves 
 with drawing comparisons between Isaac Pitman and John
 
 HIS HABITS OF LIFE. 99 
 
 Wesley ; and, did we believe in the transmi^nition of souls, 
 we might iiuagine that the soul of Wesley had left its 
 ' world parish' to write shorthand, and persuade English- 
 men to spell phonetically. Unlike Wesley, Pitman is tall, 
 but, like him, he is spare and muscular, with bright eyes, 
 a keen face, and rapid motions. Like Wesley, his habits 
 are regular, and almost ascetic. He goes to bed early, 
 and rises early summer and winter, and may almost inva- 
 riably be found posted at his desk by six in the morning. 
 Except for the progress of his work, lie seems to have no 
 care in the world. He sees no company ; he seldom dines 
 from home, or pays visits, and, first in his office in the 
 morning, he is last to leave it at night. He delights in 
 walking exercise, and scampers over miles of country with 
 the same ease that his pen goes over paper. Like Wesley, 
 be is very abstemious : wine, beer, or spirits of any kind 
 never pass his lips : nor fish, flesh, nor fowl. For years 
 he has been a strict vegetarian ; and, but for a cold now 
 and then, he has enjoyed perfect health. As if his short- 
 hand and phonetic printing were not enough to task all 
 his powers, he preaches twice each Sunday in a little chapel, 
 at Twcrton, a village a short way from Bath. Like Wesley, 
 he has no love for money save for its uses in promoting 
 his ends. His personal wants are few and simple, and 
 every penny beyond what is required for them is devoted 
 to the phonetic propaganda. Like Wesley he has a govern- 
 ing and despotic temper. In all things he takes his own 
 way. He hears the advice of a disciple in the blandest 
 and most candid spirit. The disciple thinks, surely ncvei* 
 was there a man more pliable than this. But if he observes 
 carefully, he will discover he has made no progress. Some- 
 how, he will find that Pitman has not changed his mind, 
 
 7*
 
 100 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 and has rejected his disciple's advice, but yet so kindly that 
 the rejection gives no pain, but almost pleasure. His 
 alterations in Phonotypy and Phonography have usually 
 been proposed in the face of strong opposition ; but he has 
 always carried them. Consciously or unconsciously he 
 makes up his mind as to what ought to be done, and 
 though he undergoes much palaver with all the appearance 
 of being affected by it, he ends in executing his pro- 
 gramme to the final letter. Alternately he is accused of 
 fickleness and obstinacy : of fickleness, because when he 
 sees, or fancies he sees, a possible improvement, he will 
 pull down any amount of building to make room for it ; 
 and of obstinacy, because what he thinks right he does, 
 whatever be the outcry. ^^ 
 
 In a note in the Journal, with reference to this article, 
 Mr Pitman accepts the title of " despot" — not, however, 
 in its modern sense of tyrant, but in its older and in- 
 offensive signification of governor ; " not as implying the 
 love of rule for its own sake, but simply the love of order, 
 use and beauty.^'
 
 RETROSPECTIVE. 101 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 It may not be without interest to pause awhile at this 
 period — ^just a quarter of a century after the introduction 
 of Phonography— and, so to say, take stock of its achieve- 
 ment, and note the position which it had attained. Some 
 idea may he formed of its progress from the circumstance 
 that the " Manual " published at this time is marked 
 170th thousand. Of the more elementary work, the 
 " Teacher/' 285,000 copies had been issued ; and of the 
 " Reporter,'' 25,000. 
 
 At the same period it may be safely asserted that the 
 great majority of newspaper reporters throughout the 
 country employed Phonography in their daily avocations. 
 Most of the older hands, both in London and in the pro- 
 vinces, continued, no doubt, to write the earlier systems ; 
 but the ancient prejudices had, for the most part, died out. 
 Here and there an old-school champion might be found 
 raising his voice in defence of Gurney, or Taylor, or Lewis ; 
 but the ancient plea that Phonography was impracticable, 
 absurd, and the rest, was wholly abandoned in face of the 
 overwhelming fact that a very large portion of the best 
 reporting throughout the country was done by its instru- 
 mentality. In the first few years of Mr Pitman's phono- 
 graphic labors, when most of his disciples were shorthand 
 amateurs, and included scarcely half a dozen professional 
 writers, it was easy to denounce the new comer, and pro- 
 phesy its speedy extinction after the manner of so many of 
 its unsuccessful predecessors. But in the presence of an
 
 102 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 army of active workmen, whose skill was unquestioned, it 
 was idle to decry the tool which they employed. Of a 
 propaganda in the old sense of the word, there was but 
 little need. It was no longer necessary, as in the early 
 days, to bring the system before the public notice by lec- 
 tures and meetings. Though these agencies were still 
 resorted to, and had their use, the most effective propa- 
 gandists were those who, in their daily work, demonstrated 
 the practicability and superiority of the system — reporters 
 for the press, and professional shorthand writers practising 
 in the law courts. The progress of the system among the 
 latter was, perhaps, slower than among the former, but as 
 one after another of the new practitioners was found writing 
 the new method, and doing excellent work, the old preju- 
 dices against it were softened, and though the older hands 
 were naturally unwilling to undergo the labor involved in 
 a change of system, they were compelled to admit that 
 they had formed a mistaken estimate of its merits. 
 
 But besides these silent witnesses to the efficacy of 
 Phonography, there was a large and increasing number of 
 coadjutors in commercial life bearing the like involuntary 
 testimony. The discovery had been made, especially among 
 railway companies and other large business concerns, that 
 much of the time of the principals or heads of departments, 
 daily occupied in correspondence, might be saved by the 
 employment of shorthand clerks who could take down 
 letters from dictation and transcribe them in due course ; 
 and about this time advertisements began to appear in the 
 newspapers for assistants who could render this kind of 
 service. With the increasing pressure of other work, the 
 mechanical labor involved in writing the counnou long- 
 hand was felt to be intolerable, and when once the practice
 
 POSITION OF PHONOGRAPHY. 103 
 
 of conducting correspondence by dictation to a shorthand 
 amanuensis was introduced, its advantages were so obvi- 
 ous that it extended with great rapidity. The wide 
 diffusion of Phonography among the rising generation had 
 no doubt suggested this method of reheving busy commer- 
 cial men of the tedium of epistolary work. As a new rail- 
 way opens np new sources of traffic scarcely dreamed of, so 
 Phonography, once popularized, offered facilities and sup- 
 plied wants scarcely needed or felt till the appropriate agent 
 was at the door. It is not too much to say that it intro- 
 duced a new employment in connection with office work. 
 Large classes were formed with the express object of quali- 
 fying young men for this department of labor^ and Pho- 
 nography was practically the only system employed for 
 the purpose. 
 
 Nor was the spread of the art limited to Great Britain. 
 In every English-speaking country, especially in the United 
 States, it had found disciples not less active than those at 
 home. Mr Benn Pitman had been laboring in the States 
 since 1853 ; and still earlier pioneers had promulgated the 
 new system throughout the Western Continent. Many 
 editions were pubUshed, some under the names of other 
 authors who, adopting all the essential features of Mr 
 Pitman's method, had introduced certain modifications 
 with the ostensible object of improving it, but generally 
 with the result of making it more difficult of acquisition 
 and less facile in practice. 
 
 As an indication of the position which Phonography had 
 obtained at this period, it may be mentioned that a paper 
 on the subject, written by ]\Ir Pitman, was accepted by the 
 British Association for its annual meeting at Bath, in 186 k 
 At the previous meeting, held in Newcastle, in 1863, the
 
 104 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 president. Sir William (now Lord) Armstrong, in his open- 
 ing address, had referred to the waste of time and labor 
 involved in the use of the common method of writing, and 
 recommended that some means should be adopted for its 
 abridgment. " The facility," he said, " now given to the 
 transmission of intelligence and the interchange of thought 
 is one of the most remarkable features of the present age. 
 Cheap and rapid postage to all parts of the world ; paper 
 and printing reduced to the lowest possible cost ; electric 
 telegraphs between nation and nation, town and town, 
 and now even (thanks to the beautiful inventions of Pro- 
 fessor Wheatstone) between house and house, — all con- 
 tribute to aid that commerce of ideas by which wealth and 
 knowledge are augmented. But while so much facility 
 is given to mental communication by new measures and 
 new inventions, the fundamental art of expressing thought 
 by written symbols remains as imperfect now as it has 
 heen for centuries past. It seems strange that while we 
 actually possess a system of shorthand by which words can 
 be recorded as rapidly as they can be spoken, we should 
 persist in writing a slow and laborious longhand. It is 
 intelligible that grown-up persons who have acquired the 
 present conventional art of writing should be reluctant to 
 incur the labor of mastering a better system ; but there 
 can be no reason why the rising generation should not be 
 instructed in a method of writing more in accordance with 
 the activity of mind which now prevails. Even without 
 going so far as to adopt for ordinary use a complete system 
 of stenography, which it is not easy to acquire, we might 
 greatly abridge the time and labor of writing by the recog- 
 nition of a i\iw simj)le signs to express the syllables which 
 are of most frequent occurrence in our language. Our
 
 LONGHAND ABBREVIATIONS. 105 
 
 words are in a great measure made up of such syllables as 
 com, con, Hon, ing, able, ain, ent, est, ance, etc. These we 
 are now obliged to write out over and over again, as if 
 time and labor expended in what may be termed visual 
 speech were of no importance. Neither has our written 
 character the advantage of distinctness to recommend it.^' 
 The prominence thus given to the subject of shorthand, 
 and the circumstance that the next meeting of the Associa- 
 tion was to be held at Bath, where Mr Pitman resided, 
 naturally prompted him to offer a paper to be read before 
 the Section of Economics and Statistics, which was readily 
 accepted. Owing, however, to the number of papers set 
 down for that section it was found impossible to read it, 
 and, as in the case of another ])aper in the same position, 
 a printed copy was handed to the audience, and it was 
 " taken as read," and duly included in the Transactions 
 of the Association. 
 
 In this paper ]\Ir Pitman pointed out the insufficiency 
 of any mere longhand abbreviations such as those suggested 
 by Sir William Armstrong, and the objections which he 
 entertained to their introduction. "The game/'' he said, 
 " is not worth the candle. All can abbreviate if they like, 
 yet only reporters and lawyers do it. If the game were 
 worth the candle, we should all soon fall into the same 
 contractions, but the truth is we do not want them. 
 Abbreviations w'cre formerly in extensive use, when fewer 
 people wrote, but now they have all gone out, except the 
 Latin et for and, in the foi'm of '&' — that is, the 
 letter e written across t ; the dovvnstroke of ' &,' 
 which represents t, being written first. With most people 
 who spend but a small portion of their time in writing, 
 abbreviations arc not worth the effort of mind necessary
 
 106 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 in keeping up two habits of writing the same word. On 
 some occasions it is necessary, or at least advisable, to 
 write every word fully, and if the hand were accustomed 
 in its ordinary style to abbreviate some words, it would 
 hesitate when called upon to write the same words in 
 another manner. No one can write fluently, either in 
 longhand or shorthand, whose hand thinks, so to speak, 
 how it shall form the words. It must form them with- 
 out thinking, and leave all thinking to the brain. In the 
 quotation which I have just read from Sir Wm. Armstrong, 
 consisting of 346 words, and containing 1,626 letters, 
 there would be but 47 letters saved by the adoption of the 
 abbreviations therein recommended ; that is, for the loss 
 of power through occasional hesitation in the act of writing, 
 there would be a gain of 3 per cent. If we were to adopt, 
 in addition, all the abbreviations which reporters use in 
 transcribing their notes for the press, writing a slanting 
 stroke / for the, & for and, o for of, wh for which, t for 
 that, etc., the saving would be 8 per cent, additional. 
 This saving of 11 per cent, is of considerable importance 
 to men who spend many hours each day in writing, but 
 it is not sufficient to commend the system for general 
 adoption. Longhand is still too long, and we must recur 
 to the alphabet as the proper subject of abbreviation." 
 Referring to Sir William's suggestion that some of the 
 longhand letters should be more clearly distinguished 
 from others, Mr Pitman said : " His objection lies against 
 the n, u classes of letters. Of the first kind we have m, 
 n, ^, V ; and of the second i, ■i, u, w, and portions of other 
 letters. The use of f, in preference to i, increases the 
 legibility of a rapid style of penmanship. The evil com- 
 plained of lies in the alphabet — in the numerous strokes
 
 ILLEGIBLE ^VR1TING. 107 
 
 we have to scribble, to get down one word. j\Ien ac- 
 customed to dispatch in other things cannot endure a 
 tedious style of writing; they hurry through their work, 
 and spoil it, forgetting that whatever is written has to be 
 read. Writing-masters distinguish the curves that form 
 the n, u classes of letters, as over- curves (n) and under- 
 curves (u). Swift writers generally make only under-eurves, 
 because this is an easier action of the hand than the over- 
 curve, thus mingling all these letters of both classes in an 
 undistinguishable mass of under-curves ; but surely every- 
 one who has time for longhand writing, should consider 
 himself, in justice to the reader, bound to distinguish n 
 from u, m from ni, ui, in, etc. ; and be especially careful 
 to dot the letters i and j. The want of these distinctive 
 points is one of the most serious impediments in the reading 
 of bad manuscript. I find that I can decipher writing 
 made up of under-curves if the dots or jots be placed over 
 i and^; but writing that consists of under-curves only, 
 where these dots are omitted, is hopelessly illegible. As 
 a bad servant is said to be ' the greatest plague of life ' 
 domestic, so bad writing may be called the greatest plague 
 of literary and commercial life. Not unfrequently I receive 
 letters, the signatures of which I am utterly unable to 
 decipher. In such cases I cut out the name, gum it on 
 my reply, and hand over the puzzle to the post-office. 
 The letter finds its way by virtue of the other portions of 
 the address. Shorthand signatures are very rarely illegible. 
 Phonetic Shorthand is much more legible than longhand, 
 supposing both styles to be written with equal rapidity, 
 but whether the penman or our cumbrous alphabet is to 
 be blamed for making a mess of such words as minimum, 
 ammunition, there is no proposition before us for changing
 
 108 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 the forms of any of these letters ; and whoever may propose 
 new forms must make his script letters harmonize with the 
 roman and italic printing letters ; for italic type is simply 
 script letters disconnected, and roman type, except in the 
 two letters ' a, g/ is merely italic made upright." The 
 paper then gave a full analysis of Phonograph)^, and an 
 account of the main principles which had guided the author 
 in its construction. 
 
 Notwithstanding the inconveniences connected with the 
 Parsonage lane printing office and its unpleasant surround- 
 ings, Mr Pitman, with unflagging industry, continued his 
 daily work for twenty years in these premises, still editing 
 and printing his weekly journal, and issuing with it a 
 shorthand supplement containing portions of the Bible and 
 other reading exercises. The whole of the Bible was repro- 
 duced in this serial fashion, twice beautifully lithographed 
 in Mr Pitman^s best style, and was subsequently published 
 in a separate volume ; as was also the Book of Common 
 Prayer, the Church Service, Macaulay's Essays, and a dozen 
 other volumes. Enjoying excellent health, and living with 
 the greatest regularity and method, abating nothing of his 
 abstemiousness, he pursued his labors with but little inter- 
 ruption. A slight accident laid him aside for a while in 
 18G4. In the month of March he fell from a carriage 
 and injured his right knee. No bone was broken, but 
 he was obliged to keep his bed for a week, and was 
 unable to lithograph his customary shorthand sheet for 
 his journal, which accordingly appeared without its sup- 
 ])lement. 
 
 These weekly shorthand additions to the Journal of 
 coui'se involved a considerable aniount of manual labor on 
 Mr Pitman's part. As a rule he kept well in advance in
 
 "the dairyman's daugiitkr." 109 
 
 order to prevent any delay or interruption from accidental 
 causes, and generally utilized for this purpose some portion 
 of the summer holiday in which he was now able to indulge. 
 He was forty-eight years of age when, in 1861, he took 
 his first holiday. The occasion was his honeymoon^ which 
 he spent on the Continent. In 1807 the weekly shorthand 
 portion consisted of a reprint of the once popular little 
 story " The Dairyman's Daughter." Some of the readers 
 of the Journal were not a little surprised at the appearance 
 in its pages of a work of such a strongly pronounced 
 evangelical tendency, the Editor having so often, and, as 
 it was thought, too freely, made these shorthand supple- 
 ments the vehicle of disseminating the more " advanced " 
 religious views which he himself entertained. His expla- 
 nation of the circumstance presents us with a biographical 
 item which is worth recording. In a note appended to 
 the letter of a correspondent dealing with this question, 
 and also with the subject of Phonography, he says : — 
 
 " Our object in inviting the writer of the article * Objec- 
 tions to Phonotypy' — an invitation of two or three years' 
 standing — to state his opinions on the subject, knowing 
 them to be opposite to our own, was, that we might give on 
 the other side our reasons for the hope we entertain that in 
 the course of time, perhaps in three or four generations, 
 the English alphabet will be enlarged by the addition of 
 as many letters as shall be considered necessary to express 
 the language phonetically, in its own proper orthography, 
 instead of in a mixture of Latin, Anglo-Saxon, French, 
 and other styles of spelling, which do not direct to the 
 sounds of the words. The article was in type, but not 
 sent to press, when we had to leave Bath for our usual 
 midsummer holiday of a month at the seaside, and we took
 
 110 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 a proof of it in our travelling desk, for the purpose of 
 making some notes upon it. 
 
 '^ When the clay came that had long been fixed upon for 
 the excursion, we had been unable to get a single day 
 ahead with our lithograj^hic labors for this Journal. AVe 
 therefore took our lithographing tools with us, sat down 
 at Sandown in the Isle of Wight, and in a month did seven 
 of the Journal transfers. This gave us an opportunity of 
 taking a fortnight's holiday, and yet have one transfer 
 ahead for the first week after our return to Bath. During 
 this fortnight's traveling about the island, and enjoying 
 its lovely scenerj'^, there was no disposition to entertain 
 arguments for' or against Phonotypy. This little bit of 
 personal history brings us to ' The Dairyman's Daughter.' 
 
 " Six of the seven transfers spoken of were the last six 
 of the ' Phonographic Vocabulary.' It was necessary to 
 do one more transfer before leaving Sandown, to secure 
 the punctual appearance of the Journal. The question to 
 be decided was, What shall we take for the subject ? The 
 ' Vicar of Wakefield ' we considered too long for that 
 brief emergency. Had we been at home the ' Reporter's 
 Assistant,' now being issued, would have been commenced . 
 but to' do it away from the Phonetic Institute was impos- 
 sible. Being in the very centre of the interesting spot 
 where the scene of Leigh Richmond's narrative is laid, 
 Sandown being only two miles from Brading, his residence, 
 two miles from Ashey Down, his ' lovely mount of obser- 
 vation,' and four miles from Arreton, which contains the 
 grave of Elizabeth Wallbridge; and knowing how sincerely 
 a vast multitude cherish the kind of religious sentiment 
 (considered as distinct from life and doctrine), which is 
 embalmed in this book; we thought it would be a gratifi-
 
 VISIBLE SPEECH." Ill 
 
 cation to such of them as read the Phonetic Journal to 
 have the book in shorthand. While admiring the author's 
 piety, and his tact in the composition of tlie work, we 
 inwardly protested, as we wrote, against many of the 
 sentiments, and most of all against the division he makes 
 between Christ and God, regarding them as distinct Divine 
 persons, instead of considering our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ as the God of heaven and earth, ' the only wise God 
 our Saviour,' in w'hom {not out of whom) dwells the Essen- 
 tial Divinity called in Scripture ' the Father.' We had a 
 strong desire, in transcribing the book, to write a supple- 
 mentary Note to it, on the very objectionable points which 
 our correspondent has raised ; but time, which stays not in 
 its course, hurried us on in our ordinary sphere of duty. 
 We trust this apology will be accepted by those who have 
 reasonable objections to Leigh Richmond's book _; and as 
 for our Evangelical readers, they will thank us for giving 
 them this favorite book in shorthand." 
 
