Sir Isaac Pitman

Sir Isaac Pitman 1813-97, English inventor of phonographic shorthand. In Stenographic Soundhand (1837) he set forth a shorthand system based on phonetic rather than orthographic principles; adapted to more than a dozen languages, it became one of the most-used systems in the world. Through his own publishing house he published many manuals, journals, and books about shorthand. The Pitman system was introduced to the United States through Stephen P. Andrews and Sir Isaac's brother, Benn Pitman, 1822-1910, who emigrated to the United States in 1852 and created in Cincinnati the Phonographic Institute to teach and publish works on shorthand. He taught wood carving at the Cincinnati Art Academy, invented (1855) an electrochemical process of relief engraving, and wrote a biography of his brother (1902).

Pitman shorthand a system invented by Isaac Pitman (1813–97), published as Stenographic Sound Hand (1837). Pitman shorthand is still widely used in the UK and elsewhere.

short·hand / ˈshôrtˌhand/ • n. a method of rapid writing by means of abbreviations and symbols, used esp. for taking dictation.The major systems of shorthand are those devised in 1837 by Sir Isaac Pitman and in 1888 by John R. Gregg (1867–1948). ∎  [in sing.] a short and simple way of expressing or referring to something: poetry for him is simply a shorthand for literature that has aesthetic value.