The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-25
HOW THE NEWS
COMES BY WIRE
Press Dispatches Have Long
Been Done in Code
SOME STRANGE MIXTURES
OF Letters and Numerals That Mean
Whole Paragraphs to the Newspa-
per Observation-Disclosures of
Authorizations

From the Kansas City Star
Xxx potus wi sn isu pmn opg crn ian
| lans to SKIN.
This is not a prize puzzle nor a line of
pied type. as might be imagined by
readers If they should come across such
a conglomeration of to them meaningless
letters.
reads
1T is expected that the President of the
| United States will soon issue a proclama-
ton opening certain Indian lands to set
Element.
Innumerable combinations of a similar
| character. known as the Phillips code.
are employed on all heavy press wires.
By the use of this code more than double
the amount of press matter possible when
each word was spelled out by the
sender" is sent over the wire.
1t was in the early sos when the type
writer first came into use to any extent
in telegraph work. and ten years later
before 1t was generally adopted. Prior to
that time press matter, like ordinary tel
egraph messages, was copied with pencil,
stylus or pen, and, as the fastest pen
man could no more than keep up with a
fast Morse sender" only a few COM
mon authorizations by the latter were pos
sible. With the greatly increased speed
of the typewriter the receiver" could
easily write ahead of the sender that is,
anticipate the word and write 1t out be-
fore the sender got half through 1t.
Then came the Phillips code, devised
by Walter P. Phillips of the old United
Press association. Originally designed for
court reporting. and to enable the press
senders of that time to abbreviate long
words and a few common phrases, the
code has come to be Indispensable on all
the leased wires and press association cir
ont Pc Of tha try hoc
to and revised. officially and unofficially,
by the Ress telegraphers, until there is
not phrase common to newspaper
stories" that is not coded by the sender
and written out In full by the receiver.
Speed Is the All Now
In the early days of code transmission
when the sending operator came to a SEN
tence containing several code contrac-
| lions he leased up" to give the receiver
time to get IT down. No one believed
then that the code could be used at the
same rate of sending speed, any more
than an ordinary stenographer would at
tempt to take fast speaker on the
typewriter. But nowadays the amount
of code used Is unlimited and the sender
maintains the same gait as If he were
spelling 1t out.
The system of the code is Ike this:
The word acknowledge, for instance, as
ing, "akg" Recover is coded "rk;'' recov-
ering ''rkg;' recovered, ''rkd," and SO on.
Names of places. men and terms that
are daily used in the news stories are
never sent in full by a press telegrapher.
One or two letters suffice for the longest
words and sometimes two or three letters
for a whole sentence. In the Thaw trial
in New York here is the way the opening
sentence came over the wires
t tri HKT # mu SW on Ms roof
garden, NV In pig, etc.
AS delivered to the telegraph editors 1t
| read:
THE trial of Harry K. Thaw for the
murder of Stanford White on Madison
Square Roof Garden, now in progress, etc.
The names of men much in the public
eye are treated with scant reverence by
the code operators. The organizer of
trusts, j. Pierpont Morgan. becomes
JPN" The ex-President was "PRR."
president Roosevelt, or "Rvt.' Nc,
Kiney, of course, easily became "McKa:,"
while "GC" sufficed for President Grover
Cleveland. John ID. Rockefeller of the
Standard Oil company is shortened into
"JDR Soc" or "Rkfr." The Prince of
Wales might not recognize his name in
ct POW" but that is the way it is sent
over the press wires. "KEVII Egg is
translated by the receiver into "Kisg Ed
ward of England"
New York on Saturday afternoon is
coded thus:
'Ty met at WA In NY on Supy."
In a fire story the code is used to adj
vantage. John Smiths factory and
warehouse was destroyed by fire this
morning. The loss is covered by insur-
ance,"Ai is translated from: .''Jno Sniff S
e esy "a'''' was ~ '''
"Ung Alfonso de Jones & Mis- Gladys
de Brown is met in Oh & iw a cs lafs,
Is all that the code receiver needs to hear
for him to write out this sentence:
Young Alfonso de Jones and Miss
Gladys de Brown first met In Chicago,
and It was a case of love at first sight
"Hs grf disapm caud ung man to
elxx by tkg ca" translates Into: His
grief and disappointment caused the
Young man to commit suicide by taking
carbolic acid" HE died I'm sop" is
the code for HE died from a stroke of
paralysis" "Cou" In Phillips doesn't
mean copper" but chief of police"
Some of the code designations for
cities are Id" for London, LIP" cor
Liverpool, och" for Chicago. "Vok," for
Vladivostok and "Cp" for Abdul Ham
Ids old home. Porto RIGA Is "PXA,"
"PA" for Port Arthur was common In
the Russo Japanese war.
Washington political and Senate and
House matter is adapted to more cut
ting" by the sender than any other class
of news. For instance: "Cgsman Turnip-
seed Con his second appearance 1t would
be Tseed) lab hu tsm to amend the
KIN If US to PVT TT elm sars sbi pop
vo." Written out it reads:
Congressman Turnipseed introduced
a bill in the House this morning to
amend the constitution of the United
States to provide for the election of
senators by popular vote.
"T hu OUT means, The house ad'>
tourned until tomorrow; or 1t HUI kaw."'
"the house adjourned sine die"
A telegraph editor once came across
this combination in the Washington
copy: "T scotus tidy dcd an ipt ca"
The receiver had failed to properly
translate it into: THE supreme court
of the United States today decided an
important case"
other Examples of Code
In a story referring to familiar songs,
like Nearer My God to Thee" Lead
Kindly Light" etc, the code sender
usually transmits only the first letter
of each word. assuming that the ro-
ceiver is familiar enough with the song
70 do the rest. One sender on leased
wire tried to run over the Lords prayer
by sending the first letter of each word.
Like the Morse alphabet. the Phillips
code Is easily susceptible of many
wrong translations, and the receiver
must nave his wits everlastingly at
work He must carry the story in his
mind and have knowledge OF about
everything. besides having the speed of
the most expert stenographer on The
typewriter.