 In 1806 some public attention was called to a phonetic 
 system entitled " Visible Speech/' by Mr Alexander Mel- 
 ville Bell, and a paper on the subject was read by the 
 inventor, before the Society of Arts. No explanation was 
 given of the symbols employed by Mr Bell, who contented 
 himself with explaining the theory on which his alphabet was 
 founded — namely, the use of signs which pictorially repre- 
 sented the arrangement of the vocal organs required to pro- 
 duce the various sounds of the language. By this method 
 it was stated that all possible shades of elementary sounds 
 could be accurately represented. Mr Pitman was naturally 
 interested in Mr Bell's invention, and reprinted his paper 
 in the Phonetic Journal. He also offered to contribute to 
 the cost of casting types to illustrate the new system, and
 
 112 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 invited Mr Bell to make use of the Journal as a means of 
 illustrating and promulgating his scheme. The offer was 
 not accepted. Mr Bell desired a Government subsidy 
 before revealing the secret. This, however, was not forth- 
 coming ; and the author of the system subsequently pub- 
 lished it on his own account. It was a much more ambi- 
 tious attempt than Mr Pitman's, and was designed as a 
 mode of expressing every sound that could be uttered by 
 the human voice, and that by a comparatively small number 
 of symbols, having no resemblance whatever to the letters 
 of the ordinary alphabet. But it was not at all adapted 
 to the common purposes of reading and writing, and no 
 practical result followed the publication. 
 
 About this date (1867) we find Mr Pitman bringing 
 out a new shorthand book, the preparation of which in- 
 volved an immense amount of labor. It is, in its way, a 
 marvel of industry, and required almost as much patience 
 as the collation of the marginal references in Bagster's 
 Bible. Some twelve years previously Mr Pitman had 
 carefully written out all the words in the Shorthand Dic- 
 tionary not exceeding in outline three consonant strokes 
 (and in Phonography very few ordinary words require 
 more), and had them cut up and sorted according to 
 the Phonetic Alphabet. From this extensive list all the 
 words containing the same consonants were classified, first 
 according to their forms, and secondly according to their 
 position as determined by the principal vowel. The list 
 was designed to bring before the reporter all the words 
 occurring under any particular combination of consonants 
 as to the meaning of which he might be doubtful in his 
 work of transcription ; thus, under p-s-tion he would see 
 apposition, opposition, possession, [com)position ; and under
 
 THE ''reporter's ASSISTANT." 113 
 
 J), t, r, n, pattern (written by pt, rn), patron {p, trn), up- 
 turn {p, t, rn). He would thus be shown the best M'ay 
 of diflferentiatiiig these words either by position or outUne^ 
 the system admitting, to a greater extent than any other, 
 of two or uioi'e varieties of form for the same consonants, 
 thus rendering the insertion of vowels almost superfluous. 
 
 The weight of the MS, of this work is 16 lbs. It was 
 prepared by writing the words in shorthand, with the con- 
 sonants in longhand underneath, on thin card. The words 
 were then cut up, sorted into basins, as to their first 
 consonant, then as to the second, and again as to the 
 third, etc., in accordance with the Phonetic Alphabet, and 
 pasted in a folio blank book. From this a fair copy was 
 made, and published in a lithograph edition, 1867, under 
 the title of " The Reporter's Assistant. '' In a second edi- 
 tion the shorthand outlines were printed from metal types. 
 
 There is nothing of any moment to record in connection 
 with Mr Pitman's work during the next few years. His 
 shorthand instruction books were remodeled, and several 
 standard works, including Milton's " Paradise Lost/' and 
 Swedenborg's " Heaven," were produced in lithographed 
 shorthand. At this period, Mr J. R. Lloyd wrote on 
 transfer paper for the lithographer, in Mr Pitman's office, 
 "John Halifax, Gentleman," together with some other 
 books. The continued experiments with phonetic printing 
 types, the weekly publication of the Journal, and a constant 
 correspondence with spelling reformers throughout the 
 world, kept Mr Pitman, as usual, incessantly occupied. He 
 rarely left Bath except for a short summer holiday with his 
 family, and though he enjoyed this brief respite from his 
 labors, he was eager to return to his quiet task and resume 
 the work to which he had consecrated his life. But with 
 
 9
 
 114 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 all his ingenuity and order he was unable to lind sufficient 
 accommodation for himself and his workmen in the wretched 
 offices in Parsonage lane. His lease of them expired in 
 1873;, and he was exceedingly anxious to provide himself 
 with more commodious and healthy quarters. His desire 
 was to build an Institute that should be worthy of the 
 '' Reform/' and he accordingly made a public appeal for 
 assistance in carrying this object into effect. 
 
 '^ The Phonetic Institute," he said, " is a single spacious 
 room on the second floor above the ground floor of a large 
 building formerly used as a brewery, in Parsonage lane, 
 Bath, and is reached by a dreary staircase of fifty steps. 
 It is exposed to the extremes of heat and cold, being under 
 the roof, and the walls only six inches thick. Two smaller 
 rooms at the end serve for storing paper and books in 
 sheets. Close to the street entrance is a slaughter-house, 
 and underneath and round about the building are the 
 necessary appliances for keeping, killing, and cutting up 
 sheep and cows for a large butcher's business. A more 
 unsavory entrance to business premises, I think, does not 
 exist in the city. Although the refuse from the slaught- 
 ered animals is usually removed every three or four days, 
 it is sometimes allowed to accumulate for a longer period, 
 and the smell thence arising is extremely offensive. I 
 have occasionally been driven from my desk by its pun- 
 gency, — compelled to relinquish my work and take a Avalk 
 till the cause of the offence had been kindly carried away 
 by the general purifier, the air. The dampness of this office 
 has several times been the cause of loss in the damage of 
 books by mildew. The roof is repaired almost every year, 
 yet a violent storm or snow-fall always sends the Mater 
 through the ceiling."
 
 PERSONAL HISTORY. 115 
 
 Then followed the description of" a site which could 
 be obtained in Manvers street^ near the Great Western 
 Railway Station, on which a building could be erected for 
 jS2,500 or .€3,000 ; and an appeal to members of the 
 Phonetic Society and others for subscriptions. Mr Pitman 
 continued : — 
 
 " J should not mention the following facts in my per- 
 sonal history in any other connection than the present : 
 they seem to be appropriate here. From the year 1837, 
 when Phonography was invented, to the year 1813, 
 when I gave up my private day-school in order to live 
 for and by the Writing and Spelling Reform, I occu- 
 pied all my spare time before and after school hours, in 
 extending Phonography through the post, and by travel- 
 ing and lecturing during the holidays. In this period I 
 gained nothing by my system of shorthand, but spent all 
 the proceeds of my books in extending their circulation. 
 From 1813 to 1801, 1 labored at the cause from six o'clock 
 in the morning till ten at night, and literally never took a 
 day's holiday, or felt that I wanted one ; and I worked on 
 till 1864 Avithout the assistance of a clerk or foreman. 
 During this period my income from the sale of phonetic 
 books, after paying the heavy expenses connected with the 
 perfecting and extension of ' Phonetic Printing,' did not 
 exceed .€80 per annum for the first ten years, .€100 for the 
 next five years, and €150 for the next three years. During 
 the first of these periods I was twice assessed for the in- 
 come-tax. I appealed, and proved that my income was 
 under £100. The commissioners appeared surprised that 
 I should carry on an extensive business for the benefit of 
 posterity. From 1861 to the present time my income from 
 Phonography has been sufficient for the expenses of my
 
 116 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 increased family, but not more. If phonographers think 
 that this labor, extending over the best part of a life, has 
 been productive of pleasure and profit to them, and to the 
 world at large, they have now an opportunity of placing 
 me in a position to carry on the work of the Reading 
 "Writing and Spelling Reform more effectually. That 
 which is done promptly is generally done well. Let us 
 all labor in the eye of the motto — The Future is greater 
 than the Past." 
 
 He further stated that he would give to the new build- 
 ing fund the £350 presented to him in 18G2. The sub- 
 scription list was headed with this amount, and it was 
 followed by jSIOO from Sir Walter Trevelyan, and many 
 smaller amounts from other persons, making a total sum 
 of upwards of ^£1,000. But the question of a site was 
 not so easily arranged. Difficulties cropped up in con- 
 nection with the Manvers street site, and for many months 
 Mr Pitman endeavored, without success, to negotiate for 
 a convenient spot on which to build. He was at length 
 compelled to look about for premises of a suitable character 
 which he could hire or purchase. In the month of April, 
 1874', an extensive sale of house property belonging to 
 the Earl of Manvers was announced. The houses were 
 situated between the Abbey and the Great Western Station, 
 and they realized at the sale that took place in May about 
 ,£41',000. They included a block of houses known as 
 Kingston buildings, and two of these, Nos. 6 and 7, were 
 bought by Mr Pitman, with the proceeds of the new fund, 
 at tlie low figure of £600. 
 
 " By expending," he said, " about £500 upon them, 
 (the precise sum cannot be ascertained till estimates are 
 received,) they may be made into a commodious and
 
 THE "phonetic INSTITUTE/' 117 
 
 beautiful Institute, or printing office, in the very heart of 
 the city, in what may be called the south side of ' St. Paul's 
 Churchyard ' of Bath. The block of buildings, five storeys 
 high, faces the north, and has seven windows, at uniform 
 distances, on each floor. At present nine of them are 
 blocked up, — a reminiscence of the hateful window-tax. 
 No. 6 being a corner house, facing Church street on tlie 
 west, has also windows on that side, and No. 7 is lighted 
 both front and back. We propose to throw the whole 
 length, 55 feet, into one room, except on the first floor, 
 where three rooms for storing books will afford more wall 
 space for shelving than a single large room. The houses 
 are only one room in breadth, from front to back. They 
 were originally built as one house, whose spacious hall and 
 staircase, 12 feet wide, now belong to No. 6. This house 
 is 30 feet by 16 feet 4 inches, and No. 7 is 25 feet by 20. 
 The top storey is at present of little value, being very low 
 and formed under the roof, which is old and out of repair. 
 The walls are 20 inches thick, and the floors arc in good 
 condition. We propose to raise the walls to the extent 
 of 9 feet, and put on a new roof. The stone of our Roman 
 Doric portico, (purchased for j625, at the demolition of the 
 church of St. Paul, in Queen square, when the Midland 
 Railway was brought to Bath,) which weighs from 90 to 100 
 tons, mostly in large blocks, will more than suffice to builo 
 the walls of this additional room. No loss has therefore been 
 incurred by its purchase. The extent of floor space in the 
 new building will be 1,000 feet on each floor, giving a 
 total of 5,000 feet. This is the space we proposed to 
 obtain in a new building 100 feet long and 50 feet broad. 
 We have arranged with the present tenants to take pos- 
 session at the end of this month. The alterations, it is
 
 118 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 supposed, may be completed in three months, and the 
 next three months would suffice to get the Institute into 
 working order — -to place a boiler, engine, and printing 
 machine in the basement, and the different departments 
 of the business in the several rooms above, with the neces- 
 sai-y fixtures and furniture. Our friends proposed not 
 only to build a Phonetic Institute for the promotion of 
 the Writing and Printing Reform, but also to put in it a 
 small steam engine and a machine for printing the Phonetic 
 Journal, on which there is no profit that could be appro- 
 priated to this purpose."
 
 AN ACCIDENT, 119 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 During the time that Mr Pitman was engaged in seek- 
 ing new premises he met with an accident that confined 
 him to his bed for five weeks, and he then required another 
 five weeks to recover his strength. He was accustomed to 
 take a Turkish bath every week, and on the 28th February, 
 1874, while in the hottest room, he burnt his right hand 
 and parts of his body so much that he was unable to 
 resume his daily labors. His general health was not 
 affected by the accident, but he was compelled to keep his 
 bed until the healing of the flesh wounds was completed. 
 This may be considered to be the only serious interruption 
 to his work which he has experienced during his long 
 and laborious life. At the time of this accident he was 
 engaged, among other things, in lithographing a third 
 shorthand edition of the Bible, which was being issued in 
 parts as a Supjdement to the Phonetic Journal. He could 
 not continue the work until his right hand was healed. 
 The Bible was commenced in 1872. The New Testament 
 was finished, and the Bible was done as far as Psalm 33. 
 The accident in 1874 put a stop to the work, and owing to 
 the increase in the phonetic business, Mr Pitman has since 
 been unable to continue his labors with the lithographic 
 pen, and this third edition of the Bible in shorthand must 
 now remain unfinished. 
 
 In 1872 the shorthand portion of the weekly Phonetic 
 Journal was engraved on metal '^ quads," and set up as 
 ordinary type. There are now two engravers constantly
 
 120 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 engaged on this -work at the Phonetic Institute. Twenty 
 years before this period, a- shorthand fount was cast by 
 Messrs V. and J. Figgins, type founders, Loudon. It was 
 cut on a pica " body.^' The shorthand letters were also 
 cast on a brevier body, the perpendicular and sloping 
 strokes overhanging a six-to-pica lead at top and bottom. 
 This fount served for setting the consonants and vowels, 
 and couhl be intermixed with ordinary type, of either 
 pica or brevier size. Complicated forms were engraved on 
 *' blanks." Before the casting of this fount, the short- 
 hand illustrations in the phonographic instruction books 
 were cut on wood. In 1873 the price of the Phonetic 
 Journal and lithographed Supplement was reduced from 
 ^d. to \d., and two pages of shorthand printed from metal 
 types, engraved by Mr John Saunders, then a clerk at 
 the Phonetic Institute, were introduced. 
 
 Each page is made up of separate words, on a " pica 
 body," but each word is not made up of separate letters, 
 except in a simple word like J eat, |- toe, -^ ache, — cow. 
 The plan of forming words by combining the several parts 
 was at this time the subject of many experiments at 
 the Phonetic Institute, but it was found less practicable 
 than engraving the whole word on a ''blank," as wide 
 as the word requires, from an " n" to 3 picas. In the 
 shorthand pages of the Phonetic Journal " blanks " of 
 about a dozen different sizes are employed. Before being 
 engraved they appear thus : — 
 
 Every week the five pages of shorthand of the present 
 Journal arc distributed into " cases," so arranged as to afford 
 facility in linding any given word. Hut in the act of dis-
 
 SHORTHAND TYPES. 121 
 
 tributing, the types are not thrown into the " case " as (or- 
 dinary printing letters are ; they iwe placed in, showing their 
 faces to the compositor. In setting a page of shorthand, 
 such words as are not to be found in the cases are engraved 
 on blanks. Thus the collection of shorthand types becomes 
 more complete every week. This biography would hardly 
 be complete without a specimen of Phonography printed 
 from the metal type. 
 
 -1 ^ -^.^Xj -/^ 
 
 A'/y. — " Who, that is much in the habit of writing, has not often wished 
 for some means of expressing by two or three dashes of the pen, that which, 
 dS things are, it requires such an expenditure of time and labor to commit 
 to paper ? Our present mode of communication must brfelt to be cumber- 
 some in the last dcjjree ; unworthy of these days of invention ; we require 
 some means i f bringing the operations of the mind and of the hand into 
 closer correspondence." — English Revie'V. 
 
 In the same year, 1873, i\Ir Pitman took occasion, 
 in the first number of the Joui-nal, to give a brief retro- 
 spect of the work already accomplished in the promotion 
 of the " Reading Writing, and Spelling Reform," and an 
 intimation of the results to which his future efforts would 
 be directed. The article is here reproduced as a tyj)ical 
 example of the Addresses which he was in the habit of 
 issuing to his readers at the beginning of the year, or on 
 the initiation of any new line of action. The first part is
 
 122 
 
 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 presented in the '' First Stage " of the Spelling Reform, 
 and the second part in the " Second Stage/' or full pho- 
 netic spelling, in accordance with the following alphabet : — 
 
 THE P HONETIC ALP HABET. 
 
 The phonetic letters in the first column are pronounced 
 nice the italic letters in the words that follow. The last 
 column contains the names of the letters. 
 
 CONSONANTS. 
 Mutes. 
 
 P 
 B 
 T 
 D 
 
 e 
 
 J 
 
 .rope. . 
 .robe , 
 ,.fa^e. 
 .fade . 
 
 •PI 
 
 •ti 
 
 ...etch ()£ 
 
 ...edge je 
 
 .. \eek ke 
 
 ...league ..gt: 
 
 Continuants. 
 
 f sa/e ef 
 
 v.... save vj 
 
 ;J v,redith....'\i 
 
 d....AvreaMe...d| 
 
 s hi.95 es 
 
 z....his zj 
 
 J vicious.... ij 
 
 3 vision... .31 
 
 Nasals. 
 M ra... seem... am 
 
 N n...seen on 
 
 RJ r\...smff iij 
 
 Diphthongs : ei, 
 
 as heard in hi/, 
 
 K k 
 G g 
 
 F 
 V 
 
 R 
 
 a 
 s 
 z 
 
 X 
 X 
 
 Liquids. 
 
 I. ...fall el 
 
 r ...?'are ar 
 
 Coalescents. 
 
 w weX we 
 
 y----2/et ye 
 
 Aspirate. 
 li.../my...89 0?'hii 
 VOWELS. 
 Guttui'al. 
 
 a am, far. .at 
 
 c alms n 
 
 e ell et 
 
 8 cle, aiv..& 
 
 i ill it 
 
 ^ \ ee\,fear...\ 
 
 Labial. 
 
 o on, or...ot 
 
 o all o 
 
 y Mp, CMr..yt 
 
 CT o- ope,orc..cr 
 
 U u fuW ut 
 
 U H food II 
 
 lu, on, ai, oi. 
 nevj, now, ay (yes) boy. 
 
 L 
 R 
 
 W 
 Y 
 
 H 
 
 A 
 
 E 
 S 
 I 
 
 O 
 O 
 
 IS
 
 FIRST STAGE OF SPELLING REFORM. 123 
 
 THE READING, AVRITING, AND SPELLING 
 REFORM IN 1873. 
 
 First Stage of the Spelling Reform. 
 
 Therti, or therti-threc-yearz ar rekond a jenerashon. 
 The year 1874.' iz alredi noking- at the gate ov leif, and 
 wil soon be upon us. Leik flashcz ov leitning do thcze 
 modern yearz run, and great events sukseed each uther 
 with startHng ra|)iditi. If we remain at our post til nekst 
 Janiueri, therti yearz wil tlicn hav past sins we set the teips 
 ov the ferst two pajez ov fonetik printing that inaugiurated 
 the prezent movement for a reformd orthograti. Sum 
 previiis atempts had been made tu ekspres Inglish fonetik- 
 aH, that iz, in an orthografi tliat rei)rczented the pronun- 
 siashoH, but they wer fantastik. fiu, and fitful. There iz 
 more reazon for kongratiulashon at the progres that iiaz 
 been made in the rekognishon bei the publik ov the 
 nesesiti for a reformd speling, than for regret that so litel 
 haz been dun. Sum ar dis-hartend bei the niumerns 
 skemez that ar put forth, but tu us, everi note ov diskord 
 ov this keind soundz leik sum iustrument being brought 
 intu harmoni for the grand konsert ov hiumaniti for which 
 all men and all nashonz ar preparing, when the Lord the 
 Savior shal be known throughout the erth, and hiz wun 
 name shal be spokeu bei all ])ecpel, — when the seiens ov 
 langwaje being plased on the same shure basis ov fakts in 
 natiur az the kindred seicnscz ov numberz and miuzik, the 
 fasilitiz for akwciring a nolej ov the Inglish tung, and for 
 reiting it, wil be such that it wil bekum the langwej ov 
 the hole erth. Do you not see that each raiuzishan iz 
 modiulating tu the key-note, and thiit note truth in speling ? 
 And whot if sum ov them sliud not get their instruments 
 in tiun ? In the overwhelming bodi ov harmoniiis soundz, 
 their litel diskordz wil not be herd. 
 
