Curiosity compelled me to order this book thru InterLibrary Loan. Personal Shorthand–the original version–was invented in 1905, and was aimed at the non-professional. Its heyday was in the 1920s.
Students could expect to learn the system in about 150 hours. While very high speeds weren’t attainable, 80wpm to 100wpm was a very reachable goal. Its main strength as a shorthand system lies in the fact that it’s absolutely unambiguous; passages written could be easily read even decades later.
The system looks like a flattened-out Pitman, but has connected vowels like Gregg. Words are completely written out, hence its unambiguity.
Students interested perfect legibility and coding in a Shorthand System might find this to be of interest; it is doubtful that a single writer is alive today. Indeed, the last time the book was checked out was–1962 (!).
An additional oddity about this book is that it’s written in the erstwhile Reformed Spelling rules; words such as “thoroughly” are spelt “thoroly”, and so forth.
If anybody is interested in a snapshot of this archaic, long-forgotten system, please let me know; I’ll gladly post it to the forum.
VTY,
George A.
(by
georgeamberson1
for everyone)