- One of the earliest recorded instances of shorthand being used is a system developed by the Greek historian Xenophon to document the teachings of Socrates and to write the famed philosopher's memoirs in the fourth and third centuries B.C.
According to the National Court Reporters Association, one of the first-known shorthand reporters was a secretary to Roman lawyer and orator Cicero named Marcus Tullius Tiro, who reported a speech by Cato in 63 B.C. In an effort to keep up with Cato's spoken words, he substituted abbreviations for commonly used words at the time and omitted those that he could later provide by memory or by context. Tiro created individual symbols that represented phrases or complete sentences. One of Tiro's symbols that endured over time is the ampersand, which is still used today and translates the same in hundreds of languages. - In 1180, a monk by the name of John of Tilbury published a treatise, which credited him with creating one of the first systems of abbreviated writing and reporting for English-speaking people. The system used a combination of vertical lines and short lateral strokes.
Because of a misguided but prevailing belief that shorthand was associated with witchcraft, shorthand disappeared during the Middle Ages. However, Timothy Bright breathed new life into the craft when he published his book "Characterie: An Arte of Shorte, Swifte, and Secrete Writing by Character" in 1588, which was considered a more practical version of English language shorthand. Bright's system did not make use of the alphabet but instead used 500 or more characters or symbols that the reporter was required to memorize. - A decade or so later, John Willis developed one of the earliest shorthand systems based on the alphabet. Additional alphabetic systems in England were devised by Thomas Shelton in 1630, which famed diarist Samuel Pepys used in his writings, and Thomas Gurney in 1750, whose methods were adopted by author and novelist Charles Dickens when he served as a reporter for England's parliamentary sessions.
Perhaps as a way to pay tribute to those with the skill and concentration required for shorthand proficiency, Dickens used one of his characters in "David Copperfield" to state that the use of shorthand was equivalent to mastering six different languages. - The use of shorthand began making its entrance into the court room when Gurney's son, Joseph, used his father's system to report on the 1788 trial of Warren Hastings, an English merchant who was appointed governor-general of India and subsequently accused of high crimes and misdemeanors for which he was later acquitted.
Still not content with its evolution, however, Isaac Pitman created a shorthand system in 1837 based on phonetics. It was used for decades and after numerous refinements became the pre-eminent system among England's court reporters. Today, it is still the most commonly used system in England and its former territories. - Pitman's system was replaced in the United States by John Robert Gregg's form of shorthand, which became well-known in the business world as the standard method most secretaries used when taking dictation. Gregg's newly devised system was based on the use of cursive rather than geometric symbols. He later opened a shorthand school in England and published a pamphlet in 1888 describing details of his new system. Shortly afterward, he left for the United States and opened schools in Boston and Chicago. The first American version of his shorthand system was published in 1893.
- Soon after came the introduction of the shorthand machine, which indelibly changed the landscape of court reporting and contributed to a decline in the use of Gregg's handwritten system among America's court reporters.
Searching for faster and more efficient and accurate methods, a court reporter named Miles Bartholomew obtained a patent on the first American shorthand machine in 1879, revolutionizing the industry and rendering the pen somewhat obsolete in court reporting. Later modifications resulted in Bartholomew's machine functioning more like a typewriter, recording a single letter with each stroke. - In 1906, Ward Stone Ireland invented a more sophisticated steno machine to record speech. In comparison to previous models, it had a high-speed keyboard with a minimal number of keys, a design concept that is still used today. Historians claim that it is quite possible that Ireland made the greatest contribution to advancements in shorthand machines.
A more recent advancement came about as the result of a collaborative effort between IBM and the U.S. military in the 1950s to translate foreign languages into English, and then later, develop software that could translate symbols into language. However, the project was eventually discontinued due to a limited market for that technology. Another 20 years passed before a small group of court reporters urged industry trade groups to press for development of computer-assisted transcription, a method that is used exclusively today.
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