Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

by perseverance write with certainty at 150 words a
minute. The best method of practice in the early period
is to write at dictation from a book; in public speakino-
the frequent pauses help the writer to regain lost time’
The student should write on ruled paper, which checks
the tendency to a large sprawling hand when following a
rapid speaker. Taylor’s, Gurney’s, and Lewis’s systems
can be written without lines, but Pitman’s only at a dis¬
advantage. Ink is preferable to pencil
Sty „,pS“dtr,Rnf TPl0yed °®c!ally m the service
report- {£^ in.18CL> when a resolution was passed that
iDg_ the evidence given before all committees inquiring into
the election of members should or might be reported by a
person well skilled m the art of writing shorthand ” and
shortly afterwards W. B. Gurney was appointed shorthand-
r t l,1S caPacity t0 both Houses of Parliament. In
IMS a further resolution was passed by both Houses that
the official writer “should attend by himself or sufficient
deputy when called upon to take minutes of evidence at the
bar ot this House or in committees of the same.” The
lucrative office of shorthand-writer to both Houses of Par¬
liament is still held by the Gurney family. Of course
nwst of the work is done by deputy. Some of the most
efficient members of Messrs Gurney’s staff are phono-
graphers; others use Taylor’s system. The amount of
evidence given in the course of a tolerably long day’s
sitting may amount to 400 or 500 folios (72 words make
a toho), which would occupy from 12 to 15 columns of
the Mmes in small type. The whole must often be tran¬
scribed and delivered to the printers in the course of the
nigbt, and copies, damp from the press, are in the hands
ot the members and “parties” at the beginning of the
sitting on the following day. Since parliament abolished
election-committees and committed to judges the duty of
inquiring into petitions against the return of a member,
an official shorthand writer has to be in attendance upon
tiie judge appointed to hear any particular case. He has
often a small staff of assistants. Messrs Gurney or their
representatives are also required to attend the sittings of
the House of Lords as a court of appeal to take the judg¬
ments of the law lords. Finally, Government shorthand-
writers are often employed in taking notes of important
state-trials and inquiries conducted by the various depart¬
ments of Government, as well as of the proceedings of Royal
Commissions, whenever the evidence of witnesses is taken.1
he transcription of the notes may be accomplished in
several ways, as by dictating from different parts of the
notes to several longhand-writers simultaneously.2 Not
al the newspaper parliamentary reporters can take a
perfect note, and cases occur in which the reporter enters
the gallery without being able to write shorthand at all
shorthand
841
Foreign Shorthand Systems.
Foreign German. C. A. Ramsay’s TacheograpMa (Frankfort 1679 and
systems, several times afterwards until 1743) was an adaptation of T. Slieiton’s
English system. Mosengeil (1797) first practically introduced short
menKafte / Jl.0ffiClal5®POft °f the debates in the British parlia-
reiort them ^ C°Untnes)>and technically no person has a right
; . em' . The House may be cleared at any moment of all
strangers, including representatives of the press, by an order of the
passed orobThit16' o* .occasions of note resolutions have been
passed prohibiting the reporting of the proceedings of the House of
membe0rnsS^wf Mardl 177L But times have changed, and
To rT fTlUent ^ comPlain that their speeches are not reported.
,1^ y 0 deficiencies of the newspapers arrangements have been
made by the House with Mr Hansard for the special reporting of
ates m committee and those occurring at an early hour in the
ormng, which are given only in the most summary form in the daily
papers. Formerly all Hansard’s reports were collected from those
appearing in the newspapers. See further Mr S. Whitaker’s Parlia-
inentary Reporting m England, Foreign Countries, and the Colonies,
unm notes on Parliamentary Privilege (Manchester, 1878).
On the best methods of transcribing and dictating, see Mr T. A.