 AYe hav just reseevd the " Report ov the Komiti ov the 
 Ediukashonal Institiut ov Scotland, on Improovment in 
 Inglish Speling/' prepared bei the " Konvener " ov the
 
 124 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 Komiti, Mr MacArtbur^ a teacher at New Monkland, 
 Airdrie, Scotland. We hope soon tu reseev the report ov 
 the IngHsh komiti, apointed bei the Ingbsh '^ Nashonal 
 Union ov Elementari Teacberz," in which Mr E. Jones's 
 skeme wil be embodid. 
 
 Theze two komitiz start with the same fundamental 
 eidea, nameli, tu reform the speling without nikreasing 
 the number ov leterz in the alfabet; but az soon az they 
 set about the wurk they diverj, and maintain opozit prin- 
 sipelz on the important subjekts ov the uscz tu which c, g 
 (in konekshon withj)^ s, and the feiv vouel teips a, e, i, o, u, 
 ar tu be put. The lein ov akshon laid doun bei the two 
 komitiz — the reformashon ov Inglish speling without 
 enlarjing the alfabet — we regard az untenabel ; and we 
 think that the teim spent upon the projekt wil be lost, 
 eksept so far az the ajitashon ov the subjekt wil serv tu 
 keep the nesesiti ov the Reform before the publik ei. The 
 teim iz not yet for kritiseizing the detailz ov the two 
 skemez. We must await the publikashon ov the Itiglish 
 komiti'z report, and wil then notis the two reports tugether. 
 We niay, houever, obzerv that the ferst maksim laid doun 
 bei the two komitiz iz " Reform not Revoliushon.^' Bei 
 the freitful term " revoliushon " they mean the fonetik 
 speling ov this Jurnal. If enithing short ov a komplete 
 reform, on the basis ov the prezent alfabet, iz intended, 
 then whot iz left unreformd must be reformd at a fiutiur 
 day. Ther iz, in truth, more intended tu be left untucht 
 than the two komitiz aim tu akomplish. They kail it 
 revoliushoneri tu atempt tn introdiiis niu leterz intu the 
 alfabet. Iz it Revoliushon or Restorashon tu bring bak the 
 two Sakson leterz for the two soundz ov th ? Our emploi- 
 ment ov niu leterz iz, in fakt, les revoliushoneri than iz the 
 Skoch komiti'z atempt tu alter the speling ov hundredz ov 
 wurdz, and thus turn reit intu rong, tu siut their own 
 konipleks rulez, which ar renderd nescscri bei the absens 
 ov niu leterz. Witnes verry, habbit, rapjnd (and raptdity), 
 Addavi, baddy (and nobudi/), cir, cee, Accirian (sir, see, 
 Assyrian), cister, liinicelf, iron (one;, thiss (tu mach bliss,
 
 SECOND STAGE OF SPELLING KEFOllM. 125 
 
 bekauz s feinal iz aloud tu be uzecl for z), incapassity , 
 guivving (giving) ! 
 
 " Like the leevs of the forrest when siimuier is green, 
 That hoast with its banners at suncet was ceen ; 
 Like the leevs of the forrest when aiitnnm has blone, 
 That hoast on the morro lay withered and strone." 
 
 Second Stage of the Spelling Reform. 
 
 3j_z spelir)55 ar from de Skog report. 3c IggliJ komiti, 
 wj fjl serten, wil repiudiKt dem az enerjctikali az "wj dii. 
 Stil it iz a grft point gxnd for dc Reform wben tjgerz 
 demsclvz admit dat our licterojinixs spcliij m>'st bj 
 korckted. If our utempt iz mor revoliujoneri^ or reform- 
 atorij or kompljt, dan >i'derz, so mxtj de mo"r efektiuali 
 wil de roijfulnes ov our IijgliJ spcliij b^ delt wid. Our 
 perl-star in dis Reform baz bjn wbot de koraitiz regard 
 az dsr sekond moto, — " 3e maksim>;m ov advantej wid 
 de minimum ov ()fnj." B^t wj interpret de moto" in a 
 weid, and dt; in a restrikted, sens. It iz indjd krpabel 
 ov eni interpretfjon, from de mjr removal ov de tr>bel- 
 s^m 0, u, g, It, and Ijvii] everi ^der w^rd speld az it iz 
 nou, yp tu de introd>kJou ov Mr Melvil Bel'z alfabet 
 ov niu karakterz. Wj diijk dat de " maksim^m ov 
 advantajc " wil bj found in dc adijon ov az fin niu leterz 
 az posibel tu de alfabet, and de " mininixm ov genj '' in 
 konfeiniij everi o'ld leter tu de yus wbig it jenerali servz 
 in de prezcnt speliij. 
 
 W| pyrposli avoid pcti alfabetikal djtelz bjr. Wj 
 rejois in de fakt dat de ni;Jon haz awok tu an aknolej- 
 mcnt ov de importans ov ediuki;Jon for ol, and tu a 
 persepjon dat de grct stMubliij blok wliicj barz de w^, iz 
 our ret;ed oriografi. 
 
 AVben wj komptr de fcnetik teip in wlii(j dis artikel 
 iz printed Avid de fonetik alfabet dat woz emploid at de 
 komensment ov de Reform, wj ar grttful tu de Giver ov 
 ol gud and ol trii,;J, and tu dc niumcris frendz ov de 
 Reform, for de progres dat baz bjn mid in de koz, and 
 dc enteir cfijensi ov dc instrument.
 
 126 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 B>t wheil Avj liav out^^rern de kriid formz in whiq our 
 fcrnetik printirj ferst apjrd, w| hav not outgron de senti- 
 ments eksprest in it. 3e sjm tu bj jven mor apro-priet 
 nou dan di; "wer in 1844. cler iz wyn seutens in do^z tit 
 kwtnt-lukiij ptjez dat stil riijz in our jrz leik s:s^m hevenli 
 ^eim. " N^blii] whotever iz rnor tu bj dezeird, or merr 
 deleitfal, dan de leit ov triii ; for it iz de so-rs ov wizdom. 
 When de meind iz harast wid obskiuriti, distrakted bei 
 douts, renderd torpid or sadend bei ignorans or folsitiz, 
 and trill emerjez az from a dark abis, it jeinz fori 
 instanteniysli^ leik de s^n dispersiij mists and vsporz, 
 or leik de don dispelig de Jtdz ov darknes." 
 
 3is ferst number ov a niu sjriz ov de Fnnetik Jsrnal 
 Jal tel its o-n tsl. W| hav proveided de mjnz for isiiiig, 
 wjkli, spesimenz ov Fonografi, leik dccz on p^gez 4, 5 ; 
 a kj tu whic; wil bj found in de presjdii) and sybsekwent 
 pejez. Wj kongratiukt our sypo'rterz on de pozijon tu 
 whiq ds hav rezd fernetik spelig, and wj ernestli solisit 
 reniiid eforts dni de prezent yjr ; and for our prezent 
 njdz, az liberal a sybskripjon az dsr mjnz Avil permit A^Y 
 jenerositi tu besto". 
 
 At the end of 1874, by the labor of masons and carpen- 
 ters for six monthS;,the new premises, two lodging-houses, 
 Nos. 6 and 7 Kingston buildings, were transformed into a 
 Phonetic Institute. The labor attending the removal of 
 the plant from the high room in Parsonage lane, and 
 making the necessary arrangements for the conduct of the 
 business was very great, and pathetic appeals were made in 
 the pages of the Journal to J\Ir Pitman's correspondents, 
 whose communications were unanswered, to treat him with 
 a little more consideration than they had usually bestowed 
 upon him. Piles of letters and post-cards lay upon his 
 table, and the accumulation was such that he declared that 
 an army of clerks would soon be required to conduct the
 
 THE NEW " INSTITUTE. 
 
 127 
 
 correspondence of the Institute alone. " "We have been 
 compelled/' he said, '' to leave many letters unanswered, 
 and they must remain so until we get fairly to work in the 
 new Institute." 
 
 The Phonetic Institute, Ki/ijjstofi Buildings. 
 
 The "hands" emplo3'cd at this time were about 18. 
 In Parsonage lane, only hand presses had been used. 
 On entering the new premises a second-hand " platen "
 
 128 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 machine was bought for .€100. It was capable of printing 
 600 sheets per hour, a great increase on the capabilities of 
 the hand presses. This machine was driven by a two-horse 
 vertical tubular engine, which was soon replaced by a four- 
 horse horizontal engine. The compositors were placed in 
 the top story, and the binding of the books was done on the 
 2;round floor, the intervenino; rooms beino; used for stock. 
 The platen machine was erected in the basement. It was 
 removed twice because the neighbors on both sides com- 
 plained of the rumbling noise it made. 
 
 At the beginning of 1875 the Journal was to have been 
 enlarged to sixteen pages, four in shorthand in metal type, 
 (which had been introduced in 1873,) but some difficulty 
 was experienced with the working of the machinery, and 
 the enlargement did not take place until a later period. 
 Some idea may be gained of the troubles experienced in 
 the printing department by an editorial notice in the 
 Journal of May 8th. " The friends of Phonetic Spelling 
 who see this Journal have sympathized with us in our 
 trials for the past six months with respect to the labor we 
 have undergone, the great expense we have incurred, and 
 the annoyances to which we have been subjected, in our 
 attempt to introduce into the Phonetic Institute a steam- 
 engine and printing machine. These troubles have arisen 
 from two sources, first the difficulty of getting our machine 
 to work at all, through our having been deceived in the 
 purchase of an engine and boiler that eventually proved 
 not worth the cost of erection ; and, secondly, after we 
 had had a new boiler and engine made, the machine was 
 pronounced a ' nuisance ' to our neighbors. We removed 
 it to another part of the building, to pacify the neighbor 
 on one side, and then found that its sound could just be
 
 DIFFICULTIES WITH THE JOURNAL. 129 
 
 h(;ard by the nciirhbour on the other side, who is much 
 more exacting in iiis demands. Nothing less than ' a pay- 
 ment of £150 cash, and the engine to be entirely stopped 
 between the hours of 12 noon and 1 p.m. each day'; or 
 still more severe terms in our taking off his hands the lease 
 of his house, will satisfy him. 'These are the only terms 
 which can be entertained,' says his solicitor. Of course 
 we do not entertain them, but stopped our machine imme- 
 diately on receipt of his solicitor's letter, and just as this 
 Journal is going to press. The masons have now (1 May) 
 been working two months in laying down the new boiler, 
 removing the machine, and making the necessary altera- 
 tions in the premises, and will finish their work in another 
 day ; and the engineers were employed three weeks after 
 the engine was made; and just as the work is finished we 
 find that all the labor and money is thrown away — for the 
 present. We shall now have to print a Journal of eight 
 pages at a hand-press, as formerly, till something shall 
 turn up, cither here or in some other premises, so that 
 we can employ steam power, and it will not be voted a 
 legal nuisance. We regret to have to say that it is utterly 
 impossible for us to print 10,000 copies of this Journal, 
 contaming sixteen pages, at a hand-press in the time in 
 which it must be produced. If the circulation should 
 suffer in consequence, we must bide our time till we have 
 the means of issuing sixteen pages. But one, or at the 
 utmost two, columns will be given to advertisements, and 
 these will be inserted Times fashion, without ' display.' " 
 
 In addition to the subscriptions to the Institute and the 
 General Phonetic Fund received during the year 1875, 
 JMr Pitman received from Mr Coltman, of Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne, a sum of .€300 for the printing and issue of a series
 
 130 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 of tracts and leaflets (chiefly reprints of articles that had 
 appeared in the Journal) on the subject of the Spelling 
 Reform. The money was applied in the manner desired 
 by the donor, and some hundreds of thousands of tracts 
 and leaflets were distributed far and wide. " Phonography 
 can support itself/' said Mr Coltman, " but the Spelling 
 Reform needs pecuniary aid." 
 
 During his long residence in Bath ]\Ir Pitman has rarely 
 taken part in any public movements ; he reserved his 
 energies for what he considers his life-work; but in 1875 
 he joined Mr J. W. Morris and other citizens, who formed 
 themselves into a committee, in an efi"ortto establish a Free 
 Library for the city. This effort was so far successful that 
 a library was formed and was maintained by a small volun- 
 tary subscription for six years. It contained about nine 
 thousand volumes, of "which two thousand were presented 
 by Mr Pitman. It came, however, to an untimely end. 
 Suitable freehold premises had been purchased by Mr 
 C. W. Mackillop, and these, with all the furniture, and 
 Reading and Reference Libraries, were offered in free gift 
 to the city on the one condition of the Free Libraries Act 
 being adopted by the burgesses. This would have involved 
 a half-penny rate, and the adoption of the Act was nega- 
 tived by a large majority. 
 
 The failure of this eff"ort, when success seemed so nearly 
 assured, and the consequent dispersion of the valuable col- 
 lections which had been got together with so much judg- 
 ment and diligence, have deterred the most earnest advocates 
 of educational advance from any further attempt at reversing 
 the decision of the majority. The day, however, cannot 
 be far distant when this question will be re-opened. The 
 citizens of Bath will not always be content to lack the
 
 THE BATH FREE LIBRARY. 131 
 
 advantages which other and smaller towns so highly prize. 
 The efforts in which Mr Pitman took so large a share wil] 
 then be referred to with advantage, showing, as they do, that 
 a library circulation of 20,000 volumes yjer annum can be 
 worked in IJath for a rate of one halfpenny. The citizens 
 who rejected the generous gifts then offered for their 
 acceptance because of this insignificant charge, were, it is 
 generally understood, niuch misled by those interested in 
 the rejection of the Act. The idea prevailed that the 
 halfpenny rate was but the thin edge of the wedge, and 
 that a much larger rate would follow ; while the hope was 
 widely expressed that so noble an Institution would never 
 be closed by those who had carried ou its work so well and 
 so long. The opponents were, unhappily, successful, and 
 the city is poorer thereby in everything but experience. 
 When next the vote is taken, will there be a Mackillop, a 
 Morris, or a Pitman to lead the way ? 
 
 During the six years of this promising experiment, Mr 
 Pitman collected eight thousand books to be added to the 
 library when it should be accepted by the city, and sup])orted 
 by a rate. On the collapse of the scheme, he sent to the 
 Free Libraries throughout the kingdom, then about 110, a 
 catalogue of the ten thousand volumes, and offered to send 
 them any that they might select, to the number of about 
 a hundred volumes to each library. The books were thus 
 speedily dispersed, and many libraries are now the richer 
 for the niggardliness displayed by the burgesses of Bath. 
 
 During the following year, 1876, public attention was 
 called in various directions to the necessity of some im- 
 provement in the method of teaching children to read, 
 and to an entire reformation of English orthography. A 
 vigorous article on the subject, from the pen of Professor
 
 132 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 INIax jMiiller, appeared in the April number of the Fort- 
 nightly Review, in which a Spelling Reform was strongly 
 advocated, and great sympathy was expressed with the 
 efforts made by Mr Pitman and his friends. In the course 
 of this article Professor Max Miiller wrote : — 
 
 " What I like in Mr Pitman's system of spelling is 
 exactly what I know has been found fault with by others, 
 namely, that he does not attempt to refine too much, and 
 to express in writing those endless shades of pronunciation, 
 which may be of the greatest interest to the student of 
 acoustics, or of phonetics, as applied to the study of living 
 dialects, but which, for practical as well as for scientific 
 philological purposes, must be entirely ignored. Writing- 
 was never intended to photograph spoken languages : it 
 was meant to indicate, not to paint, sounds. If Voltaire 
 says, ' L'ecriture c'est la peinture de la voix,' he is right ; 
 but when he goes on to say, ' plus elle est ressemblante, 
 meilleur elle est,' I am not certain that, as in a picture of 
 a landscape, so in a picture of the voice, pre-Raphaelite 
 minuteness may not destroy the very object of the picture. 
 Language deals in broad colors, and writing ought to 
 follow the example of language, which though it allows an 
 endless variety of pronunciation, restricts itself for its own 
 purpose, for the purpose of expressing thought in all its 
 modifications, to a very limited number of typical vovvels 
 and consonants. Out of the large number of sounds, for 
 instance, which have been catalogued from the various 
 English dialects, those only can be recognized as con- 
 stituent elements of the language which in, and by, their 
 difference from each other convey a difference of meaning. 
 Of such pregnant and thought-conveying vowels, English 
 possesses no more than twelve. Whatever the minor shades
 
 THE SCHOOL BOARD AND SPELLING REFORM. 133 
 
 of vowel sounds in English dialects may be, tliey do not 
 enrich the language, as such ; that is, they do not enable 
 the speaker to convey more minute shades of thought than 
 the twelve typical single vowels." 
 
 In the London Sch(jol Board a movement in the same 
 direction was inaugurated by Dv Gladstone, l)r Angus, and 
 other spelling reformers. Great dissatisfaction had been ex- 
 ])ressed at the results obtained in Board Schools in regard 
 to the teaching of reading and sj)elling, and attention was 
 directed to the subject at various meetings of the Board. 
 A proposal was made for a memorial to the Government 
 requesting the appointment of a Royal Commission, and 
 a circular was sent to the School Boards throughout the 
 country requesting their opinion as to the propriety of 
 such a step. The majority of the 277 Boards appealed to 
 were against the proposal, but 100 were in its favor — a 
 remarkable evidence of the extent to which the Spelling 
 Reform had gained adherents among the educationalists 
 of the country. Notwithstanding the adverse replies of 
 the majority of the country School Boards, the L(mdon 
 School Board, on the 14th March, 1877, passed a resolu- 
 tion, proposed by Dr Gladstone, for the nomination of a 
 Select Committee to draw up a memorial for the appoint- 
 ment of a Royal Commission. The Committee met in 
 due course, and drew up a memorial, which was adopted 
 at a meeting of the School Boaid on the 25th of July. 
 In this memorial it was recommended that the Govern- 
 ment should be moved to issue a Royal Commission for 
 considering the best method of reforming and simplifying 
 English spelling. It was urged that the results of primary 
 education in England and Wales were far from being 
 satisfactory, and that several of Her Majesty's Inspectors
 
 134 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 had attributed this poor success in a great measure to the 
 difficulties caused by our present unsystematic spelling. 
 Many eminent scholars, many of the leading philologists 
 of England and America, and the National Union of 
 Elementary Teachers had all affirmed the necessity of 
 some change. Italy and some other countries had long 
 had very simple systems of spelling ; and others, such as 
 Holland and Spain, had recently effected great reforms. 
 In Germany the report of a conference on spelling reform, 
 convened by Dr Falk, the Minister of Public Instruction in 
 Prussia, was being circulated. The time, therefore, seemed 
 to have come for inquiry whether something could not be 
 done in the same direction for English speaking children. 
 
 This memorial was signed by J. H. Gladstone, Chair- 
 man of the Committee, Joseph Angus, and John llodgers. 
 
