New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-05-02
MYSTERY OF THE CABLE CODE
HOW VAST NUMBERS OF EXPRESSIONS AXE
prpREsENTED BY SINGLE WORDS.

wow VAST NUMBERS OF EXPRESSIONS ARE
REPRESENTED BY SINGLE WORDS
tn ordinary folk who have no occasion to use
49,, IN. cinher cable codes employed by business
housss IN sending messages across the ocean are
unfathomed mysteries. All that Is generally under-
stood on the subject is that firms whose business
reouires frequent and swift communication WIN
foreign countries have method OF Gaming 'n'ii
meaning in a greatly abbreviated form, and that
,bis climber besides It's economical value, possesses
IN, merit of being unintelligble except to those
holding the key to the code by which II IL sent.
There are numbers Of such codes differing from
one another or less In form ana SIZE put 'hcy
must all conform to certain regulations when nave
been laid down by international agreement among
the cable companies. The primary rule Is that II
&c not pernissibe to send any combination or let
tiers which ono may devise, but that only actual
dictionary words from some OF the languages
named in the agreement shall he used This now
ever allows for almost infinite number OF avail
able words because eight languages are given from
which the compilers of codes may select. These
era English French German, Spanish, italian.
Portuguese Dutch and Latin-seven modern IAN
euages and an ancient one. The Latin. from re"
glances over a hugo new code recently published
eppears TO afford moro cipher words than any oil
The others The wondrous number OF changes
which may he rung upon Latin verbs. ana when
has been the despair OF generations or schooi-
bovs now finds new use, for in the code may be
found almost complete conjugations OF hundreds OF
verbs their variations in mood, tense ana person
being admirable for cipher purposes.
The new code referred TO above IL known as tho
'T.eviathan" and is published by the fairfield
Tolographlc Code Publishing Company. II con-
tains 226 700 words all of which selected from
the regular "Oficial Vocabulary of over 2Oo~
words from the eight languages. upon which all
cable codes must be based The first 10000 words
of the "Ieviathan." which include all the cipher
tho Lotto
cally arranged are devoted to tables OF figures.
and the remainder Of the book to the far more In
terestng department of phrases or dialogue. 1t Is
here that the ingenuity and the laborous task OF
the code-compilcr are made manifest. TO make
the code complete. so that no matter what COM
municatiol a firm wishes to send It may be able
to find the desired expression among the cphers
II has been necessary 10 think of all the thousands
OF phrases that commercial houses would be likely
TO employ The size of the book and the thorough
ness with which every section appears TO be COW
cred seem to indicate that the work has been sue
cessfully done. OF course, such mammoth code
as this has been evolved gradually from smaller
ones as experience has shown where improvements
and additions could be made.
The chapters all conveniently sub-headed
under such titles as Buying" selling" Bank
ing" Stocks" Contracts" etc. and few speci-
men phrases from the first of these will serve TO
show the manner OF the books compi alton. The
sentence: Are We al liberty TO buy when we
/ think proper" Is expressed by the single cipher
word ''Infringido while "lnfringir stands for the
following statement: Are well supplied but you
may buy SLOWLY and cautiously at any material de-
| cline" "Ingebracht' signifies: AT what price
| can you probably buy" and thus the list goes on
There Is connection whatever between the mean
are simply taken they come In alphabetical
order and in whatever language they chance TO he
In selecting the list Of cipher words, the cndcavOr
was made to choose those. especially in English,
commercial circles. The danger of having such
words as advance" Decline" price" etc.
would be thai they would be likely 10 bc taken Oc-
! caslonally in their real meanings and thus cause
stance. used because there would Ice no danger
| OF their being regarded as anything Csc than
| Concerning the length Of the words the only
coed letters. because for word OF over that
number the cable companies charge double rates
In the "Icyathan" code care has been taken that
the words may not resemble another too
closely dissimi'arity of at least two letters being
required. As one more example of the way IN
/ which il has been attempted To provide for every
( possible kind OF communications. the Per
rcXil' may he quoted. 1t stands for the following
I that steamer, wire mo the earliest 10y which YOU
I can. Address me at -' In this case the sender
OF the dispatch would merely have to subjoln his
( address and the message would read: "PerrcXil
800 Broadway ~ y" in such form
Words are sometimes used Intentionally in their
literal meanings in the dispatches in combination
with the cphcrs but when this is done the con-
text is always clear enough to prevent any mis-
understanding 1t might be thought that names
would always have to be spelled out In their actual
form but cipher words have been provided not
only for the names Of many places. but also for
the titles Of numbers of the best known CONNER
cial firms. The latter in many are private
clphers because each business house has dealings
with different set OF firms from any other.