PHONOGRAPHY. 25 



4. The same result is obtained at a trifling expense, and almost without 

 any trouble, by heating the article to be case-hardened to a cherry-red, 

 applying to the part of the surface to be hardened the Prussiate of Potash 

 (Ferrocyanide of Potassium) in poicder, and after the lapse of a minute 

 or two, heating and tempering as for steel. The advantage of this pro- 

 cess, besides the saving of time and expense, is that the application can 

 be made to any part of the surface required, be it large or small, and the 

 case may be made of any desirable thickness, according to the quantity 

 of the Prussiate of Potash applied, thus securing a plate of steel with- 

 out the trouble of welding. This process may be very advantageously 

 applied in numerous instances. 



ENGLISH PHONOGRAPHY, NO. I. 



BY PROF. W. M. REYNOLBS, OF PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE. 



Letters are not soundsj but they are signs of sounds. So far, there- 

 fore, as the sound is concerned one letter or sign will answer the pur- 

 pose just as well as another, although for convenience in writing or 

 printing them one may be greatly preferable to another. But that the 

 same letter should always, in the same connection, indicate the same 

 sound, we thinlc no one can doubt. It must not only render the acqui- 

 sition of a language more difficult to have but one letter to indicate sev- 

 eral sounds, but it must also promote its corruption, and prevent its im- 

 provement. That this is one great source of the unsettled state of pro- 

 nunciation in the English language, no one can doubt who has noticed 

 the mistakes of beginners and readers of almost every class. And that 

 uniformity of pronunciation would naturally, although slowl}-, follow a 

 proper system for the notation of sound seems almost self-evident. 



The imperfections of English Orthography, or, as I prefer calling the 

 notation of spoken sounds and words by means of signs or letters, Pho- 

 nography;* are so numerous and so obvious as to be universally acknow- 

 ledged. So much is this the case that it seems almost a work of super- 

 erogation to specify them. Yet it may assist in bringing us to the point 

 we have in view, to give a general view of the state of the case. 



According to the most careful analysis of our spoken language it con- 

 tains thirty-two'\ sounds or modifications of sound. To represent these 

 we have twenty-six letters. Of these A represents /owr sounds, E three^ 

 8tc., whilst several letters are frequently employed to express at one time 



• ^«v»j=voice, and y^ «^«=I write. 



t See the excellent article of Prof. Day, of West. Reserve College, on ''Eng- 

 lish Phonology," published in the Biblical Repository for Octobei, 1843. 

 4 



