DUST OF THE PAST

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1935, Page 11 (Supplement)

DUST OF THE PAST

PITMAN’S SHORTHAND

(By “Historicus.” ) On January 4, 1813, Sir Isaac ’ Pitman was born. It is probably not incorrect to state that it was Sir Isaac Pitman, more than anyone else, who created a new career for young ladies—the business of the shorthand typist. Shorthand was no new idea to the world when Pitman produced his system. The ancients practised shorthand. An Egyptian papyrus has been discovered,<■ dated A.D. 155, which related to the teaching of ’ shorthand. A pamphlet on the Arte of Shorte, Swifte, and Secrete writing was published in 1588. Everybody knows that Samuel Pepys wrote his celebrated dairy in shorthand. In fact one of the crazes of that period was short-writing. So far as can be ascertained, however, Sir Isaac Pitman’s system was the first really satisfactory one. Transcription had been the difficulty, and many found themselves- in the same cart as Lord Palmerston, who humorously admitted that, although he had laboured to the point of being able to report any orator, his great, drawback was that he could not read a single line of it afterwards. Pitman undoubtedly eased the strain by his system of phonetics. Here he reached complete success. His attempt, however, to apply the same system to the spelling of English resulted in as complete failure.

Joseph Giilott, Steel Pen Maker. Joseph Giilott, steel pen maker, died on January 5, 1872. On the assumption that the pen is mighter than the sword, Mr. Giilott should rank among tne world’s great men. The nib, as we airily term it to-day, is one of those accepted commonplace things that does not count very much until you desire someone to sign a cheque in your favour. Then it assumes its correct importance in the world—at least in your eyes. What fields of romance the average nib could unfold if it could only tell its story. “With me momentous treaties were signed.” “I signed the great Armistice,” or, more plaintively, “With me young Swagger signed away his birthright!” The story of the pen is naturally the story of man’s endeavour to record his acts and thoughts for his own and future generations. Consequently the long journey we have to travel before men could buy them in boxes at a few pence a gross takes us to all lands, all peoples, along a road enchanted by the story of the ages. We see the earliest people of the world laboriously carving their crude figures upon the rocks. The Babylonians writing their strange characters on clay tablets. The Egyptians scratching on their papyrus by means of an instrument much like a pencil, but using ink! From Egypt to Europe spread the use of papyrus and reeds. Until the thirteenth century the reed pen held its own, and then came the quill. It has not died altogether yet. But about 1800 metal pens began to take their place. Horn and tortoiseshell were also used. In 1803 steel pens were sold in London at a cost of about 5s each, but -they were nasty scratchy affairs at the best. In 1820 Mr. Giilott developed a vast improvement by using three slits instead of one in the nib. He introduced machinery, and a year later was selling a greatly improved nib at a price that was then considered a remarkable success—£7 4s a gross! It has been a long road to the perfection of the simple little production of to-day, but making a nib is not such an easy matter as it might appear, for the ordinary pen has to go through sixteen different processes before it is ready—to sign that cheque! Reprimanded by Washington.

Benedict Arnold was born on January 3, 1740. He would seem to have been an unstable youth from the beginning, for apprenticed to an apothecary, he ran away and enlisted as a soldier. When the War of Revolution broke out he joined in and attained the rank of Colonel, which he soon improved to Brigadier and then MajorGeneral. But that old unstable trait in him was at work. Jealousy and dissatisfaction made him reckless. Then he got into trouble by running into debt, and received a reprimand from George Washington. This added venom, and, .’n command of West Point, he appears to have decided to revenge himself by selling the place to the British. The success of the treachery of Arnold would have been the destruction of the American cause. It very nearly succeeded, but not quite. The character which enters into the story now was the unfortunate John Andre. He was detailed to conduct negotiations with Arnold. After various projects to bring about an interview Andre met Arnold on the shores of the Hudson, and the details for the surprisal of West Point were arranged. Unfortunately for Andre his ship was forced to fall down the river, thus forcing him to make his way in disguise to the English lines. The upshot was that' Andre was: captured and the scheme discovered, The Americans offered to exchange Andre for Arnold, but the British could not agree to that, and Arnold, apparently, was not inclined to play the hero. So Andre suffered death and Arnold was made a British MajorGeneral. Despised and shunned, Arnold lived with his money and his conscience until the age of sixty-one.

The Progress of Aviation. Alberto Santos-Dumont, the swarthy, foppish little son of a millionaire Brazilian coffee planter, built a navigable balloon ' with a motor and piloted it round the Eiffel Tow in October 1901. Further experiment showed him the many defects of the non-rigid airship and while other experimenters such as Count Zeppelin were labouring to counter these defects by building rigio airships, Santos-Dumont turned his attention to aeroplanes. He designed what was really a number of box-kites joined together with a seat and an automobile motor in the middle. In this he made the first authentic flight ever taken in Europe in a motor-propelled heavier than air machine. Before a big crowd, in a park near Paris he “hopped” in his machine off the ground, rose a yard or so and travelled 200 yards before his wheels touched ground again. In aeronautics it is the first hop which counts. The world had been shown beyond dispute that engines were available which could Eft from the ground a structure heavier than air and could hold it free above the ground by air resistance while it moved forward. Two unknown mechanics named Wright were working at the same problem in America. Next year Henri Farman flew the Channel, in 1909 Bleriot flew the Channel; in 1919 Sir John Alcock flew the Atlantic. Twenty-five years after the first Channel crossing Scott and Black flew from England to Melbourne in less than three days.