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)
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