Harry Lindgren
Encyclopedia
Harry Lindgren was a British
/Australia
n engineer, linguist and amateur mathematician. He was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne in England.
In 1935 he emigrated to Australia. He received a BSc degree from the University of Western Australia
and later became a Commonwealth Patent Officer.
s. When published, his work was the only complete treatment of this subject in any language.This remained true for a third of a century.
On 1 September 1971 he launched the Spelling Action Society to promote his suggested reforms. He chose the name (which shares its initials with Scandinavia's SAS airline) so as to acknowledge his Nordic ancestry. He published the newsletter Spelling Action under the society to promote use of his Spelling Reform step One (SR1)
. As Lindgren's health deteriorated in later life the newsletter was taken over by Gary Jimmieson (and later Doug Everingham).
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
/Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n engineer, linguist and amateur mathematician. He was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne in England.
In 1935 he emigrated to Australia. He received a BSc degree from the University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...
and later became a Commonwealth Patent Officer.
Contributions to mathematics
Lindgren published articles in several mathematical journals which culminated in his famous book 'Geometric Dissections' (Van Nostrand 1964), which explores techniques for devising and solving dissection puzzleDissection puzzle
A dissection puzzle, also called a transformation puzzle or Richter Puzzle, is a tiling puzzle where a solver is given a set of pieces that can be assembled in different ways to produce two or more distinct geometric shapes. The creation of new dissection puzzles is also considered to be a type of...
s. When published, his work was the only complete treatment of this subject in any language.This remained true for a third of a century.
Contributions to linguistics
In 1969 he published Spelling Reform: A New Approach (Alpha Books, 104 Bathurst St, Sydney 2000, Australia). This work outlines a proposal for introducing phoneme-by-phoneme adjustment of English spelling, in order that spellings may more accurately represent the sounds of the speech they denote. The book features several cartoons illustrating the absurdities of existing spellings.On 1 September 1971 he launched the Spelling Action Society to promote his suggested reforms. He chose the name (which shares its initials with Scandinavia's SAS airline) so as to acknowledge his Nordic ancestry. He published the newsletter Spelling Action under the society to promote use of his Spelling Reform step One (SR1)
SR1
Spelling Reform 1 or Spelling Reform step 1 is an English spelling reform proposal advocated by Harry Lindgren. It calls for the short sound to always be spelt with E. For example, friend would become frend and head would become hed...
. As Lindgren's health deteriorated in later life the newsletter was taken over by Gary Jimmieson (and later Doug Everingham).