No. III.
A cipher and character so contrived, that one line, without returns and circumflexes, stands for each and every one of the twenty-four letters; and as ready to be made for the one letter as the other.
NOTE.
Of this and the following invention, the noble author has left to the curious in the stenographic art, his own definition; a manuscript, in the Marquis's hand-writing, having been preserved in the Harleian Collection, appended to an original copy of the Century of Inventions, in which he explains the system upon which these two articles are founded. The MS. alluded to is thus entitled:—"An Explanation of the most exact and most compendious way of Short-hand Writing; and an Example, given by way of Questions and Resolves upon each significant Point, proving how and why it stands for such and such a Letter, in order, alphabetically placed in every page."—Bibl. Harl. No. 2428.
The above work is accompanied with engraved brass plates; and his system, which is simple and easy of attainment, may be thus described:—A sheet of paper must first be prepared, with a given number of horizontal rows of small octagons, somewhat resembling the chequers on a draft-board. Straight lines are then to be drawn from the centre towards the sides of these squares, in different positions, and of various lengths, for each letter in the alphabet. Thus, A is a short horizontal stroke, made to the right hand, and not touching the side; E, A, and W, are represented by a similar stroke in the opposite direction, but varying in their lengths. By a similar method the author suggests, in the following article, that we may write with a dot, or single point only, placed in a given situation in the octagon; varying the position for each letter, as is at present done in music, the paper being prepared with ruled lines, or it may be simplified by the use of coloured inks for the vowels and consonants.