SHORTHAND BY MACHINE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 5, 7 January 1930, Page 7

SHORTHAND BY MACHINE

BLIND GIRL AS NOTETAKEB'

Miss Mabel Green, of Golders Green, who is known in Braille circles as the cliampion blind shorthand writer, was chosen out of several contestants to report the speeches of the Lord Mayor and Mr. Baldwin'at-a'meeting of the Greater London Fund for the Blind.

She uses a tiny Braille shorthand machine, which is practically silent in operation. Miss Green told a "Star" (London) reporter that she thought she could do up to 160 words a minute. "Though,"'she added, "I would not like to keep that speed up for long." The wonder machine, called the Stainsby Wayne Braille shorthand machine, is like a minatu're old-fashioned typewriter. It has only six keys, and instead of typing on a sheet of foolscap, it records a series of raised dots on a long paper tape. One tape-roll can hold more than 5000 ■words. One of the only drawbacks is that the tape does not roll up again as it is used.

"You must be physically fit to keep on typing for a long time," explained Miss Green, as she tapped away, "because the keys need a fair amount of pressure to record the dots properly. "It is quite simple to read tho speech back by passing the tape through your hauds," and she suited> the action to the word, reading aloud at a remarkable rate aud without any hesitation. "It is only a matter of practice," Miss Green explained. "I have been reading arid writing Braille more than 20 years, and I have used similar machines for about four years. This is the latest design, and a big improvement on the others.

"Any blind person should be able to record speeches in six months, and then it is a matter of practice for greater speed. I seem to have a natural bent for it.

"When speakers hesitate aDd correct themselves, I can cross out the wrong words and keep pace with the speaker. "I use a lot of abbreviations o£ my own, just like ordinary shorthand, but I find no difficulty in reading it back and transcribing it on the typewriter. "Last January I reported ;i two days' conference for the National Institute oE tho Blind. I had to use 14 rolls of paper, end I pride myself I made no mistakes. "There were no complaints of my typescript translation*, which ran to more than 80 foolscap psgei."