Precision, speed and accuracy are the hallmark of the astounding mechanism developed by the United Nations to record its multilingual proceedings. These behind-the-scene pictures show the life story of an official record, from the spoken word to the printed document.
The great majority of mankind, through the representatives of 58 Member nations, makes itself heard before the international forum. The words fly, but there is a machinery that gives them permanence and turns the representative's speech into a document of historic, as well as of immediate political and diplomatic value.
UN Photo
c. 1947
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Precision, speed and accuracy are the hallmark of the astounding mechanism developed by the United Nations to record its multilingual proceedings. These behind-the-scene pictures show the life story of an official record, from the spoken word to the printed document.
The Security Council listens attentively, but the language barriers still must be overcome. [Exact date unknown]
c. 1948
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Precision, speed and accuracy are the hallmark of the astounding mechanism developed by the United Nations to record its multilingual proceedings. These behind-the-scene pictures show the life story of an official record, from the spoken word to the printed document.
At the same time, skilled fingers race silently over the keys of stenotype machines or the stenographers' pads. Every word is taken down on paper, both the original speech and its interpretation. The men and women who do it are members of the most highly qualified corps of verbatim reporters, with many years of experience of international conferences, often with a League of Nations background.
c. 1948
Tags: Y
Precision, speed and accuracy are the hallmark of the astounding mechanism developed by the United Nations to record its multilingual proceedings. These behind-the-scene pictures show the life story of an official record, from the spoken word to the printed document.
Although the note-takers must be able to pass the 200-words-a-minute test, human beings are only human - a man may be suddenly taken ill for instance, or simply miss a word in the heat of the debate. This is where the machine comes in. The automatic sound recording captures even the fastest spoken words, and the sound track may be referred to, if necessary, for checking purposes.
c. 1948
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Precision, speed and accuracy are the hallmark of the astounding mechanism developed by the United Nations to record its multilingual proceedings. These behind-the-scene pictures show the life story of an official record, from the spoken word to the printed document.
In the next phase the records are taken apart speech by speech, and translated.
c. 1948
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