תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

SHOLA-SHORTHAND.

evil attends that method of carrying on his operations. In every profession, sitting at work in a close atmosphere is particularly injurious to health. Statistics assure us that out of 10,000 artisans who sit at their labour, 2577 fall sick, and 95 die, annually; whilst as regards an equal number of those who alternately sit and stand, only 1713 sicken, and 61 die. To remedy this crying evil, a member of the profession, Mr J. Sparkes Hall, London, has invented a simple and inexpensive work-bench, at which shoes may be made standing. Of this standing-bench, we offer a sketch in fig. 4. A few days' practice, we are told, renders the workman as expert with the standing-bench as if he were seated according to the old plan, and he can execute closing with less fatigue and considerably more cleanliness. The only kinds of work in which sitting is more convenient are rounding the soles, lasting, and fitting, for which a seat may be em ployed.

The fashion of shoes, as has occurred with other articles of dress, has undergone innumerable changes. At one time, shoes were pointed to an extravagant degree; and in last century, the high heels of ladies' shoes became a monstrosity. Shortly after the beginning of the present century, the most marked improvement was the making of shoes right and left; the substitution of latchets for buckles about the same period was also a step in advance. In our own day, the general disuse of the shoe proper, and the introduction of short ankle-boots, are the chief changes of fashion. A proposal for a more perfect adaptation of shoes and boots to the shape of the foot, is noticed under Foor. The shoemaking trade, as at present conducted in Britain, is divided into two departments-the bespoke and the ready-made or sale business. The larger department hitherto has been that in which customers bespeak boots and shoes by having them made to measure; but it is generally giving way to the plan of buying articles ready-made. The cause of this is exceedingly obvious. The process of measuring is usually very imperfect, owing, among other reasons, to the want of lasts to suit every variety of feet, as well as the too general indifference to meet individual peculiarities. On this account, and even at the risk of purchasing an inferior class of goods, the public are becoming daily more disposed to encourage the ready-made trade. Accordingly, large quantities of boots and shoes in innumerable varieties are now made and supplied wholesale by manufacturers for the retail dealers. Northampton, Stafford, and Leicester are considerable seats of this manufacture

in England; and from certain districts in France, there are increasing importations, chiefly of a cheap

kind of ladies' shoes.

The plan of making boots and shoes by isolated workmen at their own homes, has been found quite incompatible with the modern necessities of trade. As in the case of the handloom weaver, the shoemaker of the old school has had to succumb to machinery. After an unsuccessful struggle to oppose the introduction of sewing-machines, these are now coming generally into use, and men are employed in large numbers together in what may be called shoe-factories. This manufacture has long been a staple trade of Massachusetts, in which state the quantity of boots and shoes fabricated annually is numbered by millions of pairs. Recently, a machine has been introduced into the American shoe-trade for fixing the soles to the uppers by means of pegs, the inventor being a person in Salem, Massachusetts. A pair of boots or shoes can be pegged in two minutes. These pegged goods are disposed of wholesale in boxes, and may be seen in retail stores all over the United States. As evidence of the

important character of the shoe-trade in Massachusetts, it may be mentioned that a few years ago there were as many as fifteen members of the 'gentle craft' in the legislature of that state.

In the year ending December 31, 1863, the ev ports of boots and shoes from the United King dom were as follows: Wrought boots and shoes, 4,436,734 pairs; wrought of other sorts, 646,442 pairs-united value, £1,539,410. In the same year, the imports were: Boots, shoes, and goloshes of all kinds, 441,739 pairs; boot-fronts, 470,844. The import was free, no customs-duties being now charged on this class of articles.

SHO'LA, the white pith of the leguminous plant schynomene aspera, a native of the East Indies. With this substance, which is exceedingly light, the natives of India make a great variety of useful articles, especially hats, which being very light and cool, are in great request. Helmets made of shola are much used by the British troops in

India.

It

SHOOTING, with intent to wound, is felony in the law of England, and punishable with penal servitude for life. The offence consists in shooting at another, or drawing a trigger, or in any other manner attempting to discharge loaded arms. is not, however, an offence unless there was a possibility of injuring some person; the intent must not only exist, but the relative situation of the parties must be such that serious injury might have ensued. The extent of the actual wound is immaterial.

SHORE. See SEA-SHORE.

SHORE, in Ship-building, is a strong prop or stanchion placed under the bottom or against the side of a ship, to keep her steady on the slip or in dock. Shores are also used to support or prop up a building during alterations.

