The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-12-22
CABLE IS
MORE THAN
HALF LAID.
Silvertown Began
Work Upon
Time.
@CIpHERs AND CODES
FOR CABLEGRAMs
How international Convention
Governs Use OF Words Which
May Compose Messages.

With fair fortune and average wealth
er the cable ship Silvertown is now
more than half way through with the
task of laying the cable which, before
the end Of the week, should be carrying
messages between Hawaii and the
mainland. News by the Aorangi on Sat
urday tells that the ship moved out of
san Francisco harbor on Friday, De-
cember 18th, and at once went at the
work of putting ashore the end of the
line which will extend to this city. That
work should occupy only a few hours
as the arrangements were all complete
and the start for Hawaii should have
been made that day or early the next
at the very latest.
p. Heavy rains to the contrary notwith-
standing. the task of making the nee
essary splices along the underground
line to the cable hut at Waikiki went
on yesterday. At the manholes and
boxes where the cable ends were to be
connected, tents were erected and under
these the expert splicers, the two Came
ron brothers from Boston, brought out
for the purpose of connecting up the
underground wires. carried on their
work. The rainfall was so heavy that
the work did not progress as rapidly as
when the weather is fine, but the splic-
ers have now passed into Kapiolani
Park and the end of their labors is in
sight
The work of arranging for carrying
on correspondence by wire is progress
sing among business men and study of
codes is a feature of every counting
house in the city. Mr. S. s. Dickinson,
the representative of the Pacific Com
mercial Company, in Its work in this
ocean, has for many years been con-
nected with cable management and has
a wide acquaintance with cable sub
jects. Speaking of the methods of
handling messages yesterday he said:
"The management of messages is con-
trolled by convention to which the
Npowers of Europe subscribe, there be-
F-fng maintained at Berne, Switzerland,
an International Telegraph bureau.
Through this there, passes all business
respecting the use of words in mes
sages, and of course cable companies
which do business with the world must
be governed by the rules laid down by
the conventions which are held each
five years. or their messages will be re-
fused and great delay caused.
There has been issued from the bu-
reau list of the words of all modern
languages which are to be used in send
ing messages over telegraph lines, and
this is an elaborate work. There are
five volumes, each of large size. and the
number of words thus collected is great
When the whole is completed no mes
sage win be received which contains a
word not in that list, except as a ciphei
message.
There are really three kinds of mes
sages which are commonly handled
The cipher messages are those which
consist of figures or letters or combina-
tions of both When the message is
made up of figures a block of FIVE, OF
any fraction of that number, is counted
! as one word. If there is a combination
of figures and letters, or if letters are
used alone, then combination of three
is counted as word
Code messages are most commonly
used. In the codes arbitrary meanings
are given to certain words. and these
are sent at the ordinary rates. any