The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-10-17

Devices for LesSen1ng tn0 EXPENSES VI
Gable TeIegraphy and Concealing Mean
ing.
New York SUM-
Gable rates to England, are now % cents a
word, but they have been as high as 500 for
ten-word message. Notwithstanding the great
reductions that have been made in the cost of
ocean telegraphy since the Atlantic cables
were first laid, rates to points IN Asia or South
America run up to seven dollars a word.
There are houses whose business requires fire.
quent telegraphic communication with such
distant points, and methods of attaining brey-
ity If expression are hence of very great value.
Telegraph code-makers supply such methods.
"Code-making as business has grown up
within the last five or six years" said j. q.
fairfield, who makes it speciality. sit has
the advantage of both economy and secrecy
The use of codes for ordinary business pur-
poses dates from the beginning of ocean tele-
graphy, but people at first got up their own
codes 1t is very easy thing to do, apparent
". All you have to do is to make list OF
phrases which you have frequently to use in
your business and represent them by cores
ponding list of single words But people found
that words were apt to be changed in tele-
graphic transmission into words whose teie-
graphic notation is similar. The result has
sometimes been disastrous. Code-makers
make avoidance of such liability to error
special study. Then, too, code-makers can at
tain condensation of expression that makes
their work faF cheaper than any simple code
such as q business man might get up for himself.
Hence, large houses are willing to pay well for
having codes made for them. There are houses
spending as much as $4,000 year for tele-
graphic advices. and a system which will put
their messages into few words effects a very
great saving for them. have made COM
bination code for one house here by which the
entire state of the Japanese tea market can be
put into seven words. Those seven words will
convey to them the date of steamers sailing,
the state of the market for nine grades of tea
the rates of freight by six routes, the amount
of purchases for Europe and the United States,
the grades upon which the demand is running,
the principal buyers, rates OF exchange, the
number of packages sent in the days ship
meDts, and the points to which they are CON-
signed. / have made code by which the
amount of sales of flour, butter and cheese,
the state of the market for each, and the
amount of money paid into bank and sent
daily to house in this city by its branch at
Liverpool, the whole message being put into
two words. "
"Can codes be gotten up for the use of
any house in the same line of business, or do
houses, prefer to have their own special
codes?"
Large houses prefer to have their own codes.
One large clearinghouse for whom pref ared
a code had a printing establishment set up in
side the bank building so as to make certain OF
receiving all the copies of the codes that were
printed. Some of the codes used by large
houses are very voluminous. Brown Brothers
& Co., have code of 64,000 words; Thomas
s. Co., $1,000; Moske Bros, 10000; Drexel,
Morgan & Co., about 5000. We have to
1a- ILL To raf 81
which shall ALL be geographically dissimilar."
'sHow much do codes cost?"
''From $50 to $1,000, according to the
amount Of labor required"
"Are secret eiphers used to any extent in
telegraphing?"
"Some stock operators make use of cryptic
grams and get them up themselves. A meth
cd used good deal is to have simple code,
in which the words denoting the phrases to be
conveyed are numbered, and simply the num-
erals are sent. Such a.code can be used SO as
conceal messages even from person getting
hold of the code, for numerals may be sent
which only the proper person will understand
to differ by certain amount from the numer
ais denoting the phrases really conveyed. /
knew one in use in which the rule was to add
the date of the month to numerals of messages
from branch house. Thus if the figure came
on the Goth, they would look for the meaning
of % in the code book. The use of codes and
ciphers is very large, but the use of the highly
condensed codes, where not only words but
their combinations convey meanings, is not SO
wide as would be expected from its great econ
omy. 1t takes some time and trouble to learn
TO use such codes with facility, and this retards
their introduction, but they are coming more
and more into use every year. "rs-
Code-nakers keep the details of their work
secret, but the principle upon which codes are
constructed is easily understood. The range
of all simple business transactions has limits,
and, as a rule, closely confined limits. The
aim of the oode-maker is to classify phrases
which shall express the constantly recurring
details of the market for any staple, and to de-
note each of its phrases by word. Another
object is to use one word so as to convey sever
al meanings. This is done by arranging mar
ket details above the tops of columns of words
and prices, qualities OF any other information
along the side. A word in the table expresses
the phrase at the top of its column and also the
phrase at its side. The compilation of a code is
a very laborious task, but its value as an aid to
business communications Is indisputable.
Sometimes queer sentences result from the
chance grouping of code words. Not long
since tea house got this. ''Unboiled babies
detested."