 In the same year, 1877, an important Conference was 
 held at the Rooms of the Society of Arts, London, on the 
 29th May, on the subject of SpelHng Reform, the Rev. A. 
 H. Sayce, Professor of Philology, Oxford, presiding. 
 The primary object of the Conference was to support the 
 request of the London School Board for the appointment 
 of a Royal Commission to inquire into the subject of 
 English Spelling. It was stated by Mr Edward Jones, 
 the hon. secretary, that the idea of such a Commission had 
 been mooted ten years previously by Mr Russell Martineau, 
 at a meeting of the Philological Society, and had been 
 supported by the Rev. J. Rice Byrne, M.A., one of Her 
 Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, and that from that time 
 the idea had gained general acceptance with the Society of 
 Arts and other educational institutions. Among the let- 
 ters read at the Conference was one from the Right Hon. 
 Robert Lowe, which api)eared to be a reply to a question
 
 CONFERENCi: ON SPELLING REFORM. 135 
 
 put by Professor Max JMiiller — " Is there no statesman in 
 England sufficiently proof against ridicule to call the atten- 
 tion of Parliuinent to what is a growing national misfor- 
 tune V " I am not afraid of ridicule/^ said Mr Lowe, 
 " and I have a strong opinion on the spelling question. 
 There are, I am informed, 39 [ 10] sounds in the 
 English language. There are 24 letters. I think that each 
 letter should represent one sound, that 15 [16] new letters 
 should be added, so that there be a letter for every sound, 
 and that every one should write as he speaks." The Bishop 
 of Exeter also wrote expressing sympathy with the move- 
 ment, but suggesting that there should be a minimum of 
 change with no new characters, and only the introduction 
 of a few diacritical marks. Mr Pitman was one of the 
 earUest speakers at the Conference. He said, — 
 
 " Nothing that can occur this day can possibly afford me 
 more gratification than the letter of ]Mr Lowe, which our 
 Hon. Secretary has just read. I feared there was not a man 
 among the 650 members of the House of Commons that 
 would lead us on to victory; but Mr Lowe is the man; 
 and without meaning any disrespect to Bishop Temple, I 
 must say that ^Mr Lowe's letter, when weighed against the 
 letter of the Bishop of Exeter, makes the hitter kick the 
 beam instantly. You would obscr\'e that there are two 
 distinct opinions expressed in those letters. The Bishop 
 of Exeter says : ' Introduce no new letters, but use diacritic 
 marks :' we should want fifteen marked letters. I will 
 venture to say that the bishop has never written a single 
 page with the diacritic marks which he thinks might do. 
 Mr Lowe, on the other hand, takes the common-sense view 
 of the question, and says that as there arc fifteen sounds 
 without representative signs, they must have them as a
 
 136 ISA^lC PITMAN. 
 
 matter of course. I shall not say a single word on behalf 
 of any particular alphabet — the question of signs for the 
 sounds is tabooed for the day. All that we have to do to- 
 day is to state our case — to show the reason for the 
 Spelling Reform movement, and back up the London 
 School Board in their application to Government for a 
 Koyal Commission of inquiry ; and I certainly think that 
 our Government will be unable to refuse the application. 
 The topic given me to consider is ' the loss of time caused 
 by the current spelling.' Now that loss of time occurs 
 both in learning to read, and to spell and write. I want 
 to lay before you, in the ten minutes allowed to me, the 
 grounds of the difficulty in the two arts of reading and 
 spelling, and why the spelling is so much more difficult 
 than the reading. 
 
 " Everybody knows that we have six vowels (including 
 y, — a, e, i, o, u, y, — and these six vowels represent, in the 
 present spelling, twenty-eight sounds. A represents six 
 sounds, four of them in large classes of words ; e repre- 
 sents four sounds, two of them in very large classes of 
 words ; i represents four sounds ; o represents seven sounds, 
 four of them in large classes of words ; and u represents 
 seven sounds. Now, if we add to these the sounds repre- 
 sented, not by single letters, but by two put together, such 
 as double a in my own name, Lsaac ; ao in the word gaol ; 
 eti, ee, ei, ae, au, and so on, we get, with the twenty conso- 
 nants and six vowels, a total of 108 letters, which represent 
 269 different sounds in the various words of the language; 
 so that there is a choice of about three sounds for every 
 letter, between which the pupil has to choose before he can 
 pronounce a word. I Avill only take one out of the long- 
 list before me as an illustration of this. I will take that
 
 SPELLING MORE DlFiaCULT TUAN READING. 137 
 
 very common combination ea. The child, in reading, conies 
 to the word head. Well, we will suppose he knows the 
 word to be pronounced hed. Perhaps in the very next line 
 he comes to the same combination of letters, but with a 
 b instead of h, and, of course, he calls it bed, but is cor- 
 rected instantly, ' No, it is bead.' Then he comes upon 
 another word, I-e-a-d, but does not know what to call it, 
 whether leed or led. Then he has to be told that it is 
 sounded leed in one sense and led in another. He must 
 say ' a pound of led,' but ' I leed you.' Now remove the 
 / from the word, and put m instead ; what must he say — 
 med ? no, meed. Now put .st in place of m, and it is changed 
 to sted. Put an r at the commencement of ead; now he 
 has two sounds again for two different words — read, as a 
 verb in the present tense, 7'ead (red) in the past tense. 
 And he must commit all these to memory. Next take the 
 letter ^ as a final sound, and put ea before it — eat; prefix 
 h — that is regular; now instead of h put Mr — threet? no, 
 thret. Now take another termination, th, as in death, a 
 word which he knows very well; remove (/and put wr — 
 reth? no, reeth. Now take a\vay the wr, and put br — 
 breeth ? no, breth. Thus the ])upil is tossed backward and 
 forward with almost every word in the language. Take 
 the termination st, as in beast; put an r after the b — 
 breest ? no brest. H-e-a-r-d, heard (pron. herd) ; take away 
 the h, and put b — berd ? no, beerd. Take the word Jieart ; 
 remove the t, and put d — hard? no ; the Scotch may say, 
 ' I hard such a thing;' but we say, ^ I herd such a thing.' 
 I select only a few examples to show where the difficulty 
 lies. Take the word earth ; put the aspirate before it, and 
 it is not herth, but Jiarth, a fire-})lace. We will suppose 
 the pupil now to meet with the combination ea in a word
 
 138 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 of two syllables, as in real. He then meets with realm, 
 and probably calls it ree-alm. It is the reproach of our 
 language that no man, however educated he may be, is able 
 to pronounce a single word of English on seeing it in a 
 book, if he has never heard it pronounced. I have only 
 to-day become acquainted with the sound of the name of 
 this gentleman, (Mr Croad), whom I have known by cor- 
 respondence for some time. I could write his name but I 
 could not speak it. I called him Mr Crow-ad, just as we 
 sound oa in 3Ioab, thinking it more aristocratic to give 
 him two syllables than one. I now learn that his name 
 is Mr Crode. 
 
 " The converse of the statement which I have made as 
 to reading and pronunciation is true as to writing — that 
 no person can spell an English Avord, however well he 
 knows the sound, if he has never seen it written. The 
 truth is, we are, as to letters, blind, and as to sounds, deaf. 
 We see the letters Avith the outward eye, but we do not see 
 anything with the inward eye corresponding to them. 
 We hear the sounds of a word with the outward ear, but 
 we do not hear inwardly and associate the real sound of 
 the word with its representation. This one combination, 
 or letter, ea, followed by a consonant in the same syllable, 
 which I have instanced, occurs in 110 of our monosyllables. 
 In how many other words it occurs I cannot say. But the 
 pronunciation of every one of these words, and of every 
 other word in the language, has to be iixed in the memory 
 before the child can read. That is one illustration of the 
 fact that the letters of our alphabet represent 269 sounds 
 which is an average of three to each letter. I have excluded 
 all single anomalous words. Now I must take two minutes 
 for the spelHng question, although my ten minutes are
 
 THE SPELLING QUESTION. 139 
 
 up. The phase of the question I have previously con- 
 sidered is, the difficulty of reading. The difficulty of 
 spelling is not as three to one, but as seven to one. Thus, 
 there is the sound u in the familiar word beauty, a word 
 which we will suppose the child knows, and he wishes to 
 spell it. Well, he has to choose between seven modes of 
 representation existing in other words bearing the same 
 sound of u. Of coarse, he will begin by trying to spell it 
 with the single letter u, as buty. No. In the next place 
 he may try beuty. " No, you are wrong ; such spelling 
 will not pass." He knows the word dew. " I think I 
 have it now," bewty. " No, it won^t do, try again." 
 View may occur to him, so he tries biewty. " No, try 
 again ; don't give it up." A suit of clothes suggests 
 buity. " No, wrong again." Then the teacher has to 
 tell him b-e-a-u-t-y, beauty ; and that way of spelling the 
 word has to be fixed on the pupil's memory. Such is a 
 very familiar illustration of the difficulty, first of learning 
 to read — that is, in choosing between the diffi^rent sounds 
 which the letters represent in other words — and the diffi- 
 culty of learning to spell, — that is, in choosing between 
 the diflPerent representatives in other words of the very 
 same sound that is required to be expressed. 1 will con- 
 clude b}^ gi\ ing you the mathematical proof of my state- 
 ment, that the difficulty of reading is as 3 to 1 that is, of 
 choosing between three sounds as to which must be employed 
 in interpreting every letter of the alphabet ; and the diffi- 
 culty of spelling is as 7 to 1 as to every sound in the 
 language. I gave you the number of letters : 20 conso- 
 nants, 6 vowels, and 82 additional letters represented by 
 combinations — total, 108 signs. Divide the 108 signs by 
 the 38 sounds of the English language and the quotient
 
 140 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 will be 3 within a fraction. Now for the spelling. The 
 dividend here must be the meanings or pronunciations given 
 to these 108 letters; and we find that they have 269 
 meanings, which, divided by the 38 real sounds of the 
 language, gives the quotient as 7." 
 
 Among the other speakers were Mr H. H. Butterfill, 
 the Rev. R. Wells Whitford, Sir Charles Reed, Mr Hale, 
 Dr Richard Morris, the Rev. Castle Clery, Mr Tito 
 Pagliardini, Mr W. Storr, Dr Gladstone, and the Rev, 
 John Curwen. A public meeting was held in the evening, 
 which was addressed by well-known spelling reformers, at 
 which resolutions were passed in favor of an improve- 
 ment in English orthography. 
 
 These were not the only public proceedings in connec- 
 tion with the Spelling Reform movement, in 1877; for at 
 a meeting of the Social Science Association, held in Lon- 
 don, on the 5th February that year, papers on the subject 
 were read by INIr E. Jones and Mr W. Storr. These pro- 
 ceedings were reported at considerable length in the news- 
 papers of the day, and many leaders and magazine articles 
 were devoted to the subject. Many of the leading news- 
 papers spoke favorably of the movement, and even the 
 Times went so far as to recommend that children should 
 be, at any rate, taught to read and write in the first three 
 standards on " the easy phonetic plan.''
 
 PHONOGRAPHY MAKING HEADWAY. 141 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 It was not until early in the ibllowing year^ 1878, that 
 the Spelling Reform question in connection with Board 
 School teaching was brought before the Government. On 
 the 18th of January, the Lord President of the Council 
 (the Duke of Richmond and Gordon) and Viscount 
 Sandon received a deputation at the Privy Council from 
 the London and many other School Boards, and anotlier 
 from the Society of Arts. The deputations consisted of 
 about a hundred gentlemen from different parts of the 
 country, and representing various educational bodies. Mr 
 Pitman, his brother Frederick, Mr Ellis, Sir Charles 
 Reed, Dr Gladstone, Mr Rathbone, M.P. (representing 
 the School Board), and Mr Richard, M.P. (who expressed 
 the bewilderment of the Welsh people on the subject of 
 English spelling) were among the company present. The 
 various speakers were listened to with great attention, and 
 the Lord President promised, in the stereotyped form, but 
 with great courtesy, that he would lay before the Cabinet 
 the views that had been communicated to him. Nothin"; 
 further came of the matter. No Royal Commission was 
 appointed ; but the subject had been thoroughly venti- 
 lated, and a great deal done to clear the ground for future 
 action in the same direction. 
 
 In the meantime. Phonography was making headway 
 among educationalists and the general public. The value 
 of shorthand in connnereial life was becoming daily more 
 and more recognized. The Society of Arts in 1876 had
 
 142 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 introduced it in its annual programme of examinations^ held 
 simultaneously at different centres throughout the country, 
 and appointed Mr Frederick Pitman as examiner. No 
 special system was prescribed. The candidates were per- 
 mitted to use any system, but were recommended to learn 
 Phonography. The subject still forms part of the exam- 
 ination for which Certificates are given by the Society, 
 and it is one of the most popular among candidates, book- 
 keeping being the only subject for which there are more 
 annual entries. Phonogi*aphy is also a subject of exam- 
 ination with the Union of Lancashire and Cheshire Insti- 
 tutes and the Yorkshire Union of Institutes. With the 
 candidates for examination by the former, it is the most 
 favorite subject, the entries for examination in 1890 
 being 708. 
 
 The presentation of the memorial to the Lord President 
 was soon followed (in 1879) by the formation of the 
 Spelling Reform Association in London, u.nder auspices 
 which seemed to promise a successful result. Mr Pitman, 
 of course joined its ranks, and occasionally assisted in its 
 deliberations. Among the other well known men who 
 allied themselves with the Society were Lord Tennyson, 
 Professor Max Miiller, Professor Sayce, Dr. J. H. Glad- 
 stone, Mr A. J. Ellis, Charles Darwin, Dr. 11. G. Latham, 
 Professor Skcat, Mr Westlakc, Q.C., Dr. Charles Mackay, 
 Professor Candy, M.A., Uev. John llodgers, Dr. Hunter, etc. 
 
 It is not necessary to write the history of the S])elling 
 llcform Association in connection with the biography of 
 Mr Pitman ; but it cannot be passed o\er. Its career, 
 which promised to Ijc a brilliiuit one, was short and un- 
 satisfactory. During the first year or two of its existence 
 it was the means of drawing a good deal of attention to
 
 THE SPELLING REFORM ASSOCIATION. 143 
 
 the question of a reformed orthography. It published a 
 number of pamphlets and leaflets, and held a i'cw public 
 meetings at which addresses were delivered by men of 
 great distinction. But its efforts were a good deal frittered 
 away in academic discussions on the minutiae of Phonetics, 
 instead of being directed to more practical work. As in 
 the case of most reforms, great differences of opinion 
 existed as to the precise manner in which phonetic spelling 
 should be carried out ; and notwithstanding the appoint- 
 ment of endless sub-committees with the view of reconciling 
 these differences, no definite line of action was taken ; and, 
 after a few years of fitful and spasmodic effort, the Associa- 
 tion collapsed. Though several attempts were made to 
 galvanize it into renewed activity they were svholly nn- 
 suecessful. Meanwhile i\Ir Pitman was devoting a con- 
 siderable proportion of the increasing profits of his short- 
 hand works to the advocacy of phonetic spelling, and 
 further experiments with new and old types ; gratuitously 
 distributing an immense quantity of literature on the sub- 
 ject from his own press. In 1879 he lost the benefit of 
 the co-operation of Sir Walter Trevelyan, who died at the 
 ripe age of eighty-two, having been President of the Pho- 
 netic Society and an ardent suj)porter of ]Mr Pitman for 
 a period of twenty years. 
 
 In the following year, 1881, in his Annual Address to 
 the Phonetic Society, Mr Pitman drew attention to the 
 increasing })ublic interest nianii'ested in the reform, and 
 even took enconra2;ement from the adverse criticisms of 
 his opponents, whose very violence he regarded as an indi- 
 cation of the importance of the movement. The Spectator 
 had just published a splenetic article on the subject, in 
 which it declared that Mr IMtman and his followers were
 
 l44 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 " guilty of as flat burglary as ever frighted Dogberry," 
 " Nothing/' said the writer, " has ever astonished us more 
 than the fact that the foremost philologist in England^ 
 Professor Max Miiller, should find it in his heart to thrust 
 the segis of his great name and authority in front of this 
 forgetive felony." These and similar absurdities only 
 stimulated Mr Pitman to renewed exertion, in which he 
 found abundant su])port from other quarters. In Scribner 
 and the Century, for example, several articles appeared 
 strongly advocating phonetic spelling ; and a number of 
 American newspapers had adopted the " five rules " (for 
 the omission of silent letters, etc.) recommended by the 
 American Spelling Reform Association and the American 
 Philological Society. 
 
 The rules were these :— 
 
 lluLE 1. — Omit a from the digraph ea when pronounced 
 as e short, as in hed, helth, etc. 
 
 Rule 2. — Omit silent e after a short vowel, as in hav, 
 giv, liv, definit, forbad, etc. 
 
 Rule 3. — Write / for ^;/i in such words as alfabet, 
 fantom, camfor, filosofi, teleyraf, etc. 
 
 Rule 4. — When a word ends with a double letter, omit 
 the last, as in shal, wil, clif, etc. 
 
 Rule 5. — Change ec? final into t when it has the sound 
 of t, as in lasht, imprest, fixf, etc. 
 
 Mr Pitman, while willing to accept these rules as far 
 as they went, considered them insufficient even as a pre- 
 liminary step, and proposed their expansion in this form : — 
 
 Rule 1. — Omit a from the digraph en when pronounced 
 as e short, as in lied, helth, etc. 
 
 Rule 2. — Omit silent e after a short vowel, as in hav,
 
 FIVE RULES." 145 
 
 giv, liv, definit, forbad, etc. Change done, l.ve, etc., to 
 dun, luv. Also omit silent e after a long vowel that is 
 expressed by a digraj)h ; as, leav, lueav, cheez, hmez. 
 
 Rule 3. — Write / for ph in such words as alfabet, 
 fantoni, cainfo7\ filusoji, telegraf. 
 
 Rule 4. — AVlien a word ends with a double consonant, 
 omit the last, as in shal, wil, clif, except in words ending 
 in -all, -oil; as, tall, toll. 
 
 liuLE 5. — Change ed tinal into t when it has the sound 
 of t, as in lasht, imprest, fixt. 
 
 Rule 6. — Change ie and ei to ee, when pronounced ee ; 
 as preest priest), seez (seize), greev (grieve), heleev (be- 
 lieve), reseev (receive), 7'eseet (receipt). Change 2)rove, 
 move, remove, bosom, lose, to proov, moov, remoov, boozom, 
 looz ; and correct any other anomalies in the spelling of 
 words containing long vowels that will not lead to a mis- 
 pronunciation ; as, peeple for people. 
 
 The " rules " have at length, after seven years' experi- 
 ence, and a vast amount of practice, taken the following^ 
 form : — 
 
 Rule 1. — The letters c, q, x are rejected as useless, and 
 every other consonant is confined to the representation of 
 one sound; as every figure represents one number. 
 
 Rule 2. — A, e, i, o, u represent the short vowels in 
 pat, pet, pit, pot, put ; and u represents, in addition, the 
 vowel in but, double. The diphthongs in bind, boy, bound, 
 beauty, are written by ei, oi, ou, iu ; and the o])en diph- 
 thong in naive. Kaiser, by ai. (/, iu preference to ei, is 
 allowed to represent the first personal pronoun.) 
 
 Rule 3. — Th represents the two sounds in breath, 
 breathe, (called, as single letters, ith, thee,) and the re-
 
 146 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 cognized digraphs ch, sh, ng, (called, as single letters, chay, 
 ish, ing,) represent the sounds heard in much, wish, sing. 
 Zh (zheej is introduced for the voiced ish in vision (vizhon). 
 Insert a hyphen in pot-hook, mis-hap, hogs-head, etc. 
 
 Rule 4. — In monosyllables, and sometimes in poly- 
 syllables, n represents ng before k and g, as think (thingk), 
 anger (ang-ger). 
 
 Rule 5. — The spelling of the long vowels is not altered, 
 except in cases of gross irregvdarity, such as beau (bo), 
 cocoa (koko), receive (reseev), believe (beleev), because any 
 system of digraphs that might be adopted to represent the 
 long vowels would prejudice the reform. Every letter of 
 the old alphabet is used uniformly, ONLY for the repre- 
 sentation of consonants, short vowels, and diphthongs. 
 
