The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-11-08

1t VIII Net Drive the Latter Out of Business
-An Expert Gives Some Reasons
New York Mail and Express. r
Is the shorthand writer's business ruin edl
Are the l50. 600 men and women at present en-
gagged as snanueRses, ceurt and newspaper re-
portsrs to be obliged to look for ''ether folds
of labor On account of the aatagsnism of this
now and wonderful result Of Edissn's brainl /.
Those asd other equally consequential ques-
tions are to-day being asked by the thousands
interested: At first sight it appears as If this
new machine would accomplish these ends so
direful to many, beneficial. perhaps,
to more Il has been held sll along,
and daily illustrated in the matter of
salaries, that the otsnographer is mere
machine; that his operations after the different
kinds Of pot-heoks are learned, are purely me-
chaRicaL Business men seem 10 forget that it
requires net enly brains to write and brains TO
read, but brains to listen, toe. And this the
first and NEST disastrous weak point about the
phsnograps. IL must be remembered that meet
business men are act in many senses Of the word
literary.
1t is difficult to talk COED, granm atlcal Eng
lish N prompt answer to q bulky mail. and the
difficulty is remeaiea by backing and filing"
by changing words aad sentences, and often
times entirely altering the original meaning.
All this Is obviously impracticasle in the use OF
the phonograph. Ii will be impossible to alter
uttered. Though IL must be confessed that the
trousie after all is not so much with the ma
chine as with the man, and when the minds or
men Become eeuh to IL, the usefulness OF the
phenegraph will vastly increase.
Business men whs can dictate reply &C
curstely and concisely enough upen reading q
letter may utilise the phenograph with some de-
gree or success. But even then there are suf
heient obstacles in the way Of Its use to debar
its Immediate acceptance. Ons OF them is III Q
fact that no economical. reliable and rapid
method OF copying the letter after it had been die
tatsd into the wax cylinder has yet been pre-
sented. Copies of all business letters in this
day OF complication and rush are as q matter OF
principle retained and until this obstacle Is
overcome II Is serious one. These wax
cylinders are some three or four inches long
and perhaps half much in diameter, and
taess attributes OF the newcomer are greatly 70
Its injury when the proper fling of CORRESPOND
ence IS considered. Along with copying Of let
tiers written goes the systematic fling OF letters
received. And there are scores OF patented files
upon the market now, the first aim of every
one OF which Is to economic space. According
TO the proposed method q man who daily
ceived fifty letters will have half his Office filed
by them.
Another point against the phonegrsph is in
the matter OF time cor sumed IN listening to the
conteBss as they may be ground out. Every one
Knows hew much faster one can read 70 himself
ehsa aloud, and this principle applied to the
question IN hand viii show the difference II the
amount of time required by the ear-reaafhe Of
the new process as compared with the eye-read-
log Of the old
In court reporting the phsnograph WILL when
suitable mechanism ID Joined for catching Ne
vesess In d3sssnt parts OF shs roem. prove