Hill 1889, p. 186, cited Reverend Thomas Hill (1st June 1853) as Chairman in the annual report of the Waltham School Committee"..We tested it thoroughly for six or seven years in the town of Waltham, Massachusetts, which then had about 800 children in the public schools. The effect on the school life of the town was very marked...experience has demonstrated that there is no means so efficient as the use of simple reading-books printed in a truly phonetic manner...when the pupil can read fluently phonetic English, he requires but a few weeks to learn to read the ordinary spelling." Hill, Reverend Doctor Thomas (1889). "A Way to Teach English Spelling". The Forum. 7 (2): 186–187 – via Internet Archive.
Marshall 2020, p. 2"...Britain's greatest nineteenth century phoneticians, Alexander John Ellis (1814-1890) and Henry Sweet (1845-1912), were frequent contributors to the journal. Hailed as the man 'responsible for laying the foundations of phonetic studies in Britain', Ellis was an excellent speaker and consecutively delivered the first three annual presidential addresses to the Society, the first of which was in 1872." Marshall, Fiona (1 July 2020). "History of the Philological Society: The Early Years"(PDF). philsoc.org.uk. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
thephonicspage.org
Leigh 1864, p. 3, Reasons why Phonotypy Failed..The causes of this ill success are many and obvious. Among them may be mentioned........ Fonotypy's departure from common orthography; changing the forms and outlines and spellings of English words, thus offending the eye and arousing the prejudices of the unlettered and the literary; apparently compelling the learner to master two languages, the phonetic and the English; requiring him to become familiar with the wrong spellings in order to learn the right, and to acquire an entirely new language in order to learn the common print. It was hard for men to believe that two languages (as it seemed to them) could be learned more easily than one, and the best way to learn to spell was first to spell wrong..." Leigh, Edwin (1 January 1864). "Pamphlet; – Pronouncing Orthography, Explained & Exemplified"(PDF). Library of Congress: 1–13.