Sir Isaac Pitman - Part 2 (Shorthand Part 15)

Alfred, Isaac, and Ernest in 1889

Concurrent with the spread of Phonography, Isaac engaged himself with another cause. A cause he considered more important. A cause to which he devoted most of the Phonography profits: Spelling Reform.

In 1842, Isaac asked himself “should not the phonographic alphabet, so successful for writing, be employed in printing the English language?” From this time Isaac regarded Phonography mainly as an introduction to Spelling Reform.  Isaac was joined in 1843 by Mr. Alexander John Ellis (1814—1890), a distinguished scholar and phonetician. By the end of 1843, they had developed the first phonotypic alphabet.

They started printing material in phonotypic print. However, they continued to improve the alphabet until 1847. This alphabet became known as the "1847 Alphabet," and Pitman and Ellis announced in the Phonographic Journal the “Absolute Completion of the Phonotypic Alphabet." Mr. Ellis retired briefly from active participation in spelling reform in 1850 due to poor health. When he returned about a year later, Mr. Ellis did not reunite with Isaac Pitman. From 1843 to 1850, Mr. Ellis’ arguments in favor of spelling reform are considered the most convincing and are noted for their scholarship.

The early 1850's were very active for spelling reform. The construction of the phonetic printing alphabet was the subject of countless experiments. Isaac frequently stated spelling reform was for the simplification of reading that "the education of the poor" might be "rendered not only possible but easy." Isaac's plea in associated with Britain’s 1870 Education Act that provided education for all.

Mr. Ellis produced a spelling reform scheme called "Glossic" in 1871 that was "intended to be used concurrently with the existing English orthography in order to remedy some of its defects, without changing its form or detracting from its value." Glossic changed the direction of spelling reform, and from this point on many spelling reformers focused on changes using the existing Roman alphabet.

Spelling Reform never succeeded due to the following reasons:

1. The Spelling Reform advocates all agreed that English orthography needed to be reformed, but there were many proposed solutions. For example, there were fifty spelling reform schemes under consideration by the English Spelling Reform Association in 1880.
2. Opposition from those who didn’t want change—educators, including universities, and publishers of books and periodicals.
3. There is no official government body whose function it is to change English spelling. Appeals to the Government and a high profile meeting with the Lord President of the Council, Charles Gordon-Lennox (Duke of Richmond and Gordon), and Viscount Sandon in 1878 yielded NOTHING.

(Note: In the USA, The American National Education Association adopted twelve simplified spellings in 1898 of which two are still in use: "program" and "thru.")

In 1886, Isaac brought his two sons, Alfred and Ernest who had assisted him for some years, into the business and changed the name of the firm to “Isaac Pitman & Sons.” In 1890, the Government added shorthand to the Education Code, and now Phonography was extensively taught in elementary schools.

On May 21, 1894, Isaac received the following letter from the Prime Minister, the Earl of Rosebery:

“It is which great pleasure that I make the intimation to you that the Queen has been pleased to confer on you the honour of Knighthood. I have recommended this distinction on the ground of your great services to Stenography, and the immerse utility of that art. It was always a cherished hope of mine to obtain a recognition of these, which it is a sensible satisfaction to have realized.”

Before this time the honor of knighthood had been sparing bestowed for accomplishments in literature, science, or art. Isaac Pitman was knighted on July 18, 1894, at Windsor Castle by Queen Victoria.

Isaac retired shortly thereafter and conferred on his sons all the interests of his phonographic text and other works. His last public appearance was in June 1896, and by September he was confined to his house due to increasing weakness and ill health . Isaac Pitman died in Bath on January 22, 1897. Isaac’s remains were cremated, per his request, and placed in a bronze urn.


Resources

1. Dictionary of National Biography. 2nd Edition. Vol 22, pg 1138-40
2. A Biographical Sketch of Sir Isaac Pitman (1904)
3. The Life of Sir Isaac Pitman (1908)

Sir Isaac Pitman - Part 1 (Shorthand Part 14)

Sir Isaac Pitman (1813—1897) was born January 4, 1813, in Trowbridge, Wiltshire to Samuel Pitman and Maria Davis. Isaac was the third of eleven children. Isaac was educated in the town’s grammar school until age thirteen (1826) when he left the school due to its poor ventilation. His father hired a teacher, and Isaac spent the days working as a clerk in the counting-house woolen cloth factory where his father was a manager and the evenings in home schooling.

As a result of his studies, Isaac knew many words and their meanings but was unsure of their proper pronunciation. To correct this, he studied a book that would have a large influence on his life’s work: Walker’s Pronouncing Dictionary. He paid close attention to the author’s “Principles of English Pronunciation.”  Soon after Isaac’s first study of Walker’s dictionary he took up an interest in shorthand learning the William Harding adaptation of Samuel Taylor’s system.

His father decided Isaac should become a school teacher under the “British School” system that relied primarily on donations. In 1831, Isaac was sent to the British and Foreign School Society in London for five months of training. In January 1832, just after his nineteenth birthday, Isaac was sent to take charge as headmaster of Long’s School in Barton-on-Humber, North Lincolnshire.