SHOREDITCH. See TOWER HAMLETS.

SHO'REHAM, NEW, a seaport, and parliamentary borough of Sussex, on the left bank and at the mouth of the Adur, six miles west of Brighton. The town arose when the harbour of Old Shoreham, now a mile inland, became silted up. Pop. of the parish (1851) 2590; (1861) 3351. This increase is attributed to the extension of the ship-building trade here, and partly to the recent discovery of oyster-beds on the south-west coast of the Channel. More than 80 smacks, each manned by five hands, are employed in this parish in the oyster-trade. The parliamentary borough, which includes the Rape (see SUSSEX) of Bramber, contains 32,622

inhabitants.

SHORTHAND, a very useful art, by means of which writing is made almost as expeditious as speaking. In ordinary longhand, many separate motions of the pen are required to form each single letter: thus m requires seven motions, k requires six, h five, t four, I three, &c. But as syllables include vowels as well as consonants, and often two, or even three, and sometimes four consonants occur before or after a vowel, the number of motions requisite to write syllables in longhand is very great. The monosyllabic words long and short, for instance, require respectively fourteen and seventeen motions of the pen; while such syllables as stream, splints, strength, &c., require from twentyone to twenty-six motions. Abbreviated writing is thus a necessity in all cases where language has to be written from ordinary delivery. Some stenographers make use of the common alphabet, and merely contract words by the omission of letters.

SHORTHAND.

They wald, for instance, write the last sentence and the acquisition will be found valuable, in thus:

So. stenog. ma. u. of th. com. alph. & me. contr. wo. by th. om. of let.

This is not properly shorthand; the latter term is limited to writing which is both abbreviated in spelling, and simplified in the forms of the alphabetic characters. Much attention has been paid to this art in Britain during the last 300 years, upwards of 200 systems having been published within that period. The older systems were chiefly founded on orthography, the ordinary spelling of words being represented simply by a set of more convenient symbols for letters. The highest brevity attainable in this way was, however, altogether insufficient for reporting; and consequently, arbitrary signs for words and phrases, and distinctions in the value of characters, dependent on their relative position on, above, or below the line of writing, were largely used. The more modern systems have all been to a greater or less extent phonetic, or representative of sounds instead of letters, the number of sounds into which syllables may be resolved, being considerably smaller than that of orthographic elements.

Of the two classes of elements, vowels and consonants, the latter are the more important for the recognition of words; and these are generally written without lifting the pen, vowels being supplied by dots and other interpolated symbols. In some systems, no attempt is made to discriminate one vowel from another, but only the places where vowels occur are indicated by a general sign; in others, the five vowel letters have distinctive symbols; and in others an accurate representation of the varieties of vowel sound is aimed at. The degree in which words are recognisable without vowels, may be judged of by the following speci

men:

enabling a writer to save four out of every five motions of the pen, in private memoranda, correspondence, &c.

A great impetus was given to the study of shorthand, about 25 years ago, by the publication of Mr Isaac Pitman's Phonography. The introduction of the penny postage, at the same period, vastly aided the diffusion of the system, and societies for phonographic correspondence were established in all parts of the kingdom. The Psalms, the New Testament, and many other works, were published in the phonographic alphabet, and magazines written in shorthand found a widely-diffused circle of supporters. This system of writing is elegant and expeditious to a practised hand, and a very great improvement on all preceding systems. The alphabet consists of the following characters:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

sh zh The distinction between breath and voice (or mute and sonant) consonants, as above shewn, is happily expressed by a thickening of the symbolic line for the latter elements. The characters in the second column are, however, anomalous, the first four,

Chmbrzz nsclpd a deshnr v nvrsl nlj fr th ppl n th which are written thin,' representing voice con bss v th ltst dshn v th jrmn cnvrsshnz Icsen.

An indication of where vowel sounds occurwithout shewing what vowels-will be found to give increased and sufficient legibility to a reader who is acquainted with the language. Thus:

Ch-mb-rz-z -ns-cl-p-d-- a d-csh-n-r- v -n-v-rs-1 n-1-j f-r the p-pl-n th- b-s-s -v th- 1-t-st -d-sh-n -v thj-rm-n c-nv-rs-sh-nz l-cs-c-n.

Chambers's Encyclopædia, a Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People, on the basis of the latest edition of the German Conversations Lexicon.

