Article #13 - Phonographic system of writing

 

 This paper begins, “Please to give your honest, sincere, candid, and real opinion of the comparative excellence of the Phonographic system of writing, give the reasons why it should be generally learned and consider some of the principal objections to it and its general introduction.” A little research turned up the information that phonographic writing was apparently a sort of shorthand, with characters based on sound. The author says, “to illustrate what I mean the word though in the old system is spelled by 6 different letters in the new by two.” He or she goes on to offer various arguments for changing to what would have been a revolutionary system of writing and reading.