 No change is at present proposed in the spelling of 
 proper names, whether of persons or places. This depart- 
 ment of orthography, of right, belongs to the owners of 
 the names, and the inhabitants of the places. 
 
 In the year 1884 Mr Pitman paid a third visit to Edin- 
 burgh, where, to use his own words, he " deposited the first 
 seeds of phonetic reform " in the sunmier of 1841. There 
 was a strong and interesting contrast between the two visits. 
 On the first occasion he was a young man lecturing on what 
 was regarded as almost a new art, and distributing a few 
 copies of the Penny Plate and the Sd. octavo edition of Pho- 
 nograj)hy. Shorthand, even for professional purposes, was 
 hai'dly known in Scotland at that time; but the seed was 
 sown in a congenial soil, and it quickly sprang up, and the 
 plant grew apace. On the occasion of the 1884 visit he was 
 the venerable and honored guest of the Scottish Phonogra- 
 phic Association, the largest society in the kingdom devoted
 
 VISIT TO EDINBORGH. 147 
 
 to the cultivation and protnotioii of phonetic shoi-thand. It 
 wasopening its twelfth session in the Oddfellows' Ilall, which 
 was crowded to excess in the expectation of hearing an 
 address from the now celebrated inventor of Phonography. 
 The chair was taken by the Lord Provost, Sir George Har- 
 rison, who was deeply moved and gratified by the enthusi- 
 astic reception given to one who had done so much, as he 
 said, " to increase the sum of human knowledge/' Mr 
 Pitman's address was a characteristic one. He avowed 
 himself " terribly in earnest" about the phonetic move- 
 ment, and described it, more suo, as " a holy crusade against 
 ignorance." " Tn this age," he said, "of railways and 
 tramways, and exhibitions, and the Suez canal, and the 
 Mersey and Severn tunnels, and a dozen more good things 
 projected, it cannot be that people will go on writing with 
 the stammering pen of longhand, when they may write 
 with the fluent phonographic peu, with all the rapidity of 
 speech, and with more than the ease of speech." Nor was 
 the spelling question overlooked, " All the efforts of 
 teachers and committees of School Boards are baffled by 
 our barbarous and inconsistent spelling, which ' no fellow ' 
 can master, except some of the teachers, and some writers 
 for the press, editors, proof-readers, and compositors. Only 
 a portion of the writers for the Press are what are called 
 good spellers. There is a chorus of lamentation from the 
 Inspectors that the reading taught in the Board Schools 
 is non-intelligent. The Inspectors say that the children 
 read in a senseless manner. They pronounce the words, 
 but in such a way that a listener cannot understand what 
 is read. The main cause of this is that they have been 
 taught to read and spell mechanically, and by ' cram,' 
 without the use of their reasoning powers. The memory
 
 148 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 alone has been exercised^ and not the judgment/' He 
 then quoted Mr Gladstone's denunciation of English 
 orthography^ and Professor Lounsbury's indictment, — 
 " that, considering the difference of circumstances, there 
 is not amongst the most savage tribes any fetishism more 
 senseless and more stupid than that which, with educated 
 men among us, treats as worthy of respect or reverence 
 the present orthography of the English tongue." In reply 
 to a cordial vote of thanks, Mr Pitman said he had been 
 amazed at the manner in which Phonography had been 
 received by the public in Scotland, and assured his hearers 
 that he should 'return to Bath with the determination for 
 the remainder of his days to work harder than ever. 
 
 A few weeks after this visit Mr Pitman was plaintiff in 
 the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice 
 in the case of Pitman v. Hine, an action for the infringe- 
 ment of his copyright in the Phonographic Teaching Books. 
 The case was tried before Mr Justice Mathew, without 
 a jury; Mr Pitman's counsel being Mr Charles, Q.C. 
 (now Mr Justice Charles), and Mr Shortt (instructed by 
 Mr E. B. Titley, of Bath). The defendant's counsel was 
 Mr R. T. Wright. 
 
 For two days the Court was occupied with the details 
 of the construction of Phonography and its principles 
 of contraction as laid down by Mr Pitman in his books, 
 and as employed by the defendant in the publication 
 which was the subject of the action. The principal 
 witness was, of course, Mr Pitman himself, and his appear- 
 ance in the box excited a good deal of interest and curiosity 
 among the many reporters and shorthand writers always 
 frequenting the Courts, most of whom, though writers of 
 his system, had never seen the inventoi- in the flesh. The
 
 INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT. 149 
 
 case which he sought to cstabUsh against the defendant was, 
 that in his pubhshed list of '' Contracted Outlines" he had 
 availed himself of the rules contained in the " Teacher," 
 the '' Manual," and the " Reporter's Companion," simply 
 varying the illustrations ; some of his examples, however, 
 being identical. iNlr Pitman gave his evidence very 
 clearly with the assistance of a black-board, which, covered 
 as it was with shorthand symbols, gave the Court the 
 a])pcarance of a large phonographic class. Confirmatory 
 evidence was given by the Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer, by the 
 writer of this memoir, and by Mr T. Hill. The defendant's 
 case was that there was originality, not only in the rules 
 laid down in his book, but in the selection and classifica- 
 tion of tiie examples, independently of Mr Pitman's rules. 
 But he failed to convince the Judge on these points. 
 
 Mr Justice Mathew followed the explanations with great 
 care and minuteness, and on the morning of the third day 
 of the trial he delivered judgment at great length, declaring 
 that the evidence led to the " irresistible conclusion that the 
 defendant had been copying the plaintiff's book ; and the 
 only reason why he can say he has not done it is, that he has 
 illustrated the plaintiff's system by different words from 
 those that the plaintiff has used." He concluded by saying, 
 " The defendant felt his way very carefully in commencing 
 his publication. He i)ublished first a small pamphlet, 
 which was printed [chromographcd], and against that the 
 ])laintiff protested, but he thought it a small matter, and 
 he probably hesitated (cither from his own good sense, or 
 from the excellent advice he may have had) about com- 
 mencing a Chancery suit in reference to that. The defen- 
 dant, emboldened perhaps by the plaintiff's neglect, at a 
 certain interval afterwards printed [lithographed] what he
 
 150 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 had previously put forward in a different form, and then 
 again the plaintiff protested. In the year 1880, when this 
 publication was brought to his knowledge, he protested 
 against it and pointed out once more that it was an in- 
 fringement of his copyright, but he took no proceedings. 
 Again the defendant made a further experiment, that 
 expanded work No. 2, and the work the subject of the 
 present proceedings. He expanded the ' Contracted Out- 
 lines^ from 600 to 1,000, and then once more the plaintiff 
 protested. He did allow unquestionably nearly a year to 
 go b}', and then, when the defendant had sent him a copy 
 of his book requesting that he would insert an advertise- 
 ment of it in the Journal, of which the plaintiff was the 
 publisher, the plaintiff determined to bring the matter to 
 an end, and a correspondence commenced, which certainly 
 in the first instance exhibited proper feeling on the part 
 of the defendant ; and the plaintiff would be justified in 
 expecting from that correspondence that the matter might 
 be amicably settled. The correspondence went on for a 
 considerable time, until it was clear that the defendant would 
 not admit what the plaintiff considered his rights in the 
 matter, and then these proceedings were commenced. 
 Now it certainly throws a flood of light upon the plaintiff's 
 conduct in the matter, as we have been informed, in the 
 course of the proceedings, that the defendant is defending 
 this action in forma pauperis . It is perfectly evident that 
 a plaintiff would hesitate a long time before he would 
 attack a man who could not pay damages. Subsequently 
 he was driven to take the course he has taken. Now it 
 is said, ' You ought to give thc^ plaintiff damages ; you 
 ought not to give him an injunction.' That would be 
 denying him all remedy, for the defendant is a man who
 
 MEETING AT EXETER HALL. 151 
 
 cannot pay damages. What is proposed is, that the de- 
 fendant should be suffered to go on to pubHsh this work, 
 which I hold to bean infringeinent of the jjlaintiff's copy- 
 right, the plaintiff being at liberty to sue him from time 
 to time for damages, which he would never recover. If 
 ever there was a case in which the ])owers of the Court 
 ought to be exercised, as asked by the plaintiff, it seems 
 to me that this is that case. I therefore grant the injunc- 
 tion asked for by the plaintiff. I direct the copies of his 
 book now in the defendant's possession either to be given 
 up to the plaintiff, or such an arrangement to be come to 
 between the parties as would preclude the possibility of 
 the work being further published. I further give a formal 
 direction that the plaintiff shall have his costs at any time 
 should the defendant be in a position to pay him." 
 
 In the latter part of 1885 Mr Pitman drew together a 
 large audience, consisting chiefly of young men, assembled 
 to hear him deliver a lecture in Exeter Hall under the 
 auspices of the Young Glen's Christian Association. It 
 will be remembered that thirty-four years before, the highly 
 conservative authorities at Exeter Hall had hesitated to 
 allow a phonetic meeting, in connection with the first 
 great Exhibition of 1851, to be held within those severely 
 respectable walls, and that some pressure and insistence 
 were needed to convince them that the new crusade was a 
 genuine educational movement, with nothing heretical or 
 otherwise dangerous lurking behind it. Now, not even 
 the rigidly orthodox conductors of the Y.M.C.A. suspected 
 a taint of heresy in Mr Pitman's shorthand programme, and 
 he was cordially invited to give their members u jiublic 
 exposition of his system in the Lower Hall, in which the 
 phonetic gathering of 1851 had assembled. Though a
 
 152 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 spacious liall^ it was found insufficient to accommodate the 
 many hundreds of young luen who had come to listen to 
 the now venerable but still hale and hearty inventor of 
 Phonography. The audience was densely packed, and, 
 on ]Mr Pitman's appearance, it cheered him to the echo. 
 
 Not quite knowmg the kind of assembly he was addressing 
 — whether it consisted chiefly of phonographers who had 
 come out of curiosity to see him, or of the outside public 
 who desired to be instructed — he called for a show of hands 
 from those who were acquainted with Phonographj^, and 
 discovered, perhaps to his surprise, that the large majority 
 of his hearers were already his disciples. This, as he 
 remarked, enabled him the better and the sooner to get in 
 touch with them, and rendered needless any such minute 
 explanation of the system as he might otherwise have given. 
 He rather dwelt on the principles underlying the construc- 
 tion of his alphabet; and (the traditions of Exeter Hall 
 notwithstanding) he could not refrain from throwing in a 
 small modicum of Swedenborgian philosophy and applying 
 it to his subject. The masculine and feminine element, 
 said by the Swedish seer to pervade all things in nature, 
 he applied to the consonants and vowels respectively ; and 
 in the pairing of the consonants themselves, as shown in 
 the arrangement of the plionographic symbols, he found 
 another illustration of the same all-pervading dualism. 
 The ''reading reform" was also advocated with the lecturer's 
 accustomed earnestness and energy; and some striking 
 illustrations were given of the inadequacy of the common 
 spelling to convey the sounds of the words rej)resented. 
 
 The year 1886 is rendered noteworthy, in Mr Pitman's 
 history, by several events public and domestic. In the first 
 number of the " Journal " he concluded his Annual .Vddress
 
 DEATH OF MR FREDERICK PITMAN. 153 
 
 to the members of the Phonetic Society by announcing that 
 he had taken into partnership his two sons (Alfred^ born in 
 1862, and Ernest, born in 186 1), who for some years had 
 rendered him valuable assistance in various departments of 
 his business; and that thenceforward the title of the liath 
 firm would be " Isaac Pitman and Sons/' 
 
 Later in the year — Nov. 21st — his youngest brother, 
 Frederick Pitman, who had acted as his publisher in Pater- 
 noster row, died at the early age of fifty-eight. Frederick's 
 early education was undertaken by his brother Isaac (his 
 senior by fifteen years) ; he afterwards went to a school 
 in Bradford, and then returned to his brother, who had 
 settled in Bath. He was there articled to a solicitor, but 
 not taking kindly to the legal profession, he joined his 
 brother Joseph and the author in their early phonographic 
 campaign. A year or two later he entered upon his pub- 
 lishing duties in the little shop in Queen's Head Passage, 
 and, by his good business talents and energy, soon became 
 an important factor in the phonetic propaganda. He was 
 also a contributor to Phonographic literature, editing for 
 many years The Shorthand Magazine and the Phonoyra- 
 phic Lecturer. A skilful note-taker, he often accepted 
 reporting engagements ; and he devoted a great deal of 
 his spare time to teaching Phonography, both privately 
 and in class. He became known, too, as a music j)ub- 
 lisher. The phonographic jjublishing was, at his death, 
 transferred to the present depot at Amen Corner, ^Messrs 
 Isaac Pitman & Sons acting from that date as their 
 own publishers, the business being managed, on tlieir 
 behalf, by Mr Guilbert and Mr Clarence Pitman (sons 
 of Mr Joseph Pitman), who had previously assisted their 
 uncle Frederick at No. 20 in '' The Row."
 
 154 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The following year, 1887, the Jubilee year of Phono- 
 graphy, was an eventful one in Mr Pitman's personal his- 
 tory as well as in the history of his system — indeed of 
 shorthand generally. In view of the wide diffusion of the 
 system throughout Great Britain, and every other English- 
 speaking country, the occurrence of the jubilee year could 
 hardly be allowed to pass without a public celebration, 
 which took place under the most favorable auspices. It 
 was suggested in the beginning of 188G, if not at a still 
 earlier period, that steps should be taken to commemorate 
 the event by a public gathering of phonographers and the 
 friends of phonetic spelling, in London ; and by the 
 presentation of a suitable testimonial to Mr Pitman as a 
 i-ecognition of his life-long labors. The project was readily 
 taken up, and a committee was formed for its execution. 
 The movement, however, very soon entered upon a wider 
 phase, and became associated with another celebration, 
 that of the Tercentenary of the introduction of modern 
 shorthand by Timothy Bright, in the reign of EUzabetli. 
 The actual date of the publication of Bright's famous book 
 (of which only a single copy is known to exist, that in the 
 BotUeian) was 1588, but a manuscript had been unearthed 
 in the British Museum, by Dr A\'estby-Gibson, showing 
 that Bright was writing his system as early as 1586 ; and, 
 taking the mean of these two dates, the Tercentary of 
 modern shorthand was made to fall in 1887, thus hap})ily
 
 JUBILEE OF PHONOGRAPHY. 155 
 
 coinciding with the Jubilee of Phonography, and naturally 
 suggesting a joint celebration. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council of the Shorthand Society 
 (a body representing all systems of shorthand) held on 
 March 3rd, 188G, the following resolution was passed : — 
 That this Council having heard from Mr T. A. Keed 
 a statement as to the proposed Jubilee of Phonography, 
 in 1887, and a public recognition of Mr Pitman's 
 labors, desire to express their entire sympathy with the 
 object, and request Mr Reed to represent them on any 
 committee that may be formed with a view to its pro- 
 motion." And this was followed by another resolution, 
 moved by Dr. Westby-Gibson, and seconded by the writer, 
 " That it is desirable that advantage should be taken of 
 the Phonographic Jubilee of 1887 to hold in London an 
 international gathering of shorthand-writers of all systems, 
 in celebration of the Tercentenary of the origination of 
 modern shorthand by Dr Timothy Bright, 1587." The 
 following " Preliminary Announcement,^' issued in the 
 month of May, will best explain the objects of the Congress, 
 and the methods proposed for their attainment : — 
 
 THE PHONOGRAPHIC JUBILEE AND TERCEXTEXARY OF 
 
 SHORTHAND. 
 
 (Preliminary Announcement.) 
 
 It is proposed to hold in the Autumn of 18S7 an International Con- 
 gress of Shorthand Writers of all existing systems, and of persons in- 
 terested in shorthand generally, to celebrate conjointly two events of 
 importance. (1) The Jubilee of the introduction of Mr Isaac Pitman's 
 system of Phonography, marking as it does an era in the development 
 of shorthand on scientific principles. (2) The Tercentenary of Modern 
 Shorthand originated by Dr Timothy Bright about 1587, continued by 
 Peter Bales (l.JDO), John Willis (ICOl'), Edmoud Willis (1(J18), Shelton
 
 156 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 (1620), Cartwright (1642), Rich (1646), Mason (1672^, Gurney (1740), 
 Byrom (1767), Mavor (1780), Taylor (1786), Lewis (1812), and many 
 others in past generations, and finally by Mr Pitman and other English 
 and Continental authors of the present day. It is hoped that the com- 
 bined movement will bring together a large assembly of shorthand 
 writers, professional and otherwise, who will be willing to work fra- 
 ternally and earnestly in the interests of the science-art which has for 
 tbree centuries been a power in the world and a blessing to mankind. 
 
 1. The Phonographic Jubilee. 
 
 The year 1837 will always be regarded as an era in the history of 
 shorthand. Before that date very little had been done to popularize 
 the art ; nearly all the instruction books devoted to it were expensive, 
 and the systems expounded were wanting in many of the features which 
 are essential to a shorthand method applicable at once to the needs of 
 the professional reporter and to the requirements of e very-day life. It is 
 no exaggeration to say that the appearance of the little work, " Steno- 
 graphic Sound-hand," in 1837, inaugurated something like a shorthand 
 revolution. The phonetic basis of the system and the ingenuity of its 
 construction soon attracted adherents not only among the general pub- 
 lic, to whom shorthand was a mystery, but among the writers of other 
 systems, many of whom, at no little sacrifice of time and labor, aban- 
 doned their old methods, and willingly, even eagerly, adopted the new 
 one. The energy and industry with which Mr Pitman threw himself 
 into the work of developing the system, aided by the efforts of a band 
 of enthusiastic disciples, had their natural effect. Successive editions 
 of the system were published, embracing the improvements suggested 
 by the experience of the author and his friends, and before the first 
 decade of its history had expired it had obtained a commanding posi- 
 tion among professional reporters, while among amateur stenographers 
 and the general public it had practically superseded all its competitors. 
 
 Like so many other inventions, Phonography, as it came to bo called, 
 appeared at a time when it was specially required. The rapid develop- 
 ment of the newspaper press created a demand for shorthand work 
 which had never before existed ; and a still wider and more general 
 field was opened in largo commercial and legal offices, whore the value 
 of skilled phonographers was gradually recognised, to such an extent 
 indeed that their employment is now regarded as a matter of absolute 
 necos.sity. Increased facilities were offered to students for reporting 
 lectures and copying extracts ; and for friendly, social and intellectual
 
 PHONOGRAPHIC JUBILEE. 157 
 
 intercourse the new medium of communication was bailed with grati- 
 tude by thousands. It is needless to add anything as to the position 
 which the system now holds in every English-speaking-and-writing 
 community. Not only our own country but the world has been the 
 gainer by the invention, and in view of the jubilee of its introduction, 
 it is not too much to ask its hundreds of thousands of adherents who 
 have derived practical benefit from it to unite in testifying their obli- 
 gations to the inventor and presenting him with some mark of their 
 appreciation of his life-long labors. 
 
 Every lover of phonetic spelling will readily recognise the services 
 which Mr. Pitman has rendered in that direction through the medium 
 of his system. In no more effective way could the phonetic principle 
 be applied than in a system of shorthand daily and hourly used through- 
 out the country. No longer the dream of the philologist or the education- 
 alist, the principle has received practical embodiment and application 
 in Phonography, and the attention of the public has thus been aroused, 
 to an extent that could hardly have been attained by any other agency, 
 to the defects and inconsistencies of English orthography, and the neces- 
 sity of removing them. It is believed, therefore, that all phonetic 
 reformers will willingly join in some enduring memorial which it is 
 proposed to make in honor of Mr Pitman. 
 