Shorthand alphabets consist of simple straight and curved lines, to which hooks, loops, or rings are added. These elements of writing are common to all systems, but the powers associated with the symbols are, of course, different in different systems. Much ingenuity has been shewn by various authors in developing the application of the simple radial and segmental lines of a circle, and the positions of a dot, for the representation of language; but, in many cases, while a wonderful amount of apparent brevity has been attained—as by writing on a staff of lines, each of which gives a different value to the same sign-the systems are all but impracticable, from the multitude of details with which the memory of the learner has to be burdened. The prevailing fault of such systems of shorthand is, that they are long in being short. Reporters must abbreviate even the simplest possible form of alphabetic writing, but the mastery of a shorthand alphabet for other than reporting purposes, is a very easy matter;

sonants, and the fourth and fifth, written with the difference only of thick' and thin,' representing distinct formations, which differ from each other as d does from g, and both of which are voice consonants.

In this system vowels are denoted by the inter polated signs

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

placed at the top, the middle, or the bottom of the The vowel marks are written consonant lines. thick for long,' and thin for 'short' sounds. The long and short vowels are not, however, phonetic pairs, differing only in quantity; and thus the vowel scheme is less accurate than that of the consonants. It is, besides, very complex to a beginner, from the employment of a special set of characters for vowels preceded by w and y, the latter elements not being included in the alphabet of consonants.

[ocr errors]

In Phonography,' as in almost all other systems of shorthand, vowels are added by separate liftings of the pen, while their insertion is indispensable to legibility, unless special modes of writing consonant combinations are adopted. The latter expedient is employed by Mr Pitman for such compounds as pr, pl, spr, str, nl, mp, &c., the characters for which make, practically, large additions to the alphabet. The use of a general vowel sign would evidently be of little advantage in this system, as it would, equally with the exact vowel marks, require the pen to be lifted for its insertion.

In a more recent system of phonetic shorthand. a

SHORTHAND.

new principle of writing is adopted, by which the positions of all sounded vowels are indicated in the writing of the consonants, thereby securing easy legibility, with brevity and simplicity, in the writing of a known language. This system, the invention of Mr Melville Bell, is based on the following principles:

I. A full-sized character represents a consonant with a vowel sound before it.

II. A half-sized character represents a consonant with a vowel sound after it.

III. A tick-sized, or very small character, represents a consonant alone, and neither preceded nor followed by a vowel.

In this way, all words are distinguished to the eye as monosyllables, dissyllables, trisyllables, &c., without any necessity for interpolated vowel points. The relative size of the letters pt, for example, forming the consonant outline of the words pet, apt, pity, poet, &c., shews the first pair of these words to be monosyllables, and the others to be dissyllables.

Thus :

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The importance of this mode of writing will be at once obvious in such words as contain the same consonants with various syllabication, as sport, sprite, spirit, support, separate, aspirate, &c.

To a learner this system offers a very brief and easily read stenography of his own language, so soon as he has learned the alphabet only. The system is of course susceptible of the ordinary methods of abbreviation for the fleet exigencies of the reporter, such as the use of letters for words, special positions for logograms,' &c. Exact vowel marks also are provided for insertion wherever they are considered necessary, as in the writing of foreign words, proper names, &c. The following is Mr

1.

PITMAN.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

In this arrangement, all breath consonants are written by thin lines, and all voice consonants by thick lines; and no additional characters are used for compound consonants. The essential principle of the system, by which the positions of vowels, or the absence of vowels, are indicated in the writing of the consonants, manifestly dispenses with the neces sity for separate symbols for combinations.

The three different sizes of the alphabetic characters, which express the effect of vowels in this system, are employed with some specific value in all systems. In Mr Pitman's Phonography, for instance, half-sized' consonants are used to denote the addition of t or d to the consonant which is written; while the vowel symbols are in size precisely the same as the characters which, in Mr Bell's phonetic shorthand, represent 'tick-sized' consonants.

The vowel scheme of the latter system furnishes a separate sign for every difference of vowel quality, and the distinction of thick and thin symbols is limited to actual phonetic pairs of long and short sounds, such as are heard in the words full and fool, yon and yawn. But, except in monosyllables written in the first or simply alphabetic style, the distinctive vowel signs rarely require to be inserted.

As an illustration of the aspect of the writing in these two phonetic systems, the following sentences are written in the full alphabetic styles:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

BELL.

[ocr errors]

PITMAN.

2.

