PHONOGRAPHS FOR COURT WORK.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 852, 25 June 1910, Page 6

PHONOGRAPHS FOR COURT WORK.

¥— — ' ADOPTED IN SYDNEY. Will Now Zealand follow the load ol the Australian Courts in using phonographs to assist shorthand writers while doing Court work? It has been found, says the Sydney "Daily Telegraph, that by this plan much more ,time canbo saved than is possible when <ho shorthand writer is required to diotate from his notes to tho typist. 'The method followed is that, oil .tho re-, porter finishing his "turn"'in the court, he at oneo reads off his transcript, not to the typist, but. to the phonograph. This he may do as quickly as he can ■speak, of course, without having, as was formerly the case, to regulate his speed according to another man's ability to work tho typewriter. Hence, when his task is concluded, he is free , to go back into the court, if necessary; while the phonograph record is readily reduced to the typewritten copy in his absence. Thus uu enormous saving of time is effected all round, for, under the old plan, the typist could not. do his work unless the reporter was pre-: sent dictating from his notes. Tht phonographs used for tho Supreme' Court .ill King Street are three in number, of the Edison business typo, and are kept installed in a little room in the-court buildings. As a man reading generally speaks at tho rate of ISO or 200 words a minute, and the speed oven of a fast typist is considerably below that, each phonograph is fittod with a pedal adjustment by which til* reproduction of tho words may be no gulated to suit the speed of the typist