Editing Stenomask (section)

==History==
The stenomask was developed by [[Horace Webb]] and two colleagues in the early 1940s. He was proficient with Gregg shorthand, but sought a more accurate and faster system of transcription, as shorthand notes can become unmanageable with fast talkers or difficult terminology. Furthermore, until speech recognition software became accurate enough for everyday use in the mid-1990s, shorthand reporters would verbally dictate transcription notes into typewritten form, resulting in about two hours dictation for every hour transcribing.

Thus, Webb thought he could "repeat it with my voice instead of with a pen". After much experimentation — first with a cigar box and then a tomato juice can — he arrived at a solution using a microphone inside a military aviator's rubber [[Oxygen mask#Oxygen masks for aviators|oxygen mask]], paired with a coffee pot filled with [[sound baffle|sound-absorbing material]]. The result was eventually deemed by the [[United States Navy]] to be the most accurate method of transcription among "all known systems of verbatim reporting", and was subsequently adopted for use in their court reporting.<ref>The Horace Webb Story {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704130338/http://nvra.affiniscape.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=10|date=2007-07-04}}, ''National Verbatim Reporters Assoc'', retrieved 13 March 2007</ref>