The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-30 00:00:00

BOL7OIV'S TELEGRAPH C.

Of all countries the United States is most inte-
rested in the improvements of the telegraph. It
matters not how cheapness is attained so that it he

attained, and cheapness in telegraphy practically

reduces itself to time. The post means weight; the

,elegraph time. By post the Government contracts

.o carry written or printed papers at a regulated

rate of speed at so much per ounce, while the dif-
ference in the telegraph is that the sender contracts

with the owner of the line for its exclusive use dur-

ing the period taken to transmit the message. The
communicator then requires the monopoly of what

may be an enormously costly machine, hence both
to him and to its owner time is the very essence of

the contract. Anything, therefore, which economises
this, cheapens the telegraph and enables the public
more freely to use what must otherwise be too
expensive for the masses. It is i❑ ocean cables, or
in the long lines traversing the North American
Continent, that the benefit would be most felt.
Whether the ma'erial and the mode of stretching

the wire b; improved, whether the instruments or
the arrangement of messages, it matters not, so
long as this object is achieved. The value is now
very great of the lines laid throughout the world,
and it cannot be affected favourably by any ha-

provement in the material and laying. The brain
of the inventor has been busy in perfecting the in-

strument, and now Major BOLTON submits to the
public a system of working a telegraph code through
which as much can be done in au hour, as in three or

four by the alphabet at present in use. If BOLTON'S
Code can do for telegraphy what is asserted, the

question naturally arises, why has it not been
adopted? Those interested in existing arrange-
ments, and who have the greatest power either in

opposing or in advancing a change of system are
certain in the first instance to be ranged in the van
of the opposition. The cables now stretched
across the Atlantic do not get work sufficient to oc-

cupy them, and the immediate effect of introducing
the code would be a material reduction in that. It
would be too much to expect the directors of these

costly enterprises voluntarily to strip the share-
holders of profits already limited enough, and this
weighs not only with the great ocean cables, but
with the proprietors of the land lines, and even
with the Government about to take charge of those

of the United Kingdom. A reply to the inventor
is—" Wait till we get choked with work "—and it
is vain to retort that the true way to get work is by
adopting such a Code ; for the proprietors are then
placed in the position of having to stand the result
of an experiment, which none willingly do. In the
United States, however, such an objection has less
force, the distances being great, the people scat-
tered over the Continent, and their demand for full
and late information imperious. If a small town
rising in the waste can be amply supplied with news
through one wire by means of BOLTON'S Code,
whereas two wires would have failed to do the work
without it, then the cost of a second line is saved to
that town, and the gain to the United States in the
course of a few years, in this way alone, would be enor-
mous. As telegraphy is more freely used throughout
the country than in any other (perhaps, indeed,
than by the combined nations of the world) this
Code cannot fail to be of vast benefit. It will re-
quire all the space we can give to an article to de-
scribe it, therefore while sketching the system we
will reserve details for our next number. The
Code substitutes figures for letters. Up to 5 the
numerals are represented by dots, from 6 to 0 by
dashes. Hence a dot means 1, a dash 6, a dot and
dash 16, and so. Nothing could be more simple
than this, but codifying so as to make it applicable
was the difficulty. The marvel is, that what ap-
peared so complicated was really capable of a
simple solution. The book, when completed, will
be divided into five parts. The first will contain
210 signals, comprising the alphabet, marks for
punctuation, and telegraphic signals to direct
I the operator, of which ten are expressed by one

figure, a hundred by two, and another by three,

Part IL consists of 900 signals, limited to three
figures, being the spelling code, so that any lan-
guage having the Roman character can be spelt by
syllables. Part 111. provides for 10,000 signals of
four figures, of commercial and political intelligence,
names of places, mouths, days, and words of fre-
quent occurrence. Part IV. contains the vocabu-
lary and sentence code in 100,000 signals, limited
to five figures. It comprises every word of the
English language, alphabetically arranged, the
sentences being selected from various message
forms extracted from the best signal books. Part
V. provides for 127,000 signals, in six figures, ex-
pressing the known places of the world. As every
page contains two columns each of fifty signals
it follows that the book must consist of 2,382
pages, and its magnitude might frighten the
uninitiated; but it is marvellous to observe the ease
and simplicity with which messages can be codified
by the sender and translated by the receiver. If
the group consists of five figures it must belong to
Part IV. ; if of three to Part 11. The first figure
of Part 111. heads the page, the other two are
among the numbers of the ninety-nine on that page.
Where the group consists of five numerals, the
other two are, as in the former case, to be found in
the ninety-nine of that page. Thus a group of
figures indicates the place in the book and can be
turned up more quickly than can a word in a dic-
tionary. In transmitting messages relating to com-
merce or the ordinary transactions of life a single
group alone is required. For instance, 1029 means
"Advise us of state of market ;" 1068 "Market
continues very quiet, and scarcely any business
doing ;" 0789 " You may draw on our account."
One group may decline a verb, as, for instance, 1900
means " He cannot have," the noun is supplied by
another group, " the apartments," " the credit,"
" the advance," anything. In the transmission of
such messages the saving is enormous ; but in re-
porting a speech, a letter, or the text of any docu-
ment, the gain is less, although still great. Mr.
CYRUS W. FIELD, among many of those best
acquainted with telegraphy, asserts a saving of
from half to four times, according to the nature
of the message ; that is, the speech would be
sent in an hour which took two hours by the
ordinary way, and a series of the usual messages, re-
quiring five hours by the latter means, could be
transmitted in one hour by BOLTON'S Code. A
trial was made on a line between Birmingham and
London, when 100 messages were dispatched, aver-
aging 12.86 words. By MoßsE's system they occu-
pied 2 hours 12.25 minutes ; by the code, 59.75
minutes. This point of speed being settled, the
next regards accuracy. In the Birmingham trial
the errors in the code were one per cent. ; by the
MortsE system seven per cent. Experience has
proved that even the most practical operators will
receive their impression, and jump to a conclu-
sion from the context. Five hundred times they
may be right, but in the next wrong, and the
error is likely to lead to mischief. Figures are
simpler as symbols, and less liable on this account,
as well as on that before-mentioned, to mislead.
While fewer errors are made they are not of the seri-
ous character of the others, because in making non-
sense, it can immediately be detected and traced to
the right group, in which case the operator replies,
047, meaning " Signal group is not understood,
although numbers are read." Hence the mistakes are
not only fewer, but they are more easily discovered
and remedied. Another point is of great importance
to the public. These signals are secret, or can be
readily made so, by agreeing to a key signal.
Suppose 3 to be added to every message sent ;
it makes the words utter nonsense to the ordi-
nary reader with the code book in his band, but
the receiver, who deducts the three from each
group, easily translates the figures. Each person
can judge for himself of this advantage, but it is
likely to prove the greatest the smaller the town
wherein the sender or receiver dwells. A telegraph
operator is human, and, knowing something of the
individual, takes more interest in the message than
may be agreeable to his townsman. The introduc-
tion of the Code, we think, will show that the tele-
graph but for this would have been far more used.
A General BUTLER, for instance, might pour over
the Code in vain without the key figure, when in
pu►-suit of " recreant " Senators or other victims.
We have reached our limit, but the subject is of so
much interest that we will continue it next week.—
Anglo-American Times,