Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1888-11-16
The Cost orCabIe Messages.

4 submarine cabis is q very expensive
affair. With its enormous frs cast md ild
thousands Of operators and engineers, lis
fleet of repairing steamers, and l,s thousand
other expenses, its capitalization is many
millions on which reasonable percentage
must be earned and the cost Ct keeping up
is told by seven figures every year. i!at'
therefore, come high. Following arc s. zoe +
the charges per word To Para, Blazil, . 66 ;
Australia, from 1854 to $50; China. 81 to
2.64 India, l 81 to 3.43 Japan, . 0l 10 3 u.
These are some of the most costly rates.
The cheapest rate is with England at 20
cents word. Outside OF Europe, there are
few points on the earth that C III be reach
ed from Now York for less than 81 word.
There is an American cable line down the
coast of South America By w6y ofGalve6ton,
Texas, that does ell The business with Cen
tral ard Western South Americs IL COSTS
97 cents s. word 10 reach Panama, 81 II 10
reach Lima, and 81 Al to cable Valparaiso.
Should this cable break or set ouS of order,
as all cables do frequently every year, and
stav cut Of shape for from q couple of days
to two or three weeks, then the work Is
thrown upon the Atlantic cables reach
the west coast. Messages go to Ireland hrst
then to France, then to Madrid, then to the
Island Of St. Helena, then plange into the
Atlantic agate and recross il back TO South
America al Pernambuco, Brazil. From
there they go down the east coast 10 Buenos
Avres. across the continent and the Andes
to Valparaiso, and travel up the west coast
as far as desired, a message will go
the whole distance, delays and re-
transmissions included, in q couple OF hours
Suppose in the large west coast OF South
America business (and west coast buslness
consttu es the great bulk OF this country's
business with South Amercaj the regular
cable gets broken this a what it coats o ca
BILE by wgy Of eastern lines Brazil, from
$5.07, to $500 word any pointin Ecuador
S6.11 any point in Bolivia S435; Panama
$7,15.
Ia order to cheaper the coss of telegraph.
ing, by letting one word stand fer words
previously agreed upon By TWO persons, 8
book has been printed at cost Of several
hundred dollars, in which all the phrases Of
ordinary converse ere set down under pro
per heads each phrase with key or code
word attached. These big books contain
120 600 words. The words are arranged ID
tables, numbered from 900 to 1889. There
are also great tabular aheets made up seem
inpiy Of numbers, with sentences running
criscross. This combination code sends four
sentences, and your choice at that, under
one word
Now we will see what the whole affair can
accomplish. Suppose you have the follow.
ing facts in your mind which you would
like your correspondent at Para, Brazil. to
be Informed of at once:
"Some customer has hinted that no may
need eighteen tons of rubber very soon.
"Upor sounding him you think you can
get Gil cents pound.
"You don't know whether your cores
pondent in Para eau buy that quantity at
that price, so you doat close tie sale till
you find out, aud you want him to cable you
what he can do.
"Your own market is unhealthily active
The combination permits you to state all
these facts in one single word. Ia the table,
find the number at the juncture of the side.
ways column OF "tons" and heupand down
column of price. In this case It's is. Then
find the sentence that fills your meaning in
the first series of words. It will be 8. In
the second series of words the sentence you
want is numbered g. Consider these last
two as digts, and you have the number SO.
YOUR combination then stands 1886. With
this turn back to the big volume of words
and find Table Is. In this table pick out
cipher word number &c. Cable that word
to your correspondent, and the whole thing
is done. Your correspondent hunts up the
word alphabetically from the copy OF the
book he holds, notes its tabular and indi.
vidual numbers and picks out the meaning
from the combination table, OF which, OF
course, he has an exact copy.