BELL

(PITMAN.

3.

BELL

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

SHORT-SIGHT SHOULDER-JOINT.

The fundamental difference between these systems will be understood from the examples; in the first system, all syllabic sounds are definitely shewn by means of vowel points, but without these latter, a reader could not distinguish the number of syllables contained in a word; in the second system, the consonant outline, without inserted vowels, informs the eye of the number of syllables in every wordall full as well as all half-sized consonants being necessarily syllabic.

Some systems of shorthand consist mainly of ide graphic signs, alphabetic writing being used only as supplementary to the arrangement of arbitrary symbols and ruled lines. Thus the positions upon, above, or below a single line, are associated with such meanings as present, past, and future for verbs; affirmative, interrogative, and negative for propositions; personal, relative, and demonstrative for pronouns, &c. ; while the symbols for the various classes of words are merely uniform points, commas, hyphens, and other non-alphabetic marks. Sometimes the principle of different positional values of symbols is carried to so great an extent, that the projectors of such systems are able to boast, paradoxically, that one-half of any speech is virtually written before the speaker opens his lips! The difficulty of attending in rapid writing to such niceties of position as have been prescribed, may be conceived from the following specimen of 'dot' positions, extracted from Moat's Shorthand Standard:

[blocks in formation]

In all systems, more or less use is made of what may be called analogical symbols, such as a circle, for the earth, the world, &c., with a point above, below, before, after, or within the circle, for such phrases as above the earth, under the earth, in the world, &c. But alphabetic writing by sound can derive little assistance from such arbitrary signs, however suggestive. Abbreviated phonetic writing undoubtedly furnishes the simplest and most exact method of stenography; and the two systems above exemplified, sufficiently illustrate the nature of the art of shorthand, as most widely practised on the phonetic basis at the present day.

The older methods of Byrom, Taylor, Gurney, Lewis, Odell, and other authors, still find many alherents. In fact, any system to which a writer is accustomed is better than longhand; and, practically, reporters and others modify for themselves, to a great extent, the systems they employ. Fancutt's Stenography on the Basis of Grammar (1840) may be referred to as a very ingenious work. Jones's Phonography (1865), a modification of Pitman's, is one of the most recent publications on the subject. A History of Shorthand, contain ing a chronological enumeration of authors, was published a few years ago.

SHORT-SIGHT. See SIGHT, Defects of. SHOT is the term applied to all solid balls fired from any sort of firearms; those for cannon and carronades being of iron, those for small-arms, of

lead. The latter are known as bullets and smallshot. The shot used for guns at present vary from the 3-pounder, for boat and mountain artillery, to the 104-inch shot, which weighs about 150 lbs. as a sphere, or 300 lbs. as an elongated bolt. Generally, shot are cast. There are simple practical rules for calculating the weight from the diameter of a shot, and vice versa, which are often useful in reading of artillery actions. Given the diameter in inches, to find the weight in pounds: Cube the diameter, and multiply the result by 14; reject the two righthand figures; those remaining give the weight in pounds. Given the weight in pounds, to find the diameter in inches: Multiply the cube-root of the weight by 1923, and the result is the diameter of the shot in inches.

Small-shot is of various sizes, from swan-shot, nearly as large as peas, to dust-shot. It is made by dropping molten lead through a colander in rapid motion from a considerable height into water. The lead falls in small globular drops. The holes in the colanders vary in size according to the denomi nation of the shot, No. 0 requiring holes th inch in diameter, No. 9, 8th inch. The colanders are iron hemispheres, 10 inches in diameter, and are coated within with the cream or scum which is taken off the molten metal. A small portion of arsenic is melted with the lead, and the fusion in the colanders is maintained by those vessels being surrounded by burning charcoal. The discovery of the advantage attending a long fall was made in England towards the end of last century. Previously the shot had dropped from the colanders at once into the water. The lead was then so soft that the shot were flattened by the water. The fall through the air enables the lead to cool and harden before taking its plunge. The smaller sizes require less fall than the larger100 feet suffices for sizes Nos. 4 to 9-the larger sorts demand 150 feet. The highest shot tower is at Villach in Carinthia, where there is a fall of 249 feet. After cooling, shot is sifted in successive sieves to separate the sizes. Misshapen shot are found by their inability to roll: and finally, the whole are polished by rotary motion in small octagonal boxes, in which a little plumbago has been thrown. See also CASE-SHOT, CANISTER, GRAPE

SHOT.

