PHONOGRAPHY AND THE RAILWAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4910, 16 December 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

PHONOGRAPHY AND THE RAILWAY.

These two powerful appliances of modem civilisation are not without certain common features of resemblance, the moat transparent undoubtedly being the great and essential quality of speed. To secure speed, and to inspire confidence in the safety of the means employed to attain it were, it may be assumed, the principal ends which the authors proposed to themselves to accomplish in both cases. Viewed in the light in which we now see it, their ambition was as honorable to their character as the fruits of it are useful to the public. How far the important ends they never lost sight of have been attained, your readers will not require to be reminded. We are every one of us daily witnesses to the mental and scholarly triumphs of the one, and to the marvellous material results that flow from the other invention; the one has become indispensable to our complete mental and daily satisfaction, the other to our physical convenience and enjoyment. Glanced at from a distance, and with an eye of curiosity rather than in the spirit of investigation, at first sight both the one and the other appear to embrace all the complex conditions of the moat complex machinery; and our wonder is increased rather than abated when we stoop to examine them mere closely; to understand the simple yet ingenious and comprehensive principles that govern the motive 1 power of such potent engines, and to see the philosophical beauty and harmonious adaptation that exist in happy combination between* the parts which form so grand and perfect a ! whole.

A very useful feature in connection with phonography, now so extensively applied, is its adaptability to an important branch of the railway service. It would be strange indeed if the two were not found in close companionship. Nothing is more natural than that one contrivance, whose rapidity and precision are the mainsprings of its existence, should seek the alliance of another, capable of keeping pace with its rapid and various requirements; to work out, in fact, with corresponding speed and promptitude the details by which its own important operations are performed. Phonography supplied this want. Its simplicity was so great that it seem formed for the purpose; its speed was certainly equal to all the demands that could be put upon it by railway enterprise. And so it comes to pass that we find phonography playing a useful and almost necessary part in the conduct of railway business. Those who are familiar with the details of that business, and they alone perhaps, can form an accurate idea of the amount of correspondence it involves—the vast number of letters, memoranda, &c., that day by day, and even hour by hour, are in constant preparation and circulation, the instructions and counter-instructions to the staff of station-masters, agents, signalmen, engine-drivers, and all the other officers and servants occupying grades in the service. And the same combination of speed and regularity that marks the running of the trains is obliged to be studied in disposing of the voluminous matters that come before the responsible departments charged with the organisation and management of the line. Much of this in-door work must of necessity be mental as well as departmental, and yet no greater fallacy could be entertained than to suppose that it can be safely and readily delegated to junior members of the staff. It cannot be so easily got rid of. The greater part of it must receive careful consideration at the hands of the head of the department, before it can bo dealt with by subordinates, and then it must be by strict and literal adherence to instructions. Take an illustration. Every principal department in

I the executive branches of large railway concerns will count its letters daily, not by units nor by tens, but by hundreds. These letters far the most part involve questions of very great nicety, which require both judgment and experience in the adjustment. Long and special training is of course required for this office. -No amount of mere intellect or shrewdness will make up for the want of practical experience here. Part of the daily correspondence will probably be from the company’s own officers, part from the officers of other companies, and the remainder from the public. The letters embrace questions of every imaginable type, from the simple inquiry of the country station-master to the most intricate points of law and policy. They must be carefully and guardedly answered—politically answered, if I may so speak—not a word too much, not a word too little. A .slight inclination one way or the other may be fatal alike to the purposes of the writer and to the interests of his employers; Looseness of diction must give way to brevity and clearness, mere rhetoric to solid argument. Of course as a model of style railway correspondence has no claims of its own to advance. It is neither the native ease and classic elegance of Addison, nor the boldness and volubility of Madame de Sevignd. If it has any merit at all, it lies in its brevity and plainness, not in its elegance or elaboration. In the fewest words consistent with clearness, railway magnates are accustomed to issue their orders. So that speed and accuracy being necessary adjuncts, it was natural that recourse should be had to that which seemed most likely to yield those qualities. Hence there sprang up a new feature in connection with railway work ; and the shorthand writer became, first a novelty, then an auxiliary, and lastly almost a necessity. To managers of railways he has proved invaluable. He saves their time, because he more than keeps pace with the rate at which they can instruct him ; and he saves their labor because he transfers to himself some manual work which without him they must of necessity do for themselves. And the phonogragher’s art is as gratifying to himself as it is to hissuperiors. Byitsmeanshe can receive quickly and consecutively the fullest instructions on all points of doubt and difficulty, and his employers may rest content in the assurance that not only their intentions and ideas, but even their very words, will obtain faithful interpretation at his hands. In this way does the shorthand writer relieve them of some of their most arduous duties, and in this way matters which under other circumstances would require the attention of trained and experienced men, accustomed to enter fully into the points and bearings of questions in dispute, may be handed over immediately to him, with instructions how to proceed. The introduction of phonography is therefore a saving both in time and money, and its extension to various branches of trade will continue in proportion as its great and ever increasing advantages become better known and understood. The shorthand clerk or assistant, if he add natural shrewdness and penetration to his character, should prove himself a most valuable auxiliary to his superior—always ready to catch his views, and to give them correct and literal interpretation. And in this way hundreds are now engaged, a present source of great help to their employers, and of corresponding benefit to themselves; for besides the useful practice of an art which every true student loves with a great and deserved love, they are undergoing a useful training, that will in due time fit them lor higher posts and better pay. It would serve no useful purpose to enter at length into an elaborate account of the railway shorthand writer’s work. It would be difficult to convey to persons unacquainted with the details of railway management a correct idea of the nature and extent of his duties in connection with the correspondence; but to those who understand what an important part correspondence assumes in the government of a railway, enough will have been said to indicate his usefulness, and to those who do not understand, these observations may serve to point out an additional channel in which the phonographer’s services have been utilized. And what has here been said of the railway may in great part be said of other public concerns. There are few large establishments in which correspondence and writing in various shapes do not occupy a considerable place, and in many of these phonography has obtained a firm footing. And no wonder. It carries with it its own recommendation. Its usefulness commends it to all who have once availed themselves of its aid. It has been practically tested, and not found wanting. So that, setting aside its independent value as an elegant and scholarly attainment, phonography may be said to be a ready passport to employment in various branches of the public service. Expert students of it may without much difficulty obtain entrance alike ints the mysteries and practice of the law, the railway, the bank, the telegraph, the mercantile profession, and last, i but far from least, into the awful secrets of the fourth estate. They have, in fact, already taken these different establishments by storm, and the demand for their services has certainly not reached its maximum.