Evening star., 1923-11-19
|CLASS IS DISMISSED
by EYE TELEGRAPHY
New York Police Study New
Mode of Secret Com
-
munication. |
Special Dispatch to The Star.

NEW YORK, November 19.-Aaron
Honigman, the newest professor" in
New York's detective university
gazed dreamily out tho window of
his classroom this afternoon, appar-
entity lost in abstraction. Suddenly
the class of twenty-five, headed by
Deputy Commissioner Faurot, got up
and filed out.
The professor had dismissed them
by eye telegraphy,' one of the many
branches of the code of secret COM
munication which he has employed
to teach the finest of the finest. He
achieved the dismissal with few
fiickers of the eyelids-so slight as to
trick, and so complicated as to be in
comprehensive to any one who did
notice it-yct so simple as to enable
him to wink out, almost as quickly
as he could have said it:
wei. gentlemen, | know you are
tired, and L confess that | am. too,
so we Will call it off for today"
Faurot Is EnthusIastic.
Deputy Inspector Faurot, long head
of the bureau of criminal identifica-
tion and a super-sleutn with whose
New York detective force is associ-
ated, was enthusiastic about the new
course. which started this week.
There are many occasions when
two or more detectives working on
Il case have great need of secret
communication" he said. For in
stance: Two detectives working on
Il murder case are interviewing a
group of witnesses
The leader Fay wish his companion
to trail certain member of the
Eroup-but he can't tell him in so
Many words without exciting the OBJ
jccts suspicious and spelling the
chances OF learning anything. Or
suppose 4 squad of detectives are de-
tailed to radical meeting. where
their Identities mast he kept secret.
The leader obviously could not issue
spoken instructions. With this new
method it will be possible to COM
municate freely without even APP
structions are being given"
hut eye telcgraphy" is only a frac-
tion of the story. There il cigar
telegraphy, finger teiegraphy. foot
telegraphy, shoulder telegra phy-in fact.
Mr.. Honigman says it is possible TO
talk with anything or any port of the
body that is capable of being moved
rythmically. Moreover. the system is
workable in the dark by the touch
system. the symbols being scratched
er's" body.
Thumb Nail TeIegraphy.
suppose you and | are a dctec-
tive team" Mr.. Honigman said 1--WE
nave cornered desperate criminal in
his room and placed him under ar
rest go to the window and see his
conf iederate entering the house.
want to warn YOU TO be on the look
out for him. Simple enough"
He stood gazing down into Center
street. with his hands lightly clasped
behind his back. Suddenly. as il
seized with nervous mannerism. he
began rubbing his thumb nail with his
forefinger. 1t was the message:
BAD Bill is coming UP the stairs.
stand over by the door and nail him
as he comes in. I'll look out for this
bird here.
"Or, suppose" he went on, return
ing TO his seat-"suppose, as some
times happens In the movies. atrIeast,
mat you and / have been captured
by desperate band of criminals.
We are bound to chairs and gagged.
Is urgent that / tell II to you
He began wriggllng his shoulders
siightly, as II trying to adjust him
self more comfortably to his bonds.
The guard has fallen asleep-see
If you can't wriggle over and burn
your ropes off with that candle"
said the expressive shoulders
The beauty about his system, ac-
cordtng to Mr.. HonigmaH-and police
officials say it is the first one they
have seen that begins to answer the
demand for a secret code of commune
cation--is it's simplicity
Only Five Characters,
There are but five characters in il,
which. multiplied by Ave positions"
take care OF all the alphabet but ~.
sixth position for one of the char
acters accounts for e." And the code
can be shifted at will. like the COM
bination on a safe, so that n half
dozen couples might be carrying on
secret conversation in a single group
MT Honigman, who is a board of
health inspector in Montreal didn't
devise his code originally for police
purposes.
Il was walking down the street in
Montreal one day about fifteen years
ago." he said, when l saw a big
crowd. stopped to see what II was
all about: In the center Of the crowd
were two deaf mutes conversfng with
their cumbersome sign language.
suddenly one of the mutes noticed
the crowd-both had been so en-
crossed in their conversation that
they ehadnt noticed it before. They
ried away. / decided then that |
would try to devise scheme so that
the deaf and dumb could converse
without embarrassment in public. NV
system is the result
while 1 was looking for some
philanthropist to help me get the
system before these unfortunates the
idea came that 1T would be a god
send to the police. So / offered it to
Commissioner Enright and he asked
me to train a corps of Instructors
1t will take me about a month to do
ii. After that ] may institute the
system in the police forces of other
American cities"