Reed s papers in the Phonetic Journal, 1886, pp. 10, 33, 45. ’ i
maetLritlRfischrSGaS)yisnaanmadrfita?°n °r the Tayloi'-Bertin
Horstig’s (1797) are based tLL r lhcatl0n of Mosengeil’s. On
berg, 1798), Heim (1820) Thon^ms?0?™0118 Wliter ^urem'
(Tdb-gen, 1830), Nowack (1830), lleichen a83irJ7°US aUth°r
author (Munich, 1831), and Binder 085^ m 1}’ an.1anoilyteous
a second system (1819 in whiib HiJti’ Punished
the Mosengeil - Horstii system ^ n S u a l,habet used. On
Stark’s (1822). On DanzeFsTlSOOl ber.thold’s (1319) and
is based that of Ellison v. Kef 0820°/”OH011 °f Jaylor’s’
those of Leichtlen (1819); J. Brede ClSarj • ^her ?ys.tIe?ls are
system in which the el Wo lo i1827), FTowack (1834), a
Billharz (1838); Cammerer as tlle circle;
phonography (1847) • Schmitt Osw’ -p- 1??dl^catl°n °f Selwyn’s
tion of Taylor’s ; and that M ioblschbaek (1857), a reproduc-
on Horstig, Mosengeil and Heim author (1872), based
of 1834, makes a nfw departure teavSr^’- ^ later method
and in endeavouring to approximate tr^f ^ ^ °r 0^dase angies,
system Gabelsberger considered t0 be He ^rdinai7,wntmg. This
down to that date. F X rnPoicn best which had appeared
Redezeichenkunst (Munich’ 18341 iwboS Anleit.uny zur deutsche
German systems. The author In nffi • i ™PoHant of the
ministry, commenced his sv<d-em f®clal attached to the Bavarian
induced to perfect it on account of the pnvate Purposes, but was
for Bavaria in 1819 Submitted +7° s1l™moniug of a parliament
it was pronounced d publlc examination in 1829,
taught on this system executed theiWW StatlP^ that PuPils
XMcdw[tt
inryd, but sy,nboHXg in«S by°S» S'S
Ind thfRhino nro • XOny’ Saxe-Weimar, Coburg-Goth^, Silesia,’
methS and half He f ^ Solely by writers of this
it There are frf n sten°grapbers m the German reichstag use
containing over 20 non^117 ^ ^ ™°re than 540 s°eieties
containing over 20,000 members devoted to it. It is officially
luTtHa111 Hha Cl?1 SCh0°ls °f Bavaria, Saxony and
Austria. It has been adapted to foreign languages to simh an
Agram Pesth^Sonhi! are1rePorted bf it in Prague,
agiam, Festii , Sophia, Athens, Copenhagen, Christiania Stock-
W Stoke Gslof^Tb °n Gal:)e]1sbeppr’s system is based that of
over 8000 iem?' T1nne are near1/ 400 Stolzean associations with
over 8000 members. The system is officially used in the Prussian
German, and Hungarian parliaments, in the last two along with
Gabelsberger s. Faulmann (Vienna, 1875) attempted fn his
Phonographic to combine the two methods. While Gabelsberger’s
tw?6^ haS remamed unchanged in principle, Stolze’shas split mto
\o divisions, the old and the new. These contain many smaller
factions, e.g., Velten’s (1876) and Adler’s (1877). Arends’s (1860)
is copie^from He French system of Fayet. Roller’s (1874) and
Lehmann s (1875) are offshoots of Arends’s. Many other methods
have appeared and as rapidly been forgotten. The schools of
Gabelsberger and Stoke can boast of a very extensive shorthand
literature. Gabelsberger s system has been adapted to English by
A. Geiger (Dresden, 1860 and 1873), who adhered too closely to the
German original, and more successfully by H. Richter (London,
1886), and Stoke s by G. Michaelis (Berlin, 1863).
iWA—The earliest French system worthy of notice is that of
Coulon de Thevenot (1777), m which the vowels are disjoined from
the consonants. The methods practised at the present day may be
divided into two classes, those derived from Taylor’s English svstem
translated in 1791 by T. P. Berlin, and those invented in France.’
Ihe latter are (a) Coulon de Thevenot’s ; (5) systems founded on the
principle of the inclination of the usual writing,—the best known
being those of Fayet (1832) and Senocq (1842); and (c) systems
derived from the method of Conen de Prepean (5 editions from 1813
to 1833). Prevost, who till 1870 directed the stenographic service of
the senate, produced the best modification of Taylor. Many authors
have copied and spoilt this system of Prevost. The best known are
Plantier (1844) and Tondeur (1849). Zeibig thinks well of A.
Delaunays improvements on Prevost’s system. On Conen’s are
based those of Aime-Paris (1822), Cadres-Marmet (1828), Potel
( 842), the Duploye brothers (1868), Guenin, &c. Among amateur
writers the Duployan method is best known, owing largely to
vigorous pushing, but the profession class it among the least effi¬
cient of all. 01 the forty writers in the official service of parliament
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