Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1889-05-22
CABLING IN CIPHER.
ouTwlTTING THE COMPANIES BY
cHEAPENlNc DEVICES.
xhsre Are Many Codes. but Constant
Changes AFRO Seoossitstcd--Tho Sharp
Ego OF rhe nnnsyer Ever Watching.
Important Tart Played by Competition.


a man who had received a cable mes
3Sc coin.soscI vf nothing but names of
cities vert to an expert maker Of cipher
co'lcs TO ssN' II lac could throw any light
on the meaning.
Have yua ':iadc no personal arrange
Hient with any correspondent by which
those name, OF ci,ics ARE 10 stand for Ger
tain p.i:s:scs:" asked the expert.
Il have not, answered the man. II
came to you becSsisc thought Won might
have solae code containing the ciphcrs.r
There Is no printed code that contains
proper names rs ciphcr,i.' said the cx-
pert. The reason il this: The cable
companies accepted I'll kinds of business
Mt first, even combinations of letters
which spelled nothing. But they soon
found that tho ingenuity of their MGR
chant patrons enabled thcra 10 send al
most any MESSAGE 1T the cost of but Il
few words, b. dcvisins codes wherein
each letter stool for n phrase, and
wherein even the iuNtaposition OF letters
and numerals, which in themselves had
meanings. indicated skill other mean
inSs. OF cou'ss this reduced the prof
Its of the cable companies, SO they began
To MAZE rules. They refused To trans
nit any combination of lcttcrs unless il
spelled III actual word. Then they lin.
itcd the nu:ibcr OF languages they would
transmit. Then they refused II take
proper names, unless the context showed
they were proper part.
All this, OF course, was 10 make it so
lard to get rp satisfactory and porina-
Hent cable codes that the merchant would
10 compelled fer safcty's sake to resort
tn straight out and ont discourse in FRAN
Ing his messages. But as the difficulties
increased rsen began 20 make spccial,ies
of dcvising ingenious codes. and finally
tho companies hal to come out flat footed
and refuse TO tranarnit messages in cipher.
or course this WIS II severe blow 10 trade,
rs 4 vast quantity OF email business could
not then bc done, because the cost of
cabling about it GU: OF most OF the even
taal profit.
CARRIE WAS VERY I'LL.
| But even then codes We're used. but
CT q curious scrt. II enc that know cf,
Cor Instance. it WAS arranged that cor
tain large catalogue of common verbs,
nouns. adject;ves and propositions should
be understood 10 have no meaning what
over. The cipher words were made up
outside OF this catalogue, and the ox-
ernpted words were used To ill in, irving
the semblancc OF Al actual, straight out
sentence Hero was u sentence. for in
stance. that / cablel wlils u clcr., in n
shipping house:
"C.rric very i'll Tell Thomas prepare nitrate;
AnRnias going; telegraph Josephine.
hot II, a.
IL reant:
.'c-uy-Marset 5eTo Of a shar., r!sS.
''very-Bry for speculation
'Iii-No meaning.
"Trll-yo meaning
"rhomas-Ship ri cnril,s. Dispatch
'Prepafc-One hundred t0is
'Sitrate-Nitraie OF COLA SS,it y.tcr)
-'AIanRs-NOc en- Sci ut
'-'Gong-No meaning.
~JoscphinS-Niao cents.
$50 you scc ! really sont this message:
market on owe OF sharp -iss Boy for spccti-
ltion. Ship 100 tons nitratS Of soda at earliest
dispatch. We can sell AZ cents. Telegraph.
THAT is 10 say, sent twcnty-six
words 1T cost of eleven words, while
appeared to the cable company to be mere
Iy transmitting communication that
poor Carrie was sick. and that Ananias
was going to telegraph Josephine about
IL. IL must have seemed strange To the
operators that VIC shouu telegraph
Thomas. who was 5000 miles away, to
prepare medicine for Carrie, who was
presumably In New York, especially as
tho rate then was about sc word, II
mast also have 2cc;acd strange that Car
ric got very III every time there was a
rise In The nitrate market. But tho mos
sage was straight discourse, and Of
course the companies had nothing TO do
but accept the message.
''So cIPHrR5 PERMITTED
Competition finally came to tho Iner-
chants cid. New cablo lines, seeking
business. offered moro liberal conditions.
and gradually the merchant acquired. as
his recognized right, the power of using
a cipher code. Still, most of the ORIGINAL
petty rctrictions wcro adopted by all
competitors. among these wore the reg.
ulations against proper names. As q
matter Of fact, in tho prescn. state Of
competition. ono Is tolorably snfc in using
proper names and ciphers, for each co.n-
pany Is afraid OF driving custom to q
rival By applying the rule Consequently
there ere any number Of sin-li personal
or temporary codes agreed upon between
man and man to servo n certain immc.
date purpose, in which names Of town.
or persons q ~lro as ciphera. But We
professional code makers, who compile
and print expensive codes for sale to IL,
public. carefully avoid infringing over
dead letter rules. bec.usc NO DO not
know when some big cable company
may swallow Up q G.nGllcr competitor
whom one OF our patrons patronizcs an,
screvy down tho thumbs on some rule, {,
tho disadvantage q cur patron and our
scives.
Looking over This catalogue hero o
tho cablo lines Of the world. you vii
siiil find q dozen or Iuoro companies
chiefly heated IN tho cnds Of Asia. ~
RIGA and Polynesia. who boldly adver
tiso, 30 ciphers permitted That mean
that they have a monopoly II their par
tic'llnr fields and are working their dis
mcnd mines for ell they're worth. i
no limo Of business % tho advantage q
GOOD competition shown more stroncl
than IN cabling. Merchants who doa
With far on countries will tell you tha
thoSo lands which aro reached By onl
one cable line arc % yet practically IN
Giscovcrcd by trade. New York Sun.