M. TECHNOLOGY. 547 



one stenographer is intelligible only to himself. The idea of 

 creating a universal language for stenography, independent 

 of the caprice of the operators, is claimed for various persons. 

 As long ago as 1845,Gensoul,of France, occupied himself with 

 this problem, a solution of which was indispensable to the 

 success of the stenographic principles of which he is the in- 

 ventor. Stenographic laws have received numerous improve- 

 ments during these thirty years, both by Gensoul and by his 

 son, who continues to develop the work of his father; and 

 the instrument referred to, as at present constructed, is a 

 manageable piece of apparatus, very convenient and not ex- 

 cessively costly. Many public experiments have been made 

 with it at various times. Entire volumes of discussions and 

 conferences have been published, and the Gensoul machines 

 are at present regularly manufactured. This apparatus, 

 which allows of writing 200 or 250 words per minute (the 

 number of syllables falling from the lips of the most voluble 

 orator), may be described as a piano-forte, upon which there 

 appear twelve white and twelve black keys, which may be 

 moved with the fingers, and two supplementary keys are 

 added, one on the right and one on the left, that are operated 

 by the wrists. Each key produces its indications in marks, 

 on a roll of paper, similar to that which flows in the Morse 

 apparatus. The only difference is that the black keys give 

 long marks, while the white keys make only points. Every 

 time that the keys are touched the paper is automatically 

 unrolled to the extent of one fiftieth of an inch, so that one 

 can make, on every line of the paper, any combination what- 

 ever of twelve double signals. These signals are arranged 

 by three groups of four each ; the three groups being read 

 from left to right, like ordinary writing. The number of 

 signals that can be made upon each line is more than suffi- 

 cient for giving a letter for every movement of the paper ; 

 and, with skill, three letters at least may be written at once. 

 If we suppress the useless letters, such as mutes, double let- 

 ters, etc., it is rare that each movement of the paper does 

 not give a complete word. If a word has to be continued 

 to the following line, a mark is made by a movement of the 

 wrist keys. The manipulation of the machine demands con- 

 siderable skill, for, although one can learn to read the writ- 

 ing in half an hour, it is necessary to have five or six months' 



