In 1833, Thomas Moat finally had enough cash to pay someone to print his hobby shorthand project. He believed he had invented the future of shorthand. He was dead wrong.
But his manual is so dang full of itself, and his system looks so wild on the page, that it’s entertaining to read through. Like watching a train crash.
This site collects a snarky paraphrase of his manual.
Sit down, grab something strong, and prepare to drink every time Moat talks about perspicuity. We’re going on a ride through Moat’s Shorthand Standard (PDF), or should I say,
The
SHORT-HAND STANDARD
attempted
by an analysis of the Circle
as an introductory foundation
OF A
New System of Stenography
which demonstratively proves
that a Speaker can be followed
with one-third less inflexions of the Pen,
AND CONSEQUENTLY
in one-third less time
than by
ANY OTHER SYSTEM EXTANT.
Contents: The Short-Hand Standard &c.
Reviews
“His preface was prescient. I totally stuck that bit about ‘some future author will be crowned with that success which shall entitle him to the deserved appellation of ”Universal Stenographist”’ on the menu cards for the 40th Anniversary Dinner celebrating my shorthand system.” – J. R. Gregg
“Nah, mate, he was totally talking about Pitman’s shorthand. But there’s no way anyone would ever use Moat’s own system. It’s distinguished only by its author’s tiresome minuteness.” – Isaac Pitman
“Cool trick, deriving everything from the circle and using lines to keep the system focused. Utterly unconvincing presentation. I’ll take compound characters over having to join a bunch of nearly identical curves, thanks.” – Matthias Levy
“Everybody’s heard of its extensive use of position writing. And you can push it further. Maybe. We’re still waiting for someone to show up and actually use these systems. But we also thought Pitman’s was unworkably fussy with its size and shading distinctions, and yet look what it can do. So I’m not ruling it out. Now lemme tell you all about my own sweet 9-position system.” – J. B. Rundell