follows the speaker for five or ten minutes, when his place is taken by another reporter, whose "take" is of like duration, when another relieves him. This permits each reporter to retire to the transcribing room and dictate his "take" either to a phonograph or to a typewriter operator. In the United States Senate phonographs are used largely for transcribing purposes.
In the English Parliament the reporters are not allowed on the floor of the house, but are placed in what is called the "Reporters' Gallery." No special facilities are given them for taking notes; they have to do the best they can. All are, of course, first-class stenographers and men well informed on their particular work. The session is divided into "takes" on the plan already detailed, and gradually, as the session draws to a close, the duration of the "take" is lessened so that by the time the speeches have ended the reports are in the hands of the printer.
In the United States Senate and House of Representatives the reporting is done by a staff of experts employed by the Government. In England the Parliamentary reporting, other than the newspapers, has been in the hands of an outside staff of reporters called "Hansard's," for many years, and the records are printed from the reports furnished by this staff of shorthand writers.