 2. International Congress and Tekcentknarv of Modern 
 Shorthand. 
 
 In this portion of the celebration it is intended to commemorate an 
 event of paramount importance in the history of shorthand — its origi- 
 nation by Dr. Timothy Bright in 1587. the 300th year happily co-inciding 
 with the Jubilee of Phonography. A Congress will be held in London 
 at which papers will be read and discussed dealing with the history, 
 development, and literature of shorthand from Bright's days to Pitman's ; 
 also with matters of a more practical nature bearing upon the present 
 and future uses of shorthand, and the prospects of the art generally. 
 In connection with the Congress it is proposed to hold an Exhibition of 
 shorthand works of every description, including books written and 
 printed in shorthand, stenographic curiosities, and other objects of 
 interest. There will also be opportunities of social intercourse ; and 
 every effort will be made to render the occasion a memorable one in the 
 history of the art. Resolutions have been passed unanimously in favor 
 of the movement by the Councils of the Shorthand Society ; the Short- 
 hand Writers' Association, Westminster ; the London Phonetic Short-
 
 158 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 hand Writers' Association ; and the ^Manchester Shorthand Writers' 
 Association. A Committee has been formed, in a thoroughly cosmo- 
 politan spirit, of gentlemen who are writers of various shorthand sys- 
 tems, but who are all desirous of doing honor to Mr Pitman while 
 seeking to advance the interests of shorthand throughout the world. 
 The co-operation of all persons interested in shorthand is earnestly 
 sought. 
 
 Whatever funds may be collected will, after paying the expenses of the 
 Celebration, be devoted primarily to some method of recognizing and 
 perpetuating Jlr Pitman's name and services, his own wishes being 
 consulted as to the precise mode of application. It is understood that 
 Mr Pitman would prefer the initiation of some large scheme of useful- 
 ness in the promotion of shorthand study to any mere personal gift to 
 himself, and it will be the endeavor of the committee to give the best 
 effect they can to this disinterested desire on his part. 
 
 Remittances can be made to the Treasurer, at 37 Cursitor street, 
 Chancery lane, London, E.G. 
 
 For further information, letters may be addressed to the Chairman 
 
 at the same address ; or to Dr. Westby-Gibson, 10 Great Coram street, 
 
 Russell square, London, W.C. 
 
 THOMAS A. REED (Chairman and Treasurer). 
 
 JOHN WESTBY-GIBSON (Hon. Sec). 
 
 A. W. KITSON I ,T • , o . ■ ^ 
 
 (Jomt Secretaries. ) 
 
 A. W. REED J ^ ' 
 
 Mdij, IS8(J. 
 
 A large and inlluential Committee was formed, aided by local Com- 
 mittees, to carry out the above objects. 
 
 It was feared by some timid or over-cautious phono- 
 graphers, as well as by certain writers of the earlier systems, 
 that a joint celebration of this character could not be carried 
 out without an amount of friction which would seriously 
 imperil its success. Nor was the apprehension altogether 
 groundless. At an early stage of the deliberations some 
 inij)ortaiit divergences of opinion arose as to the relative 
 claims of |^the two branches of the celebration, and as to 
 the disj)()sal of any funds which might remain after de- 
 fraying the expenses of the Congress. Phonographers,
 
 PHONOGRAPHIC JUBILEE. 159 
 
 who constituted by far the largest proportion of the suh- 
 scribers, were naturally desirous that tlieir own system, 
 the most ])opular in the country, s^hould stand in the 
 fore-front of the movement. The majority of the writers 
 of other systems were perfectly willing to concede this 
 reasonable claim^ but others were less compliant, and it 
 was not without some difficulty that a satisfactory modus 
 vivendi was arrived at. The problem was ultimately sol\ ed 
 by the appointment, by the General Committee (a large 
 and influential body, comprising a number of public men 
 who, though not writing shorthand, recognized its value and 
 sympathized with the celebration) of two sub-committees 
 (1) the Jubilee Committee, presided over by the author, 
 and (2) the Tercentenary Committee, whose president was 
 Mr W. II. Gurncy-Salter, the shorthand writer to the 
 Houses of Lords and Commons, and the official representa- 
 tive of the Gurney system. To the first were delegated 
 the arrangements for the Phonographic Jubilee, and to 
 the second the arrangements for the more general part 
 of the programme, dealing with topics of interest to the 
 writers of all systems of shorthand. It was further ar- 
 ranged that after all expenses had been defrayed, two-thirds 
 of the surplus should be handed over to the Jubilee section 
 of the Committee for appropriation as it might deem fit, 
 and the remaining one-third to the Tercentenary section. 
 
 Every effort was made, and no expense spared, to make 
 the Congress a success, the Committee believing that no 
 better appropriation of the funds could be made, in the 
 interests of Phonography and the art of shorthand generally, 
 than by calling public attention, in Great Britain and other 
 countries, to this gathering of the stenographic clans, and 
 giving it all the eclat which its promoters desired. It was
 
 160 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 decided by the Jubilee Committee at an early stage of the 
 arrangements that its share of the surplus, or whatever 
 portion of it might be required, should be applied to 
 defraying the cost of a marble bust of Mr Isaac Pitman, 
 to be presented during the sittings of the Congress. The 
 execution of the bust was entrusted to the well-known 
 sculptor, Mr Thomas Brock, who succeeded in producing 
 an admirable likeness and a highly valued work of art, 
 which was exhibited at the Academy in the following year. 
 The Congress was held during the week beginning 
 September 6th, at the Geological Museum, Jermyn street, 
 London, which was lent by the Lords of the Council for 
 the occasion. It was a large and, up to that period, a 
 unique assembly, comprising representatives of shorthand 
 systems throughout the world. France and Germany were 
 the principal continental countries from which delegates 
 were sent. The large majority of the English members 
 were, of course, phonographers, but some of the older 
 systems — chiefly Gurney and Taylor — were well repre- 
 sented. Five of the six days were devoted to topics of 
 general stenographic interest, and one day — Wednesday — 
 was appropriated exclusively to the Jubilee of Phonography. 
 At the opening meeting Lord Rosebery, who had accepted 
 the office of president, delivered the inaugural address. It 
 was a brilliant and masterly composition, and eloquently 
 enforced the importance of the cultivation of shorthand 
 not only for professional and literary purposes, but for the 
 ordinary affairs of life. Of any knowledge of the art itself 
 his lordship avowed himself " absolutely innocent and 
 guileless ;'^ but, he humorously added, having read that 
 between the time of Willis and Pitman 201 systems had 
 been published, and 281 since, it was almost a relief to feel
 
 ISAAC ^PITMAN. 
 From a Marble Biis/^hy Thomas Brock, Esq., R.A.
 
 JUBILEE OF PHONOGRAPHY. 161 
 
 that one was utterly ignorant of each and all of tliese me- 
 thods. Dealing with the j)ublie uses of the art, he inquired 
 how^ if by any autocratic power shorthand were to be 
 suspended throughout the world for a week, the universe 
 could possibly get on during that time. " My imagina- 
 tion/^ he said, " does not reach to it.'^ One of the 
 strongest points in his speech was that relating to the use 
 of shorthand in pubHc offices — a use which he had himself, 
 when in office, endeavored to promote. The telegraph, 
 the telephone, the postal card, were nothing, he said, but 
 the signals of distress of an overstrained civilization. " Our 
 first economy should be in the direction of a much greater 
 em])loyment of shorthand in our public offices. In these 
 days of rigid and anxious competition in commercial mat- 
 ters we must make it understood by all growing lads that 
 a knowledge of shorthand is indispensable to a mercantile 
 career, and we must also bring this fact home to all who 
 aspire to secretarial and clerical posts." 
 
 The following day was devoted to the first Conference, 
 at which a number of papers were read and discussed, Lord 
 Rosebery attending and taking part in the deliberations. 
 
 The Phonographic celebration occupied the wdiole of 
 Wednesday, and it was perhaps the most important public 
 event in the history of Mr Pitman and his system. There 
 was a Morning Conference, presided over by Dr. J. H. 
 Gladstone, an old phouographer and spelling reformer. 
 Mr Pitman read a short paper on " Tiie Spelling Reform, 
 and How to Get it," and other comuuuiications bearing 
 on the development and dissemination of Phonography 
 were presented. Similar papers were read and discussed 
 at the Afternoon Conference, Mr Pitman's contribution 
 being on '' The Genesis of Phonograj)hy." He gave some
 
 162 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 interesting details (already set forth in these pages) of 
 his early labors in the construction of the Phonographic 
 Alphabet^ but said he had not a scrap of record of the 
 numerous shorthand alphabets which he had invented and 
 used throughout the memorable six months during which 
 the system w^as " on the anvil." The exact date of the 
 publication of his ^' Stenographic Soundhand " he was able 
 to fix by a letter written by himself to Mr Bagster^ on the 
 14th of November, 1837, and sent with a consignment of 
 200 copies, out of the 3,000 of which the edition consisted. 
 The parcel was received in London on the next day, and 
 the book was thus published on the 15th of November. 
 
 The chief feature of the Jubilee celebration was the 
 evening gathering in the Theatre, which was crowded with 
 phonographers from all parts of the country, as well as the 
 writers of other systems at home and abroad, who desired 
 to join in the congratulations to be offered to the venerable 
 guest of the evening. It had every appearance of a plea- 
 sant family gathering, with a few w elcome visitors who had 
 dropped in to offer their felicitations. Mr Pitman was 
 accompanied by Mrs Pitman and his two sons, Alfred 
 and Ernest, his brother Henry, from Manchester, two of 
 his sisters. Miss Rose Pitman and IMrs Webster, and his 
 nephews, Harry, Guilbert, and Clarence, sons of Mr Joseph 
 Pitman. Dr J. H. Gladstone was among the visitors ; and 
 ]Mr Brock, the sculptor, was present throughout the pro- 
 ceedings, and received many a compliment on the success- 
 ful and highly satisfactory completion of his marble bust, 
 W'hich was on the platform ready for the process of un- 
 veiling. For a second time the author, as an old friend 
 and fellow-worker with INIr Pitman, and a rcj)resentative 
 phonographic jn-actitioner, had the honor of being selected
 
 JUBILEE OP PHONOGRAPHY. 163 
 
 as the medium for the presentation of a memorial of 
 gratitude and esteem from his many disciples throughout 
 the world. After an opening address, in which he endea- 
 vored to set forth Mr Pitman's claims to this j)ublic recog- 
 nition of his services during the long period of fifty years, 
 he made the presentation in the following terms : — " Now, 
 Mr Pitman, I have to discharge what is perhaps the plea- 
 santest duty that has ever devolved upon me, that of asking 
 you to accept for your family from the phonographers of 
 Great Britain and Ireland this marble bust. It will be to 
 them a constant reminder of the regard and aflfection enter- 
 tained towards you by those who have known best how to 
 appreciate your labors ; and it will, at the same time, be 
 an acceptable legacy to posterity. Not that it is needed to 
 secure you a place in the recollection of your countrymen. 
 Your work, far better than even ]\Ir Brock's faithful chisel, 
 will keep alive your memory in the future ; but all the 
 more will those who fill our places in the coming years be 
 grateful to us for having preserved to them the lineaments 
 of a man to whom they are so deeply indebted for the ser- 
 vices he has rendered and the example he has set." 
 
 The bust was then duly unveiled amid the enthusiastic 
 greetings of the assembly. Then followed congratulatory 
 addresses which had been forwarded from Adelaide and 
 Sydney, and another from the phonographers of Carlisle. 
 Besides these an album of photographic views had been 
 sent from Rome, and an announcement was made that a 
 gold medal was being struck in the United States in com- 
 memoration of the Jubilee. Various telegraphic congratu- 
 lations were also handed in, including one from the vene- 
 rable stenographer (of the Stolze school), Dr Michaelis, of 
 Berlin. In response to these, Mr Pitman, who was, of
 
 164 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 course, greeted with a hearty outburst of cheering, said : 
 "Mr Chairman, and my dear and affectionate friends : There 
 is a passage in the Divine Woi'd that has rested upon my 
 mind for a month or two as one that I could use on the 
 present occasioa. It is a Divine inquiry submitted to us 
 to institute a kind of self-introspection or self-examination. 
 It runs thus : ' Seekest thou great things for thyself ?' If 
 we put that question to our own hearts, I think there are 
 very few of us who can say that we do not. The inquiry 
 is followed by a positive command from the ]\Iaker of the 
 Universe, ' Seek them not.' I have quoted this portion 
 of the Divnie Word for the purpose of saying that, con- 
 sciously, that passage has been my guide from my youth 
 up. To-night instead of feeling that I am a kind of 
 Roman citizen, and that you have placed a civic crown 
 upon my brow, I rather feel in the condition of a criminal 
 arraigned before this Court on the charge of having sought 
 great things for myself. I fancy to myself somehow that 
 our venerable chairman is the judge. If he were but be- 
 wigged, which would well become him, he would be an 
 admirable judge — a very Portia. And my friends upon 
 the front row seem to me to be the jury — the graud jury ; 
 and the seats behind filled with the public, are the audience : 
 and now I stand before you in some sense as a criminal 
 arraigned before the world for having sought great things 
 for myself ; and I must from my heart declare myself 
 ' Not guilty.^ If you, in your clemency, come to the 
 same conclusion, I shall go from this meeting a happy 
 man. And then to turn to this bust, a doubt is suggested 
 to my mind somehow, and I cannot get rid of it. I have 
 some hesitation in deciding which is the man and which is 
 the image. I must really appeal to Mr Brock. (Mr Brock
 
 JDBILEE OF PHONOGRAPHY. 165 
 
 answered with ;i smile.) I think this (pointing to the 
 bust) must be the man, sueh as he ought to be for purity 
 and beauty, and this (pointing to himself) the imperfect 
 image. I only wonder how my friend Mr Brock could 
 have made such an image from such a subject/' Then, 
 passing from himself to his subject, he narrated, as an 
 illustration of what can be accomplished by writing, and 
 the astonishment it creates among those unaccustomed to 
 it, the familiar story of the Missionary Williams and the 
 chip, which did such excellent service as an introductory 
 paragraph in the addresses of the young phonographic 
 lecturers in the early days of their crusade. '^ My object 
 in life," he added, " has been to make the presentation of 
 thought as simple of execution, and as visible to the eye, 
 as possible. Fifty years are a long time in the life of a 
 man, and I have prosecuted my labors for that length of 
 time, and though I cannot say that we have got in Phono- 
 graphy the best shorthand outline for every word, I do 
 maintain that we are not very far from it. I think that 
 the only thing that remains to be done is, to select any 
 words that are not facile and beautiful in form, easy of 
 execution by the reporter's hand, consider them and put 
 them in the best possible form, and then we shall have 
 completed our work." Then, after an allusion to the many 
 indications of the daily increase in the popularity of Pho- 
 nography, Mr Pitman glanced at the question of the 
 Spelling Reform, and extracted an additional plea for it 
 from the manner in which Lord Rosebery, in his inaugural 
 address, had pronounced the word " tercentenary," accent- 
 ing the ante-penultimate, and making the e long. " His 
 lordship/' he said, " has not noticed a law of orthoepy 
 that runs through the language, namely, that all long
 
 166 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 words that end in ary, ery, ory, are accented on the fourth 
 syllable from the end, or what scholars term the pre-ante- 
 penultimate. If Lord Rosebery's attention were called to 
 that little law, he would speak of the Tercentenary of the 
 introduction of shorthand into England. There are similar 
 variations with other words. Phonetic spelling will direct 
 to the right accent, when the accented syllable contains a 
 long vowel." After this little criticism ou Lord Rosebery's 
 orthoepy, which gave rise to some newspaper correspond- 
 ence as to the proper pronunciation of the word in question, 
 Mr Pitman again assumed the role of a prisoner arraigned 
 at the bar of justice and awaiting the verdict. The chair- 
 man, thus finding himself suddenly invested with judicial 
 functions, submitted the case to the audience as the only 
 jury capable of deciding it. A hearty burst of cheers and 
 laughter followed, which the chairman interpreted to mean 
 a verdict of " Not guilty," adding, according to the cus- 
 tomary formula, that the self-arraigned prisoner '^ left the 
 court without a stain upon his character." This little 
 interlude ended, Mr Pitman said : " Well, my friends, I 
 accept these beautiful gifts, including the bust, with the 
 deepest and most affectionate gratitude of which my nature 
 IS capable. They shall be a stimulus to me to work on in 
 the same line, but, if possible, with increased diligence and 
 faithfulness." Mr Ernest Pitman also, in behalf of the 
 family, returned thanks " for the cordial way in which 
 phonographers had shown their appreciation of his father's 
 labors in the shorthand world." In behalf of the foreign 
 visitors. Dr. I)reinh6f(U' moved a congratulatory resolution, 
 which was seconded by J)r Gladstone, and supported by 
 Mr Crump, Q.C., an old phonographer ; Dr Gantter, a 
 representative of the Gabclsberger system, in Germany ;
 
 JUBILEE OF PHONOGRAPHY. 167 
 
 Ur Weber, who represented the French stenographers; 
 Mr J. H. Giivney-Salter ; Mr J. C. Moor, of Sunderland; 
 Mr J. B. Lawson, of Edinburgh ; and Professor Bridge, 
 of the " Chatauqua University," who spoke in behalf of 
 the phonogra])hc'rs of America. 
 
 Thus ended the Jubilee celebration, but not the encom- 
 iums showered on Mr Pitman. He was the principal guest 
 at the luncheon given to the members of the Congress at 
 the Mansion House, by the Lord Mayor, Sir Reginald 
 Hanson, who had previously assisted in promoting the 
 study of Phonography at the City of London School. In 
 proposing the toast of the " International Shorthand Con- 
 gress," the Lord Mayor coupled with it several well-known 
 names, the foremost being that of Mr Pitman, with which, 
 he said he had been familiar from boyhood. There was 
 no difference of opinion, he thought, as to Mi* Pitman 
 being the most eminent living inventor of shorthand in 
 England ; and it had been a matter of pleasure to him to 
 follow the expressions of sympathy and good feeling from 
 those who had studied his system, and had presented him 
 with a testimonial of their esteem. 
 
 The proceedings of the Congress and the Jubilee celebra- 
 tion were very fully reported in the Times, which devoted 
 several columns to them daily, and in the other London 
 and provincial journals, and a great stimulus was thus 
 given to the cultivation of shorthand (Phonography in par- 
 ticular) for educational, commercial and professional pur- 
 poses. Among many other persons of distinction whose 
 attention was thus specially directed to the subject, may 
 be mentioned Viscount Bury, who was abroad at the time, 
 and who was so much interested in the reports which 
 reached him of the proceedings in Jermyn street that he
 
 168 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 forthwith ordered a set of Mr Pitman's books, and has 
 since become a proficient phonographer. Lord Rosebery 
 did not follow his example ; but he has not ceased to take an 
 interest in the art, which he did so much by his presidency 
 of the Congress to encourage. He took an early opportu- 
 nity, after the Congress was ended, of calling on Mr Pitman 
 and expressing his deep sense of the value of his labors. 
 
 But the inventor of Phonography had other honors 
 awaiting him. Shortly after the Jubilee celebration he 
 gave an address to some of his co-religionists and fellow- 
 townsmen in Bath, on " The Origin and Progress of the 
 Writing and Spelling Reform." It was on the loth of 
 November, that being the very day on which, fifty years 
 before, the first edition of Phonography was published by 
 Samuel Bagster and Sons. At the close of the address a 
 handsome miniature portrait of Mr Pitman, on ivory, 
 painted by Mrs Harbutt, was presented to him by the 
 chairman, the Rev. John Martin, who said he had been 
 commissioned to assure him that it represented '^ a wealth 
 of affection and personal regard which no words of his 
 could adequately express." Mr Pitman was greatly touched 
 by this gratifying testimony of the kindly sentiments 
 cherished towards him by those to whom he was best 
 known. Chivalrously handing the portrait to his wife, to 
 whom, he said, rightfully belonged the results of whatever 
 Avisdom, or tact, or business capacity he possessed, he ac- 
 knowledged the gilt on her behalf and his own, but regretted 
 the inadequacy of his words to express the gratitude he felt. 
 The portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy of 1888. 
 
