ized the Phonetic Society (1843). His alfabet, as "reduced to a satisfactory working state" in 1847, consisted of 40 letters. Of these 16 wer new, and not all of them wer tipografically good.
Even if Pitman's alfabet had been beyond sientific and esthetic criticism, it would hav stood little chance of adoption. The temper of the English-speaking peoples is unfavorable to violent changes in the written and printed page. The printing trade wil always oppose the addition of new letters to the alfabet and wil never accept them until forst to do so by an insistent public demand. To ad several letters at one time would not only compel every printing house to purchase large quantities of the new tipes and of specially arranged cases to hold the enlarged fonts, but would involv costly los of time while compositors wer learning the new letters, the new spellings, and the new positions of all the letters in the new stile of case.
Unsuccessful Experimenters
Actually, Pitman's fonetic alfabet never advanst beyond the experimental stage. He kept making changes that wer confusing to those who tried to follow him, and that Ellis did not approve, thus dissolving their association. Pitman's uncertainty encouraged others in England and America, both educators and lay experimenters, who had been converted to the fonetic idea, to put forth individual modifications of the Pitman alfabet, and, in some cases, schemes of their own invention. Several of these experimenters — some of whom had little or no filologic or fonetic training — went to the expense of having special tipes cast, and sought to defray it by the sale of primers, readers, books, and periodicals, printed in the new caracters.
