The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-24

across the ocean. Cipher kilograms and
cablegrams, just as would ordinary dis
patches, come into the departments after
having gone through the mill, but are not
ineligible to any of the operators who
handle them.
On the face 1t seems diseourteous for a
governments representatives, while enjoy
ing the hospitality and protection of an
other nation, to be given a secret alphabet
in which to gossip about their hosts with
the home government. 1t would, however,
be disastrous to our interests should the
instructions to our diplomatic representa-
tives and military attaches, and the cor
respondence between them and W3shing-
ton become public property both here and
abroad before being executed or consid-
cred
In the war and navy departments the
official cipher codes prescribed for these
branches of the military service are not TO
be generally used except in case of war,
although our army and navy attaches
abroad may use them in reporting military
intelligence, if they desire.
The army cipher code is in charge of
the chief signal officer, Gen. A w. Gree
ly. Al the school of instruction in mill
tary signaling at Fort Riley, Kansas, re-
cruits who enter the signal service are in
structed in all of the cipher and signal
codes likely to be used in an actual CAM
paign. The course includes crytography,
or the science, of cipher reading, and the
classes are required to both devise and
practice original cipher codes until they
become skilled both in deciphering and
enciphering them. They must practice
the Morse telegraph system until able to
transmit and receive thirty-ive words per
minute.
According to the army's excellent Sig
mailing system, cipher dispatches cannot
only be sent between the field and head
tpIQpr9nh
telephone systems, but by flags and hello
graphs, by day, or by searchlights, flash
lanterns, rockets and bombs at night
Surprising that a cipher dispatch be sent
by flag in the day time; the communicate
ing officers have cipher books. The men
who do the actual signaling need not know
the sense of the messages which they send,
The transmitter bears a regulation white
signal flag, with a block in the center
When he talks with his flag he uses the
Morse alphabet just as he would do in
telegraphing. When he waves his flag in
the right he indicates a dot; to the left a
dash, and to the front a space, Each mo-
ton Is made within an arc of 80 degrees,
starting from aud returning to the, verti-
cal. The flag is swung about in front
of the sgnaler, his hand being the CEN
ter of the seni-circle just described. Ac-
curate communication in our army has
been carried on by means of flags for
twenty-five miles, while detached words
have been read from a distance of forty
miles, the receivers using small pocket
telescopes. Messages have been sent five
miles with a pocket handkerchief tied to
a twelVe-foot rod.
Our War Department has lately made
rapid steps toward equipplng itself with
flying telegraph trains to transmit cipher
dispatches much further during war. The
day after the great battle of Ping Yang,
in Korea, in 1894, the japanese signal and
telegraph corps ran into that city a flying
telegraph line, extending from Seoul, the
distance being seventy miles. This, in the
opinion of one of our army officers, to
whom the writer is indebted, shows that
modern warfare requires a specially train
ed corps for this process of cipher trans
mission.
The government military telegraph lines,
which it owns and controls, connect our
thirty-three military posts and stations
with the commercial wires. In our next
war flying field telegraph lines will con-
meet temporary field headquarters with
the permanent commercial lines of the
country leading to Washington. The field
telegraph train as so far devised includes
battery, lance, truck and wire wagon.
In the navy signal messages are not sent
in the telegraph code. Instead of dots and
dashes, the figures a." %" and 49," in
different combinations are employed to
form letters 80 is represented by one
nal lamp, 49," by two toots or two short
flashes and 20" by a long blast on a whs-
Gle or a long flash Of light.
With the naval signal flags manipulated
similarly to those of the army, 80 is rep
resented by a motion to the right, 49,
by motion to the left. and "3'' by mo-
ton to the front. These movements must
be translated by the receiver into the let
ters of the alphabet. Thus A equals %, B
equals PIP, c equals 12l, d equals 70, etc,
and equals I'LL, equals 2222, 3 equals
1ll2, etc, the arrangement being some
what similar to the dot and dash system.
This alphabet can be as readily adapted to
cipher as can be army signal language.
In the presence of the enemy all of the
signal messages must, of course, be sent
in the secret cipher. What is known as a
cipher disk is a convenient instrument. It
consists of several metallic disks of diff
ferent sizes, dubbed to one center and re-
volving Independently. Each is graduated
along the circumference with letters and
numbers which fall opposite to others on
the circumference of the larger or smaller
disk lying next. The appliance is some
what similar to the combination wheel on
a safe, but is more complex.
A certain combination is agreed upon by
the officials in communication. The disks
are then camped so that the letters on
the inner disk stand for those on the out
err and so that the figures on the inner
disk stand for the figures on the cores
ponding outer one.
Schemes for secret ciphers are endless in
their variety 1t is, of course, unknown
to the uninitiated what the framework of
the governments system is. The words are
spelled in letters, dispatched in irregular
order and arranged in groups, generally
of five or six.