United States Stenograph Co., St. Louis, Missouri
1882 - serial no.72

The Stenograph was invented by Miles Bartholomew, a newspaper reporter, who patented his invention in 1879.

The model shown here is one of only two known examples of the first manufactured design form of the Bartholomew Stenograph.

"A Machine for writing shorthand", this machine would do that, but there was a lot to learn, in fact a whole new alphabet. The alphabet was a code using a combination of up to five dashes, giving 31 characters. The dashes were printed on a narrow strip of paper that fed from a roll. The holder and paper roll are missing from this machine but can be seen below on perhaps the only known example of the wonderfully illustrated sales card that came with this Stenograph. Quite remarkably, there is a small strip of the original paper used in this Stenograph that has survived in its case. This might very well be the earliest example of Stenograph printing in the world. You can see this strip below.

Both hands were used to operate the Stenograph, alternating between left and right. The machine uses five keys to produce the code, four keys on either side of the middle key out front which is shared by both hands. It was a cleaver design, as one could type faster if the hands took turns in the printing of the characters. It was a bit like two drum sticks working together. The long elegantly curved key, behind the others, is for spacing.

This machine originally sold for $40.