PITMAN  .

SIR ISAAC (1813--1897), English phonographer, was born at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, on the 4th of January 1813, and was educated at the local grammar school . He started in life as a clerk in a cloth factory, but in 1831 he was sent to the Normal College of the British and Foreign School Society in London . Between 1832 and 1839 he held masterships at Barton-on-Humber and Wotton-under-Edge, but he was dismissed by the authorities when he became a Swedenborgian, and from 1839 to 1843 he conducted a private school of his own at Bath . In 1829 he took up Samuel Taylor's system of short-hand, and from that time he became an enthusiast in developing the art of phonography . In 1837 he drew up a manual of Taylor's system and offered it to Samuel Bagster (1771-1852) . The publisher did not accept the work, but suggested that Pitman should invent a new system (see SHORTHAND) of his own . The result was his Stenographic Soundhand (1837) . Bagster's friendship and active help had been secured by Pit-man's undertaking to verify the half-million references in the Comprehensive Bible, and he published the inventor's books at a cheap rate, thus helping to bring the system within the reach of all . Pitman devoted himself to perfecting phonography and propagating its use, and established at Bath a Phonetic Institute and a Phonetic Journal for this purpose; he printed in shorthand a number of standard works, and his book with the title Phonography (1840) went through many editions . He was an enthusiastic spelling reformer, and adopted a phonetic system which he tried to bring into general use . Pitman was twice married, his first wife dying in 1857, and his second, whom he married in 1861, surviving him .

In 1894 he was knighted, and on the 22nd of January 1897 he died at Bath . Sir Isaac Pitman popularized shorthand at a time when the advance of the newspaper

press and modern business methods were making it a matter of great commercial importance . His system adapted itself readily to the needs of journalism, and its use revolutionized the work of reporting . He was a non-smoker, a vegetarian, and advocated temperance principles . His Life was written by Alfred Baker (19-:8) and (1902) by his brother, Benn Pitman (1822–7911) .