The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-24 00:00:00

TELEGRAPHIC CODING.

Coding is to telegraphy what telegraphy was to let-
ter-writing not many years ago. It bridges space
more certainly, effects an enormous saving in time,
and is imperfectly understood. hitherto coding has
been confined to such merchants and others as
arranged a series of private signals with their agents,
and has never been adopted on a uniform and com-
prehensive sale. Private coding has, however, been
employed more with the view of securing secrecy
than speed; and a code which should at once promote
accuracy, cheapen messages, and save labour, has
long been a desideratum with telegraphists all over
the world. When the first Atlantic cable was laid,
the importance of codifying messages sent through
it was so strongly felt that an elaborate volume was
compiled, by aid of which it was hoped to abbre-
viate language and save time. It was reserved, how-
ever, for the succeEsful laying of the cable of this
year to elicit the most perfect code yet attained.
The following certificate, signed by Mr. Cyrus
Field, Mr. Cromwell Varley, and Professor Thom-
son, tells its own story respecting the system in-
vented by Captain Bolton, the heads of which we
propose to explain :
"We have witnessed several trials of Captain
Bolton's system of coding messages. These have
been transmitted through the Atlantic cable,• first
by the Morse alphabet in full, and then codified.
" The messages have been correctly transmitted,
and the time occupied in doing so through the
cable has shown a saving in favour of Bolton's
code for messages of ordinary character, varying
from 50 to 400 per cent., according to thenature
of the message. " C. F. VARLET.

" CYRUS W. FIELD.
" WILLIAM THOMPSON.

" July 9, 1866."

It may bo added that Mr. Latimer Clark and the
rest of the scientific and practical electricians con-
nected with the undertaking concurred in the above
testimony, and that we are able to confirm it from
having practically tested the merits of Capt. Bolton's
system. Every message sent through the Atlantic
or any other telegraphic line may be expressed, some
in half, some in a fractional part of the number of
words now employed. Any company who had the
exclusive use of this code could afford to send mes-
sages at a moiety of the price demanded by its rivals
any telegraphic agent enjoying its monopoly couli3
reduce his expenditure and amplify his intelligence
at least 50 per cent. ; and any merchant in posses-
sion of the secret and the means of working it might
telegraph to his agents in all languages and in every
part of the world at less than half the rate he dis-
burses now. In proof of this, and to show that the
code effects even greater economy than has been
claimed for it, an interesting experiment was made
yesterday. The following message was taken from
the journals of the morning, and coded, when it was
found that sixty of what electricians know as " ele-
ments," or, in other words, sixty deflections of the
needle or ray of light, sufficed to express every word
and fraction of a word it contains ;
" AMERICA.
" Ow ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.)
" NEW Yonu, Aug. 20 (Evening).
" Gold, 1481. Exchange on London, 1581.
5-20 United States Bonds, 110-41. Middling Up-
land, 341 c."
• •

The message was moreover put into code and read
off without a moment's delay or a single error; and
the general reader will understand the enormous
saving implied when he learns that " elements" in
the Morse alphabet are the " dots" and " dashes'
which go to form the letters, so that sixty of these
represent a considerably less number of cha-
racters. Nor is there any difficulty in mastering
this startling system of abbreviation, or imparting
its mysteries to telegraphic operators. Since Co-
lumbus bruised the egg there has been nothing
simpler or more effective than Captain Bolton's mode
of rendering whole sentences by a few symbols, and
long words in a couple of characters. Another
curious thing is, that any language under the sun,
provided it is expressed by the English alphabet,
can be transmitted by this code. Neither the ope-
rator who transmits the message, nor the clerk who
transfers it to paper, need comprehend a syllable
of the tongue they are conversing in ; mere nonsense
words can be expressed with a like facility ; and the
whole charm can be learnt in a few minutes. In-
deed, this experiment might be easily tried. If a
few gentlemen were, we will say, given facilities
for inquiring into the working of the code—none of
whom had seen or investigated it before—and were
asked what languages they were acquainted with,
selections might be made and messages written out
and distributed in such a way that each man should
hold a sentence he could not read. Five minutes'
explanation of the system, and the means of work-
ing it, would enable every one present to express
the sentence he was unable to comprehend in the
symbols of the code. These symbols can always be
read off with ease by those acquainted with the
method, and thus the absurd and annoying tele-
graphic difficulties respecting foreign words and
places seem to be at an end.

An order for a banquet to the celebrated Fran-
catelli, sent the other day by the ordinary telegraphic
method, came out thus :
Frank Atelli,
and, it is unnecessary to add, was seriously
delayed in consequence. The paragraph re-
cently quoted by a contemporary shows the havoc
made by the Indian telegraph of native names,
and few of us at home use the wires frequently
without learning how easily a simple English mes-
sage may be transposed and its meaning lost. By
the code under consideration these mistakes are im-
possible. At present it is necessary to use the Eng-
lish alphabet—a stipulation leaving an enormous
margin ; but the system could be employed to any
extent and in any character or cypher. On the
26th of last June the following message was sent
through 2,374 miles of Atlantic cable by reversals
in this code, and transposed into Hindustani without
a single slip or repeat:—"Aficyall calm hi hanko
maloom nay Town guddah pursand lii."
But the vast practical value of the invention is
the greater speed and cheapness which can be se-
cured for ordinary messages. Not one of the morsels
of news published in the newspapers per Atlantic
wire but might be sent at a saving which is incal-
culable. The President's and the Queen's congra-
tulations we have seen coded, and they would have
been worked across at a reduction of nearly a hun-
dred per cent. in the number of words used. The
commercial items supplied by Mr. Router might, as
we have shown above, be transmitted day by day in
a few symbols by this method, and the public have
some right to hope for its general adoption, and the
acceleration of peace which would necessarily follow.
Captain Bolton has had long and successful ex-
perience in codifying and signalling, and, in con-
junction with Comnder. Colomb, of the navy, tried
some important experiments for the Government a
couple of years ago. Their then object was to esta-
blish a system of conveying messages by signal from
ship to shore at great distances in such a way as
to supplement the electric telegraph, and it is
admitted on all hands that this was effectually
done. After many trials made independently these
gentlemen decided that to communicate effectively
by night and day the " dot " and " dash" alphabet
invented by Professor Morse for the electric tele-
graph must be used, and its application extended
to the flashing of lights and the sounds of a steam
whistle, bugle, and fog-horn. By these means it
was proved that communications of a character
hitherto unprecedented for accuracy and speed could
be easily made at vast distances, and without the
operators being visible to each other.
The code now under consideration is, however,
exclusively designed for electric communications,
and the advantages it claims may be briefly sum-
marised :—Gain of speed; simplicity of transmission;
non-liability to mutilation in passing through
foreign countries ; facility of repetition ; and ap-
plicability to any language by translation without
loss of time. If these things are proved, as the
electricians declare they are, and as the investiga-
tions conducted independently show, the public may
hope for the full benefit of the invention, and that
the evils of blocked electric lines and consequent
delays shall be reduced to their minimum,--Daily
News.