The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1915-07-27

Undergo Several Transformations by
Telegraph and Gable Before Reach
ing Destination In American Ambas-
sailors Offices Many Precautions
Against Errors.
Thirty-one notes have been ex-
charged between the United States
government and the belligerent Euro
pean powers during the past six
months. How these notes are en-
ciphered, coded, guarded against err
rors, cabled, deciphered and their
secrecy preserved Is one Of the me
chanical features OF interest In these
international communications.
With the entrance Of Italy into the
wal the means of exchanging notes
with Germany were lessened and made
more difficult. The Lusitania note.
sent on June o, was cabled and tele-
graphed by the roundabout way OF
Copenhagen, Denmark. One of the
previous notes, forwarded promptly by
the French Gable company, was held
up for some unaccountable reason for
nearly two days. This was attributed
unofiicially to delay in the telegraph
department. Whatever the cause. 1t
was too slow for the president. who
thereupon ordered the next communi-
cation to go by another route.
The procedure of sending the latest
OF the Lusitania notes was similar In
practice to that for the others, except
as TO the route after reaching the ca
BILE terminal. After Secretary OF State
Robert Lansing had affixed his sigma
ture to 1t he handed 1t to the chief
clerk OF the state department, Benja-
min Davis, who took Ii downstairs to
the main floor, where the telegraph
and cipher rooms are situated. The
pages of the note Were distributed
among the cipher clerks, and the work
of enciphering II began Immediately.
Guard Against Error.
Before important notes. such as this,
are placed on the wire 1t is the custom
generally to prove the accuracy Of the
cooling by declphering 1t and compar-
ing the result with the original. When
IL is thus tested and the cooling is
found to correspond precisely with
each particular word the note is SO dis
guised that no one not having access
to the secret code book would be able
to read or understand a single word of
1t. Ambassador Gerard In Germany
had the only key to the characters.
The code books from which the sym
bols are taken as represented by fig
ures and letters and sometimes by
groups Of both, together with spaces,
are kept in locked safes when not In
use and are never permitted to reach
any but trusted persons who have to
do with this particular branch of the
state department work. In fact. the
code books of the state department are
guarded with the same vigilance as the
code of the navy, where, I'm case of ne
cessity, the first duty of the naval Off
Ger is to throw the code book into the
sea. The navy code books are bound
| N heavy leather overs so that they
viii sink instantly.
Put Into Gable Code.
When the telegraph operator passed
the telegraphic sheets to the cable OPP
orator the latter prepared for flashing
IL under the Atlantic by translating the
note from the Morse code 10 the con-
tinental code OF the cable systems.
This he did by cutting dots and dashes
In a narrow ribbon of paper passing
endlessly through a special form OF
typewriter having a keyboard contain
ing all the letters OF the alphabet and
the numerals and keys for spacing, but
In place of reproducing the letters and
figures and spaces the cutting ends OF
the typewriter keys cut characters In
the strip OF paper which correspond to
the letters in the continental code. All
the keys are tipped with what Is
known I'm cable work as the dot"
which cuts a small hole like the small
letter o. BY the use OF one or more
dots and In certain groups OF dots the
letters of the alphabet and the
ais are spelled out I'm the language of
the code.
To make the characters representing
the letter A, for instance, the operator
depresses the A key and produces two
circular punctures In the paper, one
near the top margin of the ribbon and
the other near the bottom. with a
slight angle from a vertical line, de-
noting a space between the punctures
and meant to be read as dot-dash-dot.
The operator, therefore, began with
the name OF Ambassador Gerard.
which he made In this form:
o 600 o 600 600 o 90 90
A M b A 8 s A ID o r
o 90 o o o o 600 o
o o o o o 90 90
q f r A r d
90 O o o o
Tho 20 hIo fono 40 SIs0htiv pnora than