"[3] One of the outcomes of his interest in spelling reform was the creation of his system of phonetic shorthand which he first published in 1837, in a pamphlet titled Sound-Hand.

By 1843, his business of preparing and publishing had expanded sufficiently for him to give up teaching and to set up his own printing press, as well as compositing and binding.

Isaac Pitman and Sons was to become one of the world's leading educational publishers and training businesses with offices in London, Bath, New York City, Melbourne, Johannesburg, Toronto and Tokyo.

His contribution to this church was honoured by the congregation with a stained glass window depicting the golden cherub in the temple of wisdom described in Swedenborg's True Christian Religion No.

His memorial plaque on the north wall of Bath Abbey reads, "His aims were steadfast, his mind original, his work prodigious, the achievement world-wide.

His grand-daughter, Honor Isabel Salmon (b.1912, née Pitman) was killed while piloting an Airspeed Oxford for the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1943.

[citation needed] In 1837, at the age of 34, Pitman discontinued the use of all alcoholic beverages and became a vegetarian, both lifelong practices.

[13] In an 1879 letter to The Times (London), he attributed his excellent health and his ability to work long hours to his vegetarian diet and abstinence from alcohol.

[13] He commented that "I attribute my health and power of endurance to abstinence from flesh meat and alcoholic rinks.

I can come to no other conclusion when I see the effect of such extended hours of labour on other men who eat meat and drink wine or beer".