Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1856-05-10
Photography Perfect System Of Writing


Photography Perfect System Of Writing
Many persons suppose shorthand writing te
consist of a set of marks each one Of which rep
resents phrase or a sentence. They suppose this
necessary in order to give the writer time to write
with the speed Of Speech and yet, strange as il
may appear, this very notion, which is all the opn
ion that many have. and more than some have or
the subject is so very absurd that simple state.
ment of it is sufficient to preclude the necessity Of
saving it is wholly erroneous.
How utterly impossible to have set Of ideolo.
gical signs for sentencesl Think Of sign for a
sentence; and the variety of sentences is absO-
utely inconceivahie and iunumerabe, if not Infinite,
so these never can be completed by set of signs
to represent them, and be their number what it
may, and let each sign be as seldom used as it may
each, every sign, all the signs, must be ever ia
miliar, ever ready for instant use. Remember that
the English language consists of about $4,000
words, besides proper names. Recollect the fear
full augmentation Of numbers, that 500 by per-
mutation Of quantities would give to indicate the
possible number of the sentences, for which yo,l
must invent and remember signs, and am salts
fed you will give up 'the notion" as improbable
and hopeless, if not impossible task for your in
genuity and memory
1t is, in every instance, an attempt to furnish
some means for the more expeditions writing of
words by more facile or more abbreviated forms
than common writing employs, and occasionally to
furnish signs of still more abbreviated character
for more frequently recurring phrases.
But here the hankering after the ideologic repre-
sentation has been evinced in a variety of ways.
1t was thought better to represent world by a
small circle than to seek for the simplest possible
representation of the vocal action in pronouncing
it, (which photography proves to be even simpler
than the making of small circle( On the same
principle dot i'll circle represented "in the
world" over a circle, "over the world;' mark
through circle, Through the world" etc.
To those who have never tried shorthand wri-
ting, this may all seem very we'll, but those who
undertake to reduce it to practice will soon find it
accumulating such terrible tax on the memory as
to render shorthand almost wholly useless; while
to those who have familiarized themselves with
Pitman's photography it is ridiculousy absurd.
This very general leaning to ideologic represen-
tatOn, which leads so many astray, and has rem
dered so many systems of short-hand writing worth
less has its origin in the false assumption that the
fingers are less active than the tongue while in fact
they are more active, as any one may readily see
who will take the trouble to try the activity of
each, and they can sustain their action longer,
being moved by larger and more vigorous muscles,
and with less danger to life and health, being fur
Their removed from the vitals. The speaker tires
in few hours at most and in this endangers life
and health and often suffers severely from it, while
the reporter continues his labors all day without
extra effort, suffering or danger.
Why, then, it will be asked, does it take six
hours to write what may be spoken in ones
The answer is both simple and Ineligible, as
well as conclusive. In common writing we en-
ptoy from four to seven infections of the pen to
record a single vocal act when only one letter is
used and when, as is often done, two, three, and
even four letters used to represent single vocal
act these numbers, four and seven, will be doubled
tripled or quadrupled accordingly. Seven infec
tons of the pen are necessary to make "m," and
four to make and dot the 'si' We must append
the final "e" to show that the proceeding vowel
is long; we must make ng to represent simple
vocal act; also th, sh, c 81, IT, phi, gh, ETC., for
the same purpose, where not only a single letter
but letter made with single infection of the pen
would be every way as competent and readable;
bination OF letters for the pen to travel through
for quite variety Of sounds, as may be seen in
the following:
Through the tough cough and hccough plough through
Ger iife's dark Tough my course III still pursue"
Here are three hundred infections of the pen to
record what might be intelligibly recorded with
forty infections The hand in recording actually
performs six times the labor that the tongue does
in uttering words and sentences.
A perfect system Of writing would relieve the
pen Of all this superaous labor, and make its action
- effective in recording words as is the tongue in
uttering them, and furnish record as unambiguous
10 the eve as the voice is to the ear. ssf.
Photography claims to have accomplished this
md if these claims are substantiated It will be con-
:eeded that in this respect is perfect and this is
III the perfection we claim for it.
As every possible variety Of con6guration in the
vocal organs is productive of a corresponding and
significant variety Of voice-sound, 20 photography
makes every possible motion of the pen expressive
# vocal action and configuration, and with such
fidelity that every grade and shade Of pronouncia-
ion and all provincialsms can be 90 preserved that
INV phonographer can, in reading, reproduce them
IL He can take down discourses in languages he
.nows not and any other photographer, at any
distance Of time or place, can read the record in
eIGgibly to those who do understand the language,
e also being ignorant Of the same. 90 81
Photography, abandoning all ideologic proclivi-
les, and an association with or dependence on any
established alphabet, sought first in the voiee for
be thing to be represented, and then in MI the
Possibilities Of geometry for the simplest, briefest
representatives Of vocal modulations Dots, dashes,