Sir Isaac Pitman, 46 years and 81 years old - stock illustration

Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897) was first clerk and then elementary school teacher. From 1837 he worked out his own shorthand, in which he had analyzed the English language from a phonetic point of view, and therefore called it phonography. He divided his shorthand into a school script (learners style) for beginners and a speech script (corresponding style / reporting style) for advanced learners. Due to the extraordinary success of his shorthand, he gave up teaching and moved to Bath, where he produced and sold textbooks for his shorthand in his own printing and publishing house. He sold around 200,000 copies of his textbook a year. Illustrations from 19th century.