SHOTTS, a small and ancient village of Lanarkshire, close to the Kirk of Shotts, about 16 miles east of Glasgow. About 3 miles to the south-east of the Kirk, modern S., or S. Proper, began to rise at the close of the last century, when the Shotts Iron Company erected their extensive iron works there. S. may be said to consist of three villagesviz., Stane, Shotts Iron Works, and Dykehead; and the district within a radius of a mile from the works-which district includes these three villages -contains about 5000 inhabitants. Valuable coal and iron-stone, peculiarly suited for the manufac ture of iron, abound in the district, and 1000 hands are employed in iron-making and moulding. present (December 1865), there is no railway communication from and to S. for passengers; but after the Clelland and Midcalder branch of the Caledonian Railway is opened, S. will be the half-way station between Edinburgh and Glasgow on that line.

At

joint. The bones entering into its composition are SHOULDER-JOINT, THE, is a ball-and-socket the humerus or arm-bone, and the scapula or shoulder-blade, the large globular head of the former being received into the shallow glenoid cavity of the latter, an arrangement by which extreme freedom of motion is obtained, while the apparent insecurity of the joint is guarded against by the strong ligaments and tendons which surround it, and above by

[merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic]
[graphic]

Fig. 1.-The left Shoulder-Joint and its Connections. 1, the clavicle or collar bone; 2, the acromion process; 3, the coracoid process; 4, the capsular ligament; 5, the coracohumeral ligament; 6, the tendons of the biceps muscle; 7, the shaft of the humerus or arm-bone; 8.the greater tube rosity of the humerus; 9, the lesser tuberosity; 10, the neck of the scapula: 11, anterior surface of the scapula.

derives much of its strength. Accordingly, in paralysis of the arm, one or two fingers can often be pressed into the joint towards the head of the glenoid cavity, from which the head of the humerus is now separated.

The shoulder-joint exhibits the following varieties of motion: 1. Flexion, to a great extent; 2. Extension, in a much more limited degree; 3. Adduction, in an oblique direction, forwards and inwards; 4. Abduction very freely; 5. Circumduction; and 6. Rotation slightly.

The morbid affections of the shoulder-joint may be divided into (1) those arising from disease, and (2) those dependent on an accident. The most common diseases are acute and chronic inflammation of the joint, which often terminate in its anchylosis or immobility. The principal accidents are fractures and dislocations. There may be fracture (1) of the acromion process, or (2) of the coracoid process, or (3) of the neck of the scapula, or (4) of the superior extremity of the humerus ; or two or more of these accidents may be associated. Again, the head of the humerus may be dislocated from the glenoid cavity as the result of accident in three different directions-viz. (1), Downwards and inwards into the axilla, which is by far the most common form; (2) Forwards and inwards; and (3) Backwards on the infra-spinous fossa, or the dorsum of the scapula. The first of these varieties is of such common occurrence, that persons of ordinary intelligence should know how to recognise, and even (in an emergency) to treat it. The bones are in the position shewn in the figure; and the following are the most prominent symptoms: 'The arm is lengthened; a hollow may be felt

[blocks in formation]

to touch the ribs; and the head of the bone can be felt if the limb be raised, although such an attempt causes great pain and weakness, from the pressure exerted on the axillary plexus of nerves.'-Druitt's Surgeon's Vade-mecum, 8th ed. p. 282. There are at least five methods of treating this form of dislocation. It is sufficient to notice two of them. 1. Reduction by the heel in the axilla. The patient lies on a couch, and the operator sits at the edge, and puts his heel (the shoe or boot being previously removed) into the axilla, to press the head of the bone upwards and outwards, and at the same time pulls the limb downward by means of a towel fastened above the elbow. There is a figure of this operation in the article DISLOCATIONS. 2. Reduc tion by the knee in the axilla. The patient being seated in a chair, the surgeon places one of his knees in the axilla, resting his foot on the chair. He then puts one hand on the shoulder, to fix the scapula, and with the other depresses the elbow over his knee.-For a description of the symptoms and mode of treatment of the other forms of dislocation, and of the different varieties of practice, we must refer the reader to any systematic treatise on Surgery.

SHO'VELLER (Rhynchaspis), a genus of ducks,

[graphic]

Shoveller, male and female (Rhynchaspis clypeata). of the section having no lobe or pendent membrane on the hind toe, and remarkable for the expans

« הקודםהמשך »