Talk:Telegraph code

message: * BYOXO ("Are you trying to crawl out of it?")
* LIOUY ("Why do you not answer my question?")
* AYYLU ("Not clearly coded, repeat more clearly.")
Can someone find a reference for these?  Some other things online say that BYOXO means "Are you trying to weasel out of our deal?", but they appear to be Wikipedia mirrors, so maybe it said that in a past version.  "Crawl out of it" seems like a machine translation from the equivalent phrase in some other language. — Omegatron 00:14, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've wondered about that stuff, too. Googling 'telegraphy five letter groups' quickly found the Mother Lode and something contemporary. There are probably more, since I stopped looking after finding two good ones. The Morse code article is already pretty huge, but I'm thinking these references could open up a whole new section, or at least a rewritten paragraph or two. Maybe there should be an article on code books, referenced from Morse code. Anyway, some light has been shed on BYOXO and its cousins. Lou Sander 01:15, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Definitely new article material. — Omegatron 00:37, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Re: Adding this to the existing article--BYOXO? ;-) Yep, sounds like one to me. Then Morse code could just say "they sometimes used code books" (properly worded, of course), with a link to code books. Lou Sander 01:32, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: There were several different commercial codes in common use, many large companies used their own, and of course there were military codes too. They were used not only with telegraphy but also over public and private teletype networks. If wiki wants to be neutral one could just make up a few arbitrary assignments as examples, then link to the code books site for real ones.  Jeh 23:42, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I have moved the Commercial code discussion to the Telegraph code page, since this is more a part of historical telegraph practice than Morse code usage.Thomas H. White 00:41, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Are you trying to crawl out of it? 

message: Guillemin on page 551 has an odd comparison of the "Belgian" and "English" alphabets for the single-needle telegraph.  My best guess is that the "English" code is the code used on the Henley and Forster (H&F) telegraph.  The Belgian code is clearly the Cooