Editing Mnemonic major system (section)

==History==
The mnemonic major system is a widely used phonetic number memorization technique that associates numbers with sounds or words to make them easier to recall. This system is part of a broader tradition of phonetic number systems found across different cultures. For instance, in India, the [[Katapayadi system]], which dates back to at least the 7th century, represents another ancient and sophisticated approach to encoding numbers using phonetic values.

[[File:Pierre Hérigone (1580 - 1634) - Cursus mathematicus, volume 2, top of page 137.png|thumb|300px|Mnemonic major system by Pierre Hérigone from 1634<ref>https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10593924?page=157</ref>]]
[[File:Johann Justus Winkelmann (1620 - 1699) - mnemonic major system.png|thumb|300px|Johann Just Winckelmann - mnemonic major system from 1648]]
[[File:Aimé Paris - mnemonic major system - 1825.png|thumb|300px|Major system by Aimé Paris from 1825. – 1: T, D; 2: N, GN; 3: M; 4: R; 5: L, ILL; 6:CH, J; 7: K, GH; 8: F, V; 9: P, B; 0: S, Z]]
[[File:Carl Otto Reventlow (1817 - 1873) - mnemonic major system - 1843.png|thumb|300px|Mnemonic major system by Carl Otto Reventlow – 1843]]
A different memory system, the [[method of loci]], was taught to schoolchildren for centuries, at least until 1584, "when [[Puritan]] reformers declared it unholy for encouraging bizarre and irreverent images."<ref>Brown, Derren (2006), ''Tricks of the Mind'', Transworld Publishers, {{ISBN|978-1-905026-26-5}}.</ref>  The same objection can be made over the major system, with or without the method of loci. Mental images may be easier to remember if they are insulting, violent, or obscene (see [[Von Restorff effect]]).

[[Pierre Hérigone]] (1580–1643) devised the earliest version of the major system and published it in 1634. The system was further developed by [[Johann Just Winckelmann]] (pseudonym Stanislaus Mink von Weunsshein and published in 1648.<ref>Buzan, Tony, 1989. Use Your Perfect Memory, Third Edition, Plume. Cited in Hale-Evans</ref> It was later elaborated upon by other users.  In 1730, [[Richard Grey (archdeacon)|Richard Grey]] set forth a complicated system that used both consonants and vowels to represent the digits. In 1808 [[Gregor von Feinaigle]] introduced the improvement of representing the digits by consonants (but reversed the values of 8 and 9 compared to those listed above).

In 1825 [[Aimé Paris]] published the first known version of the major system in its modern form.<ref>[http://blog.artofmemory.com/history-of-the-major-system-1092.html History of the Major System]</ref>

In 1843, [[Carl Otto Reventlow]] (1817–1873) published a mnemonics textbook on a method similar to Paris' and traveled throughout Germany promoting it.

In 1844 [[Francis Fauvel Gouraud]] (1808–1847) delivered a series of lectures introducing his mnemonic system which was based on Aimé Paris' version. The lectures drew some of the largest crowds ever assembled to hear lectures of a "scientific" nature up to that time. This series of lectures was later published as ''Phreno-Mnemotechny or The Art of Memory'' in 1845 and his system received wide acclaim. According to Gouraud,  [[Richard Grey (archdeacon)|Richard Grey]] indicated that a discussion on Hebrew linguistics in [[William Beveridge (bishop)|William Beveridge]]'s ''Institutionum chronotogicarum libri duo, una cum totidem arithmetices chronologicæ libellis'' (London, 1669) inspired him  to create his system of mnemotechniques which later evolved in to the major system.<ref>{{cite book|title=Phreno-mnemotechny: Or, The Art of Memory |publisher=Wiley and Putnam |year=1845 | url=https://archive.org/details/phrenomnemotech00gougoog |quote=Beveridge. | first= Francis| last=Fauvel-Gouraud |pages=[https://archive.org/details/phrenomnemotech00gougoog/page/n68 61]–62}}</ref>

In the 1880s Marcus Dwight Larrowe, alias Silas Holmes, was teaching memory courses in the United States based on the Major System using a third alias Dr. Antoine Loisette. Because he was charging inordinate sums of money for a system which had obviously existed before, George S. Fellows published ''"Loisette" exposed'' (1888)<ref>{{cite book |last = Fellows |first = George S. |title = "Loisette" exposed, together with Loisette's Complete System of Physiological Memory. |publisher = G.S. Fellows & Co. 
|year = 1888 |url= https://archive.org/details/loisetteexposed01larrgoog/page/n9/mode/2up }}</ref> and included all the material of Larrowe's course which he determined not to be under copyright. The incident was notable enough to gain coverage by way of a book review in the journal ''Science''.<ref>{{cite journal|date= 1888-07-20 |title= Book review: "Loisette" exposed, together with Loisette's Complete System of Physiological Memory. By G. S. FELLOWS. New York, The Author. 8‡ 25 cents |journal= Science |volume= ns-12 |issue= 285 |pages= 31–32 |publisher= AAAS |doi= 10.1126/science.ns-12.285.31-c |url= https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ns-12.285.31.a |access-date= 2020-04-30}}</ref> A well-known student of Loisette's included [[Mark Twain]] whose endorsement Loisette used regularly to sell his course.<ref>{{cite book |last= Paine |first= Albert Bigelow |author-link = Albert Paine |title = Mark Twain, a Biography: The Personal and Literary Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens |volume= 4 |publisher = Harper and Brothers |year = 1912 |pages= 850–851 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=p45aAAAAYAAJ&q=loisette%20mark%20twain&pg=PA850 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1= Walsh |first1= Thomas M. |last2= Zlatic |first2= Thomas D. |year= 1981 |title= Mark Twain and the Art of Memory |journal= American Literature |volume= 53 |issue= 2 |pages= 214–231 |publisher= Duke University Press |doi= 10.2307/2926100|jstor= 2926100 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1887/03/20/100902080.html |title= Mark Twain's Memory
|date= 1887-03-20 |work= New York Times |access-date= 2020-05-01}}</ref> Following the revelation that he had not originated the system, Larrowe self-published his material under the pseudonym Dr. Antoine Loisette in 1895 and 1896 and it was later re-published by [[Funk & Wagnalls]] in 1899.<ref>{{cite book |last = Loisette |first = Antoine |title = Memory; a scientific, practical method of cultivating the faculties of attention, recollection and retention |publisher = self-published |year = 1895 |url= https://archive.org/details/memoryscientific00lois/page/n3/mode/2up |page=22 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last = Loisette |first = Antoinne |title = Assimilative memory, or, How to attend and never forget
|publisher = [[Funk & Wagnalls]] |year = 1899 |url= https://archive.org/details/b28134096/page/n5/mode/2up }}</ref>

In the late 1800s Christof Ludwig Poehlmann (aka Christopher Louis Pelman), a German who had emigrated to the United States, and William Joseph Ennever created and ran a series of booklets and memory courses using the system which resulted in The Pelman Schools, The Pelman Institute, and were generally known as Pelmanism.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.ennever.com/histories/history386p.php?sitever=standard|title= The Pelman Schools, The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism|author= Barry Ennever|date= 2020-03-24 |access-date= 2020-05-01}}</ref>

Poehlmann eventually moved back to Germany around 1910 where he continued offering his memory courses and training apparently with a focus on language learning. {{interlanguage link|Bruno F%C3%BCrst|fr}} indicated that he studied under him for a year in 1911. Fürst later practiced criminal law in Frankfort in pre-Hitler Germany before fleeing, as a Jew, to Prague where he taught at [[Masaryk University]] until emigrating to New York in 1939.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/02/23/mnemonist-2
|title= Mnemonist |author= Richard H. Rovere |author-link= Richard Rovere |date= 1946-02-16 |publisher= The New Yorker |access-date= 2020-04-30}}</ref> In 1939, Fürst published ''Use your Head'' followed by ''How to Remember'' (1944), which was later reprinted as ''The Practical Way to Better Memory'', and followed up with a series of 12 booklets entitled ''You Can Remember! A Home Study Course in Memory and Concentration'' (1946) which all extolled the system, which he called the "Basic List" and the "Number System" along with other mnemonic systems. In a 1946 profile in ''[[The New Yorker]]'', Bruno indicates that German scholar [[Conrad Celtes|Conradus Celtes]] originated the system.

The system described in this article would be re-popularized after 1957 and through the 1980s in several books by [[Harry Lorayne]], a magician and best selling contemporary author on memory. The most popular of the titles featuring the system is ''The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play'' (1974, with Jerry Lucas).<ref>{{cite book |last1 = Lorayne |first1 = Harry |last2 = Lucas |first2 = Jerry |title = The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play |publisher = Stein & Day Publishing |year =  1974 |isbn = 9780812816648 }}</ref>

This phonetic system had another resurgence in the 1990s thanks to the late night infomercials of [[Kevin Trudeau]] who sold a series of tapes called [[Kevin Trudeau#Audio tapes: "Mega Memory"|Mega Memory]]. He also published a similar book ''Kevin Trudeau's Mega Memory''<ref>{{cite book |last = Trudeau |first = Kevin |author-link = Kevin Trudeau |title = Kevin Trudeau's Mega Memory
|publisher = [[William Morrow and Company|William Morrow & Co.]] |year = 1995 |isbn = 9780688135829}}</ref> which used this same system with some slight modifications.

[[File:Major Bartlomiej Beniowski (1800 - 1867) - Polish physician, officer and mnemonist.jpg|thumb|Major Bartłomiej Beniowski (1800–1867)]]
{| class="wikitable"
|+Major system by Beniowski (1845)
|-  
! Number
! Consonants
|-
| 0 || s, z 
|-
| 1 || t, d, th 
|-
| 2 || n 
|-
| 3 || m  
|-
| 4 || r  
|-
| 5 || l  
|-
| 6 || h, ch, sh, j  
|-
| 7 || k, g  
|-
| 8 || f, v, w  
|-
| 9 || p, b  
|}The name "Major System" may<ref>[https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/major-beniowski-and-the-major-system/31511/36 Major Beniowski and the Major System]</ref> refer to Major [[Bartlomiej Beniowski]], who published a version of the system in his book, ''The Anti-Absurd or Phrenotypic English Pronouncing and Orthographical Dictionary'' in 1845.<ref>[http://blog.artofmemory.com/history-of-the-major-system-1092.html History of the Major System]</ref><ref>{{cite book| last= Beniowski (Maj.)| first= Bartlomiej| title= The Anti-Absurd or Phrenotypic English Pronouncing and Orthographical Dictionary| url= https://archive.org/details/antiabsurdorphr01benigoog/page/n9/mode/2up| year= 1845| publisher= self-published| location= London }}</ref>

There is a reasonable historical possibility that the roots of the Major System are entangled with older systems of [[shorthand]].  It is certainly the case that the underlying structure of the Major System has a direct overlap with [[Gregg shorthand]], which was a popular shorthand system in the late 1800s and early 1900s.<ref>[http://boffosocko.com/2014/07/05/the-mnemonic-major-system-and-gregg-shorthand-have-the-same-underlying-structure/ The Mnemonic Major System and Gregg Shorthand Have the Same Underlying Structure]</ref>