Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1905-06-16
NEW TYPE CHARACTER.
Robert W. Mason Proposes a Substi'
tute for 9Th"


| Robert w. Mason of the American
Bible association, who has been In
Brattleboro this week, brought into the
Reformer office Monday some new ma
trices made for him by the Mergentha-
| Ter Linotype company for the purpose
of substituting a new character for the
sound of "th." He conceived the idea
of making this change while at work
| in New York city and evolved the
character from foreign alphabet
The linotype company cast the ma
trlces at his request, to run In the
channel usually occupied by TX" on
the linotype machine.
The following letter from Mr.. Mason
explains more fully the proposed
change. 1t was set up In the Refor-
mer composing room with the ma
trices furnished by Mr.. Mason, whose
idea in printing the letter Is to give
publicity to the change in the hope
that the public may see 1t and the
newspapers may presently adopt 1t:
Editor Of the Reformer:
The new letter "h" to represent
9TH" and to stand singly for the Is
used in dis article in giving an ac-
count of it. 1t had been noticed for
some time dlat 9TH occurred very
frequently on Oh printed page and a
closer investigation resulted in show
ing dat 1t amounted to a twenty fifth
part or were dey single letter would
save 4 per cent in type work-dhat on
h average 9TH" occurred once to every
five or eight words. Now dis, as COM
pared widh Oh regular letters is di
eghh in point of frequency, or. to
ecspress il anoher way, TIL &C.
ours as often as Oh eight letters, b, g,
". j, k. q, X, combined, only g, a, !,
o. s. II, can outrank 1t.
Since "h" will represent a sound
in Oh language which has no specific
served by ''th". fusion Of d two let
tiers. or more correctly stated, and
h. makes an ideal independent letter
for dis independent sound, and Oh fact
of Joining Oh two letters not only en-
ables a saving of per cent in type
setting and much paper space, but
simplifies and improves Oh language
and contributes favor to Oh cause
of filology.
Then. too. "h'' standing singly as
word in place of "the" which abb
serbs nearly half of Oh service or
thu will save an additional z per
cent in type composition. besides an
appreciable amount of space IN I'll let
ter e.
Away back in d early history of
language Oh Hebrews, or RAIDER, Oh Fem
isians. had letter which h Greeks
made over into 18th" (theta) upon heir
adoption of d alphabet, and by good
rights Oh Romans should have main
tanned 1t when hey borrowed Oh ARA
bet from Oh Greeks. Later di Anglo
Seasons. perceiving h need of tn
letter, borrowed symbol of neigh
boring language which probably
would have been preserved In Eng
fish to dis day had not Oh Norman
French overpowered English auhor-
ity.
But dis is neiher here nor here
neiher does Oh making Of dis new let
ter enter much into On history OF IN
past 1t is simply business propo-
sition for putting up type in a shorter
space of time. Its advent may mean
Oh overthrow of X, whose place mas
been assigned on d typesetting ma
chine. but dlat will not be great loss.
X can be inserted by hand. as it oc-
ours barely eight. times per 1000
words. or it may, since it is worth
less letter, a duplicate of cs. be as
carded altogether, dn same as X, On
duplicate of land" was about a cen
tury ago. In Oh eye of etymology \ Is
q Wreck-an OutCdSt, ioi' pcaiS
Greek "Chi," as in Xristus Christi,
it now shambles for Oh Greek Alex
ander."
Thus it Is interesting to see how. by
stress of business. events adjust hem-
selves almost unwttingly along q,
lines of science as well as economy
and Oh new letter is no ecseption to
dis rule. , 90
Note: 400 words; Oh for 9Th" 66
times: Oh for 1.-THE" 80 times; cs for X
three times; saved 1O5 type impress
sions or three lines or reading space.
ROBERT w. MASON.