Isaac first saw the Comprehensive Bible in October 1835. Isaac used the Reference Bible, issued by the Bible Society for his personal study. His thorough study of the Reference Bible discovered thirty-eight reference errors. He borrowed the Comprehensive Bible and found it to contain fifteen of the same errors. Isaac also wrote Samuel Bagster, the publisher of the Comprehensive Bible, about the errors. Isaac offered to read it through for free if supplied with a Comprehensive Bible.

Mr. Bagster sent Isaac a copy of the 1827 Comprehensive Bible, but also sent a second copy divided into seven portions. Each section was to be returned when read. Isaac calculated it would take him three years of daily effort to complete his review. Close to his estimate, Isaac finished in August 1838. His brother, Benn Pitman, estimated Isaac spent nearly 5,000 hours pouring over the Comprehensive Bible. Isaac’s work resulted in a lasting friendship with Mr. Bagster.

In January 1836, Isaac accepted the offer of a nonconformist school committee in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire to establish a school based on the “British School” system. After about a year, Isaac changed his religious beliefs to Swedenborgianism and lost his job. He then started his own private school and decided to include shorthand instruction. Isaac prepared a small and concise instructional manual on the Taylor system and sent the manuscript to Mr. Bagster to be published in April 1837. Before publication, however, Mr. Bagster sent the manuscript to a professional reporter for review. Within a few weeks, Isaac received the returned manuscript and the review:

“The system Mr. Pitman has sent to you [Mr. Bagster] is already in the market; now if he will compile a new system, I think you will be more likely to succeed in your object to popularize shorthand, there will be novelty about it.”

The returned manuscript combined with the recent experience of teaching his students shorthand set Isaac’s desire to improve upon Taylor’s system. However, it would be some time before Isaac developed the below phonetic arrangement of the vowels distinguished by light and dark dots and dashes and start down the path of developing a truly phonetic shorthand system.

The final alphabet would also contain consonant signs differentiated only by thickness (e.g., F and V have the same sign, but F is light and V is dark). The entire system is founded on Walker's principles of English pronunciation. Isaac call the system  “Stenographic Sound-Hand.” Isaac made no effort to promote his shorthand. Instead he spent his time improving the system.

In June 1839 Isaac moved to Bath, and made it his home for the rest of his life. He joined the city’s established Swedenborgian congregation and he started a private school.

Isaac timed the release of the Second Edition of his shorthand system, called "Phonography," with the beginning of the Penny Post in January 1840. While Phonography contained several important improvements and was compressed into a space of 8 inches by 6.5 inches, a “penny plate,” for mailing. Phonography was gratuitously distributed to schoolmasters throughout the UK.

A Third Edition of Phonography with a fuller explanation of the writing rules and intended for instruction was issued by the end of 1840. Isaac on the morning of December 23, 1840, walked about thirty miles over snow covered roads to Stroud carrying fifteen pounds literature and lectured on Phonography. The following day walked to Oxford, visited most of the colleges, and left copies of his Penny Plate and other literature.

During the Christmas and summer school vacations from 1840 to 1842, Isaac travelled to various cities lecturing and teaching Phonography. He was accompanied by Joseph Pitman in 1841 and by Benn Pitman in 1842.

Through their and the efforts of others Phonography rapidly spread, and in 1843 Isaac gave up his school and lecture tours in order to devote himself to the writing and printing of phonographic instruction books and other material in Bath. Isaac’s brothers continued to lecture and teach throughout the UK. Within a few years, local instructors, comprised mostly pupils of the traveling lectures, began teaching Phonography.

The Penny Post offered gratuitous correction and comments of their shorthand by mail, Isaac was answering thousands of letters by 1843. At the suggestion of Thomas Allen Reed, a traveling lecture, The Phonographic Correspondence Society was formed (renamed to the Phonetic Society in 1849). Members corrected the lessons of learners for free and members addresses are published in the Phonographic Journal, a shorthand periodical started by Isaac in 1842. The society ceased after 1893 with 5,098 members due to the many Pitman shorthand associations all over the UK. The Phonetic Society had served its purpose and was no longer needed.

The Ninth Edition of Phonography appeared in 1847. In 1855, Isaac began experimenting with a new vowel arrangement. He now believed the old vowel arrangement violated a fundamental principle of phonetic writing which he discovered in a work by Dr. R. G. Latham that states:

"Sounds within a determined degree of likeness be represented by signs within the determined degree of likeness; while sounds beyond a certain degree of likeness be represented by distinct and different signs, and that uniformly."

In 1857, Isaac published the Tenth Edition of Phonography with a new vowel arrangement without consulting Phonography writers or "phonographers."

The changes were passionately opposed by Mr. Reed (leader of the opposition) in the UK and Benn Pitman (leader of the opposition) in the USA (Benn immigrated to the USA in 1853). By the end of 1858, Mr. Reed reluctantly adopted the new vowel scale to bring agreement and harmony to phonographers. Benn continued to print the Ninth Edition without the vowel alteration which became known as the “Benn Pitman” system.


Go to Sir Isaac Pitman - Part 2


Resources

1. Dictionary of National Biography. 2nd Edition. Vol 22, pg 1138-40
2. A Biographical Sketch of Sir Isaac Pitman (1904)
3. The Life of Sir Isaac Pitman (1908)