Terry Atwood, age 13, of Arcadia, Fla., for his question:

HOW DOES A SHORTHAND MACHINE WORK?

Shorthand machines are used by court reporters and others who want to record court testimony or special speeches. The machine has 21 lettered keys and any number of letters may be struck at one time.

The keyboard of a shorthand machine is arranged so that the fingers of the left hand print the beginning consonants of a word, the right hand prints the concluding consonants and the thumbs print the vowels. The letters

C, I, J, M, N, Q, V, X, Y and Z are omitted. These letters are represented by combinations of other letters that are printed by a single stroke.

The first shorthand machine was invented in 1910 by a stenographer and court reporter from Dallas, Texas, named Ward Stone Ireland.