 The American gold medal which was struck to com- 
 memorate the Phonographic Jubilee was not received until 
 February, 1888. It was accompanied by an address, which
 
 AMERICAN TRIBUTE. 169 
 
 indicated the liig'h L'stiuiate forincd in the United States of 
 Mr Pitman and his hiburs. Writini^ in behalf of the 
 subscribers^ the connnittee say : — 
 
 But very few of the number who, in America, are now prac- 
 tising? the art which your patient study of the principles that 
 should govern the creation of written lanp^uafje enabled you 
 to present to the world, know the early history of yoiir work- 
 Before your text-books were printed, shorthand writing was 
 looked upon as a mystery, and the man who could, by its use, 
 reproduce the utterances of a speaker, was a phenomenon of 
 dexterity, and was regarded as little less than a nine days' 
 wonder. And there was reason for the belief. Those who 
 have compared the lessened lengths of forms in Phonography 
 with the cumbrous outlines of the systems of Gurney, Taylor, 
 Harding, Byrom, Gould and others, niarvel mucli that with 
 them the requisite skill could be acquired to successfully report 
 words uttered with the rapidity of colloquial speech. ' Steno- 
 graphic Sound Hand,' as given by you to the world a half- 
 century since, was the prophecy and promise of a new revela- 
 tion in the art that was realised in 1848. For Phonograi^hy 
 was a system of shorthand founded on scientific principles and 
 unfolded in systematic arrangement and analogic harmony. 
 It was the first in which the simplest signs were employed; 
 the first in which cognate sounds were represented by cognate 
 signs ; the first in wliich those elementary sounds admitting of 
 classification in groups were represented by groups of analo- 
 gous symVjols; the first in which the attempt was made to give 
 circles, hooks, and loops distinct offices for efficient service in 
 the stenographic art. By it the language was for the first time 
 successfully presented in shorthand on a phonetic basis, and 
 one who could read it could hardly fail to know the spoken 
 words. 
 
 But the medal which you now have is not a tribute to your 
 inventive genius alone. The evolution of a new idea is but 
 haK the work. It is not alone the inventor who accomplishes 
 gi-eat puri)oses. As much credit is due to him who bi-ings the 
 improvement before the world with strength of purpose to 
 command attention. And when the inventor and adapter com- 
 bines i^ersistence with creative talent to the extent that the
 
 170 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 world recognizes the trutli of liis stateraents and acts upon 
 them, then more than double credit is due. In America, in 
 nearly every commercial house, cori^oration, and public journal, 
 in our commercial and manufacturing centres, in our Courts of 
 law and equity, and in deliberative bodies ; indeed, in every 
 place where much wi-iting is done, the stenographer is a needed 
 adjunct, and his presence was made possible by youi' work. 
 Phonography came to us unheralded to meet a then unvoiced 
 demand. With a status secured it created a further demand 
 for its application in spheres of usefulness for which scarce 
 any had thought it available. 
 
 With few exceptions, American wi-iters who have presented 
 the system have frankly acknowledged their indebtedness to 
 j'ou as its discoverer and inventor. In so doing they have but 
 followed the lead of the distinguished pioneers, Stephen Pearl 
 Andi-ews and Augustus P. Boyle, who in their text-books pub- 
 lished forty years ago, used these words : 
 
 " A system of writing, to be perfect, should have one uniform 
 method of representing every sound of the voice that is uttered 
 in speaking, and which is obviously distinct. In the next place 
 it is desirable for i)ractical purposes to obtain the gi'eatest pos- 
 sible brevity, and therefore the characters or letters by which 
 these sounds are represented, should be the simplest in their 
 f oi-m that can be found. And in the third place, in order to fa- 
 cilitate the learning and use of them, they ought to be selected 
 and arranged in strict correspondence with the nature and order 
 of the sounds which they represent ; thus, sounds which are 
 related to each other by similitude of organic formation, should 
 1)6 represented by signs having in their forms a corresponding 
 resemblance ; in other words, the best system of wi-iting will be 
 (1) true; (2) brief; and (3) analogical. These properties are 
 admirably combined in the system of phonetic shorthand — the 
 production of the genius and labors of Mr Pitman." 
 
 It only remains for us to wish you health, happiness and 
 prosperity dui-ing the remainder of your career on earth, and 
 that j'our life may be spared as long as existence shall be a 
 pleasure to yourself and add to the happiness of others. 
 We are, respectfully yours, 
 
 Edward F. Underhill, ^ 
 
 Eliza B. Burnz, !- Committee. 
 
 James E. Munson, ^
 
 PRESENTATION AT BATH. 171 
 
 In the next year, 1889, Mr Pitman was the reci- 
 pient of another testimonial from his fellow-citizens in 
 Bath. Closely following upon the national recognition of 
 his services, an eflFort was made to commemorate them in 
 his own adopted city. At a meeting held at the Guildhall, 
 under the presidency of the Mayor, Mr H. W. Freeman, 
 he was presented with a replica of Mr Brock's Jubilee bust, 
 accompanied by an appropriate address. " As an old 
 inhabitant of Bath," said Mr Murch, in making the pre- 
 sentation, "representing the friends whose names are 
 inscribed in this book, and indirectly a much larger num- 
 ber, I beg to offer your bust for your acceptance. We 
 have heard of your kind intention respecting it. We are 
 glad to know that it will find a congenial home within 
 those walls v/here we have so often met you. We hope it 
 will be generally thought that the sculptor has shown his 
 accustomed skill and increased his well-known reputation. 
 We believe that to your fellow-citizens, to the young espe- 
 cially, it will be a valuable memorial of one who, through a 
 long and useful life, has gained their sincere respect and 
 set an admirable example of intelligent, benevolent perse- 
 verance. May you still be blessed with health and strength 
 for many years to continue that example, to share the 
 well-earned pleasures of old age with those who are near 
 and dear to you — 'love, obedience, honor, troops of friends,' 
 and to benefit mankind by hastening the time when know- 
 ledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the channels of 
 the deep." In acknowledging the testimonial, Mr Pitman 
 said : — " If I were a Stoic, a neat sentence of thanks might 
 suffice for acknowledging this beautiful gift. But I am 
 not a Stoic. I am indeed deeply moved by the kindness 
 of the friends who have subscribed to this testimonial. I
 
 172 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 am especially indebted to Mr Tyte, who originated the 
 subscription, and to Mr Murch, who completed it. What- 
 ever of honor there may be in this presentation, I refer it 
 not to myself, but render it to the Lord, to whom alone 
 all honor belongs. The Literary Institution has kindly 
 offered to accept the bust, and to place it in the Reading 
 room, and I have much pleasure in asking Mr Murch, as 
 the representative of the Listitution, to accept it. I like to 
 think of English literature under the form of a vast temple, 
 with a portico supported on two pillars, on one of which is 
 inscribed the single word ' Letters,' and on the other 
 ' Numbers.^ The temple is adorned with the statues of 
 the men, English and American, who have made the litera- 
 ture, the science, and the art, that now illumine, beautify, 
 and bless the world. No one is permitted to pass the 
 portico of this temple who is ignorant of letters and num- 
 bers, and their combinations. These little marks, ' a, b, c,' 
 and ' 1, 2, 3/ that seem in themselves to have no more 
 meaning than the marks of birds' feet in the snow, are 
 really the foundation of our civilization. There can be 
 but little trade and commerce, and no literature, without 
 these seemingly insignificant signs. In the use of figures 
 wc are consistent, but in the use of letters we are incon- 
 sistent. Figures always re])resent certain quantities or 
 numbers, but letters are used arbitrarily; and long and 
 weary is the task to find out what they mean.'' Mr Pitman 
 spoke a good word for Spelling Reform, showed the incon- 
 sistencies of our orthography, and demonstrated what Max 
 Milller calls its " unteachable " character. For the sake 
 of the rich, who learn it to a marvelous degree of accuracy, 
 after years of toil ; and for the sake of the poor, who cannot 
 learn it, he wished the Spelling Kcforni all success.
 
 PRESENTATION AT THE HOLBORN RESTAURANT. 173 
 
 This^ howevei', was not the end of the second series of 
 Jubilee celebrations, for a few weeks later, on the 7th of 
 March, an English gold Jubilee Medal was presented to 
 Mr Pitman at a public dinner, at the Holborn Restaurant, 
 under the presidency of the Hon. Viscount Biu-y, who, 
 as already stated, had recently become a student of 
 Phonography. " Fifty years ago," said his lordship, 
 " Mr Pitman found shorthand in a very chaotic condition ; 
 and a man who, out of such elements, could evolve a system 
 which was brief, rapid, legible, and easily acquired, and 
 which had so quickly taken the foremost place among 
 shorthand methods, must be a remarkable man. But he 
 had done more than that, for by his indomitable energy he 
 had brought his system to such a position that the little 
 seedling which he sowed fifty years ago was now spreading 
 its branches over the civilised world." Again Mr. Pitman 
 was called upon to express his acknowledgments. In the 
 course of his speech he was able to announce that Phono- 
 graphy had been adapted to the Malagasy language, by the 
 Queen^s Private Secretary, who reported the speeches of the 
 House of Representatives in Madagascar, and was hold- 
 ing weekly classes for instruction in shorthand. He also 
 alluded to the adaptation of Phonography to Spanish and 
 Dutch, and was sanguine enough to avow his belief that his 
 system would eventually be adapted to all languages, 
 being founded on principles of universal application. 
 
 Curiously enough on the very day on which this con- 
 cluding Jubilee gathering, as it may be called, was held, 
 Mr Pitman and his sons were taking possession of a new 
 Phonetic Institute in Rath, the premises near the Abbey 
 being found inadec^uate to meet the increasing necessities 
 of the business.
 
 17 4> 
 
 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 T/ie New Phonetic Insiituie, Bath. 
 
 The building is situated near the Great Western Railway 
 and the Midland Railway Goods Stations, and a mile from 
 the centre of the city. It is a one-storeyed building, 
 giving the maximum of light and the firmest foundation. 
 
 Much of the w^ork of the Phonetic Institute is now taken 
 off Mr Pitman's shoulders, but he still carries on an 
 extensive correspondence, edits his weekly journal, and 
 takes a leading part in the issue of the many publications 
 that pass through his press. On small slips of paper, 
 which are always by his side, he writes in Phonography 
 half a dozen letters while most men would be laboring 
 through one. The author has I'eceived hundreds of such 
 letters from him, (many of them discussing minutely the 
 details of his system,) -which in all probability would never 
 have been written if longhand had l)een the only available 
 channel of communication. The following letter will be 
 of interest as revealing a noteworthy trait in Mr Pitman's 
 character.
 
 A SHORTHAND LETTER. 
 
 175 
 
 
 S^ 
 
 
 
 -7 ^ y 

 
 176 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 Bath, 30th March, 1886. 
 
 Isaac Pitman to Thomas Allen Reed. 
 
 Ton have removed the only objection I felt to the vigor- 
 ous prosecution of the Jubilee of Phonography, and its advocacy 
 in the Phonetic Journal, by suggesting that whatever sum be 
 i-aised as a thank-offering should be utilized for the extension 
 of Phonography. This has my hearty approval. 
 
 I am happy to say I need no addition to the income I derive 
 from the copyright of Phonography. But I think a better ap- 
 propriation of the funds will be f oiind than the institution of 
 prizes for the best and swiftest wi-iters. This would seem to 
 involve the holding of the championship gold medal for the year. 
 Think what labor and anxiety would attend the examination 
 of several hundreds or thousands of specimens of wi-iting, and 
 after a decision had been come to nobody would be a " pin " the 
 better, not even the winners. 
 
 If it is a defect in my mental constitution to be without 
 " emulation " [or jealousy] one of " the works of the flesh" 
 {Gal. 5. 20), I suppose I must bear it with all contentment, but 
 I confess that I never, as a boy or a man, felt a wish to rival or 
 outstrip another, but only to excel my former self. 
 
 But we need not now consider this part of the Jubilee. I 
 shall be glad to assist in any way I can, with the Journal at my 
 back. Farewell. 
 
 The proceedings of the Congress were published in an 
 8vo volume of 460 pages, entitled, " Transactions of the 
 First International Shorthand Congress, held in London 
 from September .2Gth to October 1st, 1887." An Appendi.x 
 of 48 pages was added giving a Catalogue of 1,451 volumes 
 of shorthand systems, pamphlets and periodicals, etc., on 
 the history, use, and extension of shorthand, in English, 
 French, and German. These volumes were exhibited at 
 St Jameses Hall Restaurant, Piccadilly. The book was 
 speedily out of print. The proceedings of Wednesday 
 have since been published separately.
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 177 
 
 Mr Pitman is now (1890) in his 78th year. Rising 
 generally between half-past four and five o'clock, he reads 
 as part of his morning devotion, a portion of Swedeiiborg's 
 exposition of the Spiritual Sense of the Scriptures, then 
 walks a mile to his office, and arrives there at six o'clock. 
 He continues his labors, with brief intervals for breakfast, 
 lunch and half - an - hour's siesta, until half- past - five. 
 Sometimes he goes out to an evening meeting or a concert. 
 He takes a great interest in all the public movements of 
 the day, especially such as relate to educational and social 
 advancement, but is too much absorbed in his own special 
 sphere of labor to take any prominent part in their pro- 
 motion. He has often been solicited to join the municipal 
 body ; and a pressing invitation was given to him last 
 year, in order that the Town Council might oflfer him the 
 mayoralty. But he has had no ambition in that direc- 
 tion, and has contented himself with the ])osition of a 
 private citizen. 
 
 Speaking in 1818, in Nottingham, he said, "I am now 
 35 years of age. My father, an eldest son, is Gl, and is 
 scarcely past the prime of life ; and his father, who is 81, 
 gives promise of a few more years in this world. And I 
 have further to add that when I was seven years of age I 
 attended my great-grandfather's funeral. I hope, then, 
 that through the Divine mercy, I may reach the age of 80, 
 and in the 15 years of this period yet to come I fully expect 
 to see phonetic printing so far established that a return to 
 unphonetic spelling will be impossible." As far as age is 
 concerned he has nearly realised his expectation, and still 
 possesses an amount of mental and bodily vigor which 
 gives ample promise of its complete fulfilment. If in re- 
 gard to phonetic spelling his anticipations have hardly
 
 178 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 been fulfilled^ lie has lived to see his ideas adopted by the 
 greatest philologists of the age, and may look forward with 
 a well-founded confidence to their general acceptance at no 
 distant period. As a shorthand inventor it would be 
 difficult to imagine a more complete triumph than that 
 which he has achieved, and he still pursues the even tenor 
 of his way. " Mr Pitman's personal character/' says the 
 Echo, " almost unique in its modest bearing and endeavor^ 
 the Franklin-like simplicity of his mode of living, with other 
 cognate traits of character, combine to distinguish him as 
 one of the most remarkable, as he has been one of the most 
 useful, men of his generation."
 
 PRESENT POSITION OP PHONOGRAPHY. 179 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE PRESENT POSITION OE PHONOGRAPHY, 
 
 This inemoir would be incomplete without a brief state- 
 ment of the position at present attained by Mr Pitman's 
 system of Phonography^ and the extent to which it is 
 taught and practised throughout the country. The object 
 for which Isaac Pitman published his little " Stenogra- 
 phic Soundhand/' namely, that every boy in the land 
 should have an opportunity of acquiring the art, has been 
 practically realised. His system of Phonography is to-day 
 universal in English-speaking countries, and such are the 
 changed conditions of society, that not only has every 
 youth a chance of learning shorthand, but he is almost 
 driven by circumstances to learn it. "The invention of 
 Phonography," it has becm said, " deserves to rank, and does 
 rank in the minds of those who know its uses, with the 
 great inventions of the nineteenth century, along with the 
 steam engine, the telegraph, the sewing machine, and the 
 telephone. Not indeed so potent in its influences on the 
 welfare of humanity as some of these, it is yet unquestion- 
 ably one of the greatest mental triumphs which are the 
 principal causes of civilization." To-day, Phonography is 
 virtually doing the shorthand writing and reporting of the 
 English-speaking world, and there is no other steno- 
 graphic system that can approach it in the extent to 
 which it is taught and used. The last few years, dating 
 perhaps from the celebration of the Phonographic Jubilee 
 
 13*
 
 180 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 and the International Shorthand Congress, have witnessed 
 the most rapid strides in this direction. Lord Rosebery's 
 opinion as to the absolute necessity of shorthand in the 
 clerical work of the future has been unhesitatingly accepted, 
 and the signs of its acceptance are visible on all hands. 
 Not only is the art extensively taught in the public and 
 private schools of the country, but in evei-y large town, and 
 in many of the smaller ones, colleges and schools have been 
 formed for the express purpose of facilitating its acqui- 
 sition. From the high-class foundation schools, lite Rugby 
 and Malvern, to the humble Board School evening classes, 
 where the teaching is gratuitous, or given at merely 
 nominal fees, there exists a chain of educational institu- 
 tions which practically places a knowledge of Phonography 
 within the reach of everyone who wishes to acquire it. 
 
 Under the new Education Code of 1890, shorthand 
 forms one of the fifteen " Specific Subjects," any two of 
 which can be taken by the scholars in Standards V., VI., 
 VII., in any of the 20,000 Board Schools of Great Britain. 
 A grant is given of 4s. per head per annum, and the study 
 is spread over a period of three years. In practice the 
 time is not so long, as most of the scholars leave before the 
 completion of the three years. Grants of 2^. per head are 
 also given in Board School evening classes, which are a 
 Continuation scheme of Education for scholars who have 
 left the Board School day classes. The Technical Instruc- 
 tion Act of 1889 provided for instruction in commercial 
 subjects, including shorthand, but very few towns availed 
 themselves of its provisions ; and there was no contribu- 
 tion from the Imperial Treasury in aid of local effort. 
 Now, however, grants arc given in addition to the local 
 sums expended ; and Sheffield, one of the first towns to
 
 PHONOGRAPHIC PUBLICATIONS. 181 
 
 avail itself of the provisions of the Act, has included Pho- 
 nography as a form of instruction required in that district* 
 Shorthand also Hnds a place as an optional subject in the 
 Oxford and Cambridge Local Examinations, and though no 
 specific system is prescribed, nearly all the candidates are 
 writers of Phonography. The subject, too, is included in 
 the programme of the Society of Arts, and while the writers 
 of all systems are admitted to these examinations, Phono- 
 graphy is specially recommended to the candidates, and 
 the recommendation is almost universally adopted. 
 
 From the most recently compiled statistics it appears 
 that the number of persons receiving profccsional instruc- 
 tion in Phonography throughout the kingdom in February, 
 1890, was 37,767, of whom 34,739 were males. These 
 stndents were taught in 1,200 colleges, schools, institu- 
 tions, and private classes, by 875 teachers, 1 1 1 of whom 
 teach in London. The number being taught for the whole 
 of the previous year was 44,7''50. These figures do not 
 include a very large number of persons who receive instruc- 
 tion gratuitously from the members of the Phonetic Society, 
 or from private friends, or are self-taught; and who, if 
 added to the returns, would raise the total to a much 
 higher figure. A better estimate can be gained of the num- 
 ber of persons actually learning the system from the fact 
 that 150,000 copies of the elementary instruction book, the 
 " Phonographic Teacher," are purchased every year. 
 
 An interesting feature in connection with Isaac Pitman's 
 Phonography is the extent and variety of its literature. 
 The instruction books and shorthand reading books number 
 84 ; and including all that have been issued from the com- 
 mencement, many of which are now out of print, the total 
 would exceed 150. Among the works printed entirely in
 
 182 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 Phonography may be mentioned the " Biblc/^ litho- 
 graphed four times), " iEsop's Fables/' " Bacon's Essays," 
 " Bladders Self-Culture/' the " New Testament " and the 
 ''Book of Common Prayer" in numerous editions, " Paul 
 Clifford," " Narrative of the Pilgrim's Progress," " Life of 
 Alexander the Great," the " Church Service," the "Ancient 
 Mariner," the poetical works of Cowper, " John Halifax," 
 the " Pickwick Papers," " A Christmas Carol," " Oliver 
 Twist," the " Vicar of Wakefield," " Gray's Elegy," 
 " Tom Brown's Schooldays," the " Legend of Sleepy Hol- 
 low," " Rasselas," " Macaulay's Biographies/' " Paradise 
 Lost," "Waverley," '' Ivanhoe/' " Gulliver's Voyage to 
 Lilliput," " Thankful Blossom " (Bret Harte), and many 
 smaller works. Of the ''Phonographic Teacher," one 
 million three hundred and seventy thousand copies lia\e 
 been issued. Large numbers of these books go to the 
 Colonies and to America, and as Mr Pitman has recently 
 established a branch of his publishing business in New 
 York (3 East Fourteenth Street), the probability is, that 
 an increasing number will find their way across the Atlantic. 
 The periodical literature of the system is also considerable. 
 There are two weekly shorthand magazines, (the Phonetic 
 Journal\\di\\n^ a circulation of 23, 000,) and seven monthlies, 
 the latest addition being a phonographic edition of Tit-Bits, 
 issued by the publishers of that periodical. 
 
 There are 81 Shorthand Associations in the United 
 Kingdom ; and tluac has recently been established in 
 London the " National Phonographic Society," intended 
 to constitute a large central body to promote the culture 
 of Phonography and to raise the status of its practitioners. 
 
 With reference to the professional use of shorthand, 
 that is, for reporting puqioses, Phonography is practically
 
 PRESENT POSITION OF PHONOGRAPHY. 183 
 
 the only system in common use. From a census taken not 
 long since among the principal London and provincial 
 papers and news agencies, it appears that of 607 journalistic 
 writers of shorthand 569 (or 93 per cent.) use Phonogra- 
 phy. In America the system is used by 97 per cent, of 
 the shorthand writers and reporters, and in Australia by 
 96 per cent. Among shorthand clerks and amanuenses 
 Pitman's is almost the only method employed, and its use 
 is often made a specific condition of employment. The 
 advantage of a uniformity of method among writers engaged 
 in a common service is, of course, as obvious as that of a 
 uniformity of gauge on lines of railway. 
 
 The system has now been before the public for fifty- 
 three years, and it is probably an under-estimate to say 
 that its practitioners in this country, in America, and in 
 the Colonics, number half a million. It is not, of course, 
 suggested that these are, in the ordinary sense of the term, 
 shorthand writers, but a large proportion of them are earning 
 their living, wholly or in part, by the use of Mr Pitman's 
 invention, a competent knowledge of which is one of the 
 most effectual passports to clerical employment and promo- 
 tion. Many a young barrister, journalist, and litterateur, 
 has been indebted to it, not only as a source of income in 
 his earlier struggles, but as an instrument of training which 
 has largely contributed to his ultimate success. And on 
 these material grounds, scarcely less than on the many 
 others set forth in this volume, the writer claims for his 
 old friend and venerated chief a not inconspicuous position 
 amouK the benefactors of mankind.
 
 THE GROWTH OF PHONOGRAPHY. 185 
 
 THE GROWTH OF PHONOGRAPHY: 
 
 Or, a Compendious Summary of Changes and Improvements in Piltnati's 
 Phonography since its Invention to the present time. 
 
 By James Singleton. 
 
 The First Edition, 1837, differs from the present edition in the fol- 
 lowing respects, 
 
 / / 
 
 \\ 
 
 V V J J 
 
 r r 
 
 A f>; 
 
 /, v; 
 
 ch, j ; s, z ; 
 
 r f r p 
 
 s/t, zh (Jown) 
 
 
 ft, 
 
 «', li'h. tw. dw. 
 
 
 The letters were arranged in «, h^ c order. R had only one sign, the up- 
 ward stroke ; which, when standing alone, was commenced with a tick i^ 
 •| c I vl 
 
 1 1 e, (i, ah ; c I '> '') "' ' I "u. 
 
 The straight letters were hooked initially for / and r as at present ; 
 but the other abhreviatine principles were gradually introduced into 
 the system, as will appear from what follows. 
 
 Second Edition, 1840, was a Penny Plate, published simultaneously 
 with the introduction of the Penny Post, loth January. In it the 
 alphabet was changed to the present characters, with the exception 
 of .^ r, and (.) or ^ /;. There were no consonant signs for w and j. 
 
 Compound vowels, | i, \ oi, ^| ow, ^\ u, | wt, and -i| ivou. 
 l\ we,ivaj',waA ; \] wau>, wo, uilo ; ^\ye,yay,yah; \2 yaw,yd,yod. 
 
 Final hooks for /and r, as, J cord, \ part, j pelt, /Vj> resolve. 
 
 Initial hooks for / and r added to curved letters, as v_ vl, "^ vr, 
 <=_- ' nl, <i-^ nr, c~^ ml, <r^ mr ; ^ Ir, /— s mp, etc. 
 
 The halving principle adding / or d ; with some irregulars, as 
 ) tn, ) dn, J chn, J jn, "^ Jn, "^ vn, ,-n kn, -^ gn, \ mt, \ md. 
 
 The Thiko Edition was published in September, 1840 ; demy Svo ; 
 and on two large sheets, one containing the System, and the other 
 Exercises.
 
 186 ISAAC PITMAN. 
 
 Fourth Edition, 1S41, a sheet of the system, in type and woodcuts. 
 
 Fifth Edition, 1842 ; demy 32mo., pocket edition, roan, 2s., and 
 school edition, paper covers, $(/. : people's edition, 8vo., i^. New sign 
 ^ for r, in addition to '-^ and "^ for ;-/. 
 
 Sixth Edition, 1844, a sheet of the system, introducing the improve- 
 ments of the seventh edition while the book was being prepared. In 
 this edition the half-length letters were reduced to order, EVERY letter 
 adding t ot d on being halved. 
 
 Seventh Edition, 1845, //-represented by 6 and 1 ; and ;-/ by o^ 
 The final hooks for r and ^, \ r/>, \^ //>, were changed to n and fion 
 
 respectively. The large hook not yet introduced. 
 
 Loops for 5/ and sh; which had been introduced in the Phonographic 
 
 journal for May, 1843, page 49 ; by an allegory, reprinted on page 424 
 
 of the Phonetic Jotirnal iox 1885. 
 
 Eighth Edition, 1847, introduction of n hook before the treble con- 
 sonants spr^ str, sir ; as ^\3 inspiratioyi, \j instrii{c)tion, a-^ inscri{^p)tion. 
 
 Ninth Edition, 1852, new signs ^ r for lu and y ; <^ _y, 
 C ivl, o^ w, <:r~N lum^ c ivfi, (T"^ nii\ <;_• nr. 
 
 Curved letters made double-length to express the addition of 
 thr, tr or dr. 
 
 Tenth Edition, 1857, changed in the vowel scale from ;| (?, «, ah, 
 to 'I ^'h <^i ^• 
 
 / (downward) h. 
 
 Hook for shon (7th edition I tshon') now made to represent f or 
 V ; and shon represented by a larger hook. 
 
 Eleventh Edition, 1862, w represented by o^ and ^ ; ^' by 
 
 cr-^ and ( ; and h by cj and ^ 
 
 Change in the initial hooks of (^ thl^ ^ thr, ^ fl, "^ fr, now 
 become C and ^ thr, (^ and ^ //;/; ^ and ^ fr, ^ and ^ /. The 
 two signs for thl, light and heavy, and the hooked right-hand curve iox fli 
 have since been abandoned as useless. 
 
 In, prefix, before the upward and downward h represented thus, 
 
 ,^^ inhabit, J^ inhumaii.
 
 THE GROWTH OF PHONOGRAPHY. 187 
 
 Twelfth edition, 1868, C~ «'A /^ I'y ^\ rk, rg. 
 
 1869, introduction of the new signs C— kiv, Q_ slw, o^ and 
 £^ ALONE for u\y. 
 
 1873, (X wh ; ^\ rc/i, rj. 
 
 1S84, further extension of double-length letters, under certain restric- 
 tions, to straight characters. See Phonetic Journal^ 1884, pages 169, 
 205, 23S. 
 
 1887, a large initial circle used for sw ; thus, \ swp, Q iijuk ; 
 
 and skw expressed by <2_ 
 
 1888, the A rcliy rj\ double consonant discontinued. 
 
 A^ote. — In the Third and Fourth Editions there were no important 
 changes. The editions, or issues, of 10,000 copies at a time, about 
 twice a year, ceased to have distinguishing numbers after 1S68.
 
 4
 
 INDEX. 
 
 189 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 American Spelling Reform Associ- 
 ation, " Five Rules " for correct- 
 ing spelling, 144 ; expounded in 
 England, 144; final form of the 
 '•Five Rules," 145 
 
 Angus, Dr, a spelling reformer, 133 
 
 Armstrong, Sir W., recommends 
 shorthand and abbreviated long- 
 hand, 105 
 
 Athemcum. 184G, extract from, 57 
 
 Ba^ster Samuel, letter to, 13 
 
 Barkas, Mr T. P., 33 
 
 Barton, Bernard, the Quaker poet 
 writes versos against Phonogra- 
 phy and the Spelling Reform, 40 
 
 Bath, celebration of the Phonogra- 
 phic .Jubilee, 168 
 
 Bath Free Library, attempt to 
 establish, 130 
 
 Bible in phonotypy, 53, 68 
 
 Bible Society, letter to, 13 
 
 Bickersteth, Rev. E., 46 
 
 Books published in phonetic short- 
 hand, 181 
 
 Bright, John, presides at a phono- 
 graphic lecture at Rochdale, 
 and gives a valuable testimonial 
 to Phonography, 44 
 
 British Association at Bath, 1864, 
 paper on Phonography accepted, 
 lOo 
 
 Bunsen, Chevalier, summons a 
 Spelling Reform meeting, 73 
 
 Bust of Mr Pitman proseutod to 
 him at the Jubilee of Phonogra- 
 phy, 163 
 
 Coltman, Mr, gives .£300 for print- 
 ing tracts on the Spelling Reform, 
 129 
 
 Conference on Spoiling Reform at 
 the Society of Arts, London, 
 1S77, 134 
 
 Copyright of Phonography, esti- 
 mate of its value, 8'J 
 
 Crabbe, tho poet, 6 
 
 " Dairyman's Daughter," short- 
 hand edition of, 100 
 
 Dawson, George, becomes president 
 of the Phonetic Society in 1854, 
 74 
 
 Deputation to Government on Spel- 
 ling Reform, 141 
 
 Dixon, Hopworth, a member of the 
 Phonetic Society, 50 
 
 Duodecimal Notation, 77 
 
 Early phonographic lecturers, 39, 
 42 
 
 Edgell Mr, cloth manufacturer, 1, 
 6, 10 
 
 Edinbuigh, Mr Pitman's visits to, 
 32, 146 
 
 Education Code of 1890, 179 
 
 Ellis, Dr A. J., hears of Phono- 
 graphy and learns it, 42 
 
 English literature in 1800, 4 
 
 " Fivo Rules " for correcting spel- 
 ling, 144, 145 
 
 Gladstone, Dr J. H., a spelling 
 reformer, 133 
 
 Gurney-Salter, W. H., chairman of 
 the Tercentenary Committee of 
 the International Shorthand Con- 
 gress, 159 
 
 Harland. John, of the Manchester 
 Guardian, his testimony to Pho- 
 nography, 43 
 
 Hill, Rowland, presides at a phono- 
 graphic soire'e, 42 
 
 Hill, Thomas Wright, a spelling 
 reformer, 41 
 
 International Shorthand Congress 
 and Jubilee of Phonography, 
 etc., 154 
 Jubilee of Phonography, 1887, 154
 
 190 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Keene's Bath Journal offices, where 
 the first phonetic printing was 
 done, 47 
 
 Kinof, John, editor of the Suffolk 
 Chronicle, 43 
 
 Kingston Buildings, the site of the 
 Phonetic Institute, 116 ; view 
 of, 127 
 
 Kingston House 10 
 
 Leeds Mercury reporter opposes 
 Phonography, 46 
 
 Lloyd, J. R , wrote the trans- 
 fers of " John Halifax, Gentle- 
 man,'' and some other books, 113 
 
 Lounsbury, Prof., his denunciation 
 of the common spelling, 148 
 
 Lowe, Hon Robert, a spelling 
 reformer, 134 
 
 Luncheon at the Mansion House, 
 London, in connection with the 
 Phonographic Jubilee, 167 
 
 Mas Miiller, a spelling reformer, 
 80 
 
 Mikmak Indians in Xew Bruns- 
 wick taught to read the Bible in 
 their own language, ropre«ented 
 phonetically, 81 
 
 Nightingale Mr, Schoolmaster at 
 Trowbridge Grammar School, 2 
 
 Octonary Notation for numbering, 
 77 
 
 Pairing of consonants, and of long 
 and short vowels as to their 
 sounds in Phonography, 20 
 
 Parsonage lane, Bath, location of 
 the Phonetic Institute, 76, 108, 
 114 
 
 Penny Post established, 10th Jan- 
 uary, 1840, 28 
 
 Phonetic Alphabet for printing, 122 
 
 Phonetic Institute, a now building 
 proposed, 84, 114 
 
 Phonetic Institute removed from 
 Albion place, Upper Bristol road, 
 Bath, to Parsonage lane, 75 
 
 Phonetic printing, specimens of, in 
 the First and Second Stages of 
 the Spelling Reform, 123 
 
 Phonographic Corresponding So- 
 ciety established, 50 ; afterwards 
 called the Phonetic Society 
 
 Phonographic Festivals — 
 
 Birmingham, 41 
 
 Manchester, 40 
 
 Nottingham, 40 
 Phonographic Journal, 1842, 34 ; 
 
 facsimile of first page, 36 
 " Phonographic Vocabulary," or 
 
 Shorthand Dictionary, 70 
 Phonography, first conception of, 
 
 19 ; first edition, 21 ; second 
 
 edition, 29 
 Phonotypy, first conception of, 33, 
 
 38 
 Pitman, Isaac : — 
 
 Accident in the Turkish bath, 119 
 
 Address at the Spelling Reform 
 Conference, London (1877), 135 
 
 American gold jubilee medal, 
 1G8 
 
 Barton-on-Humber, appointed to 
 British School at, 11 
 
 Bible read for marginal refer- 
 ences, 12, 14 
 
 British and Foreign School, 
 London, entered training col- 
 lege, August, 1831, 11 
 
 Business commenced, 6 
 
 Bust of, 163 ; replica, 173 
 
 Copyright of Phonography, in- 
 fringement of, action at law, 
 Pitman v. Hine, 148 
 
 Death of his mother (1857), 3 
 
 Desires to teach his elder pupils 
 shorthand ; no cheap instruc- 
 tion book, 19 
 
 Duodecimal notation proposed, 77 
 
 Food Reform Jo2a-7ial, quotation 
 from, relating why ho com- 
 menced his vegetarian diet, 48 
 
 Homo school established, 3 
 
 Lecturing tours on Phonogra- 
 phy, 32 
 
 Loans raised to carry on the 
 Spelling Reform, 82 
 
 jNlarriago, first, 15 
 
 Methodist connection, local 
 broach in the, 12 
 
 ]\Iusioal studies, 4, 93, 95, 97 
 
 Now Church doctrines received; 
 dismissed from his school, 16 
 
 Phonographic .lubilee, 154
 
 INDEX. 
 
 191 
 
 Pitman Isaac : — 
 
 Portrait presented at Bath cele- 
 bration of Phonographic Jubi- 
 lee, 168 
 Presentation of £350 and a time- 
 piece, 86 
 Portrait of (1845), 55; (1887),1G8 
 Reading, fond of, (> 
 Religiously disposed, 3 
 Removes from Barton to Wotton- 
 under-Edgo, 11 ; to Bath, 27 
 School given up, 1843, 39 
 School left at tho ago of twelve, 2 
 Shorthand learned, 9 
 Times, letter to, on vegetarian- 
 ism, 47 
 Transfer writing, or lithography, 
 
 70 
 Vegetarianism. 47 
 " Walker's Dictionary," read 
 
 through twice," S 
 "Wotton-under-Edge, removes to, 
 II 
 
 Pitman, Samuel, father of Isaac, 1 ; 
 studies astronomy, and becomes 
 an astrologer. 5 ; assists at the 
 London publishing house, 56 
 
 Pitman, Jacob, 1, 97 
 
 Pitman, Joseph, commences lec- 
 turing on Phonography, and 
 teaching it, 39 
 
 Pitman, Ben, commences lecturing 
 on Phonoaraphy throughout 
 England, 39; manager of the 
 London phonographic depOt, 
 1845, 56 
 
 Pitman, Henry, commences to 
 travel and lecture on Phono- 
 graphy, 39 
 
 Pitman. Frederick, travels and 
 teaches Phonography, 39 ; under- 
 takes the London publishing 
 business, 56; death, 153 
 
 Pos.tman at Baih gets a Christmas 
 box from phonographers, 30 
 
 Rand, Rev. S. T., Missionary to 
 the Mikmak Indians, 81 
 
 Reed. T. A., his introduction to 
 Phonography, 31 ; suggests tho 
 formation of a Phonographic 
 Corresponding Society, 50 ; ac- 
 
 companies Joseph Pitman on his 
 lecturing tours, 39 ; presides 
 at a phonetic meeting at tho 
 Y.M.C.A., London (l.Sf;2). for 
 presenting Jlr Pitman with £350, 
 86 ; presides at tho Phonographic 
 Juliilee, 159, 162 
 
 " Reporter's Assistant," prepara- 
 tion of, 112 
 
 Rosobery, Lord, president of the 
 International Shorthand Con- 
 gress, 160 
 
 Sayco, Rev. A. H., Professor of 
 Philology, a spelling reformer, 
 134 
 
 Sale of phonographic books, 71 
 
 " Sancto Spiiitus '' set to music, 95 
 
 School Board of London recom- 
 mends the adoption of the pho- 
 netic alphabet in teaching read- 
 ing, 133, 141 
 
 Shorthand in England before the 
 publication of Phonography, 
 1837, 18 
 
 Shorthand printing done by metal 
 types, 120; specimens of, 121 
 
 Spectator opposes Spelling Reform, 
 143 
 
 Spelling Reform Association, 1879, 
 142 
 
 Spelling Reform Conference, Lon- 
 don, 1877, 134 
 
 "Stenographic Sound-hand," 21; 
 the system, 22, 23 
 
 Sunday Schools — Church of En- 
 gland, aad Zion Chapel, 6 
 
 Temple, Dr, Bishop of Exeter, now 
 of London, a spelling reformer, 
 135 
 
 Tojuple of English literature, 172 
 
 Tercentenary of Shorthand, 155 
 
 Thomson and Ramsey, Professors, 
 Glasgow College, their recom- 
 mendation of Phonography, 37 
 
 Trovelyan, Sir Walter C., offers 
 prizes for the two best essays on 
 Spelling Reform. 79 
 
 "Visible Speech " (Mr A. M. Bell's), 
 111 
 
 Wehlon's lief/ister describes ^Ir 
 Pitman's daily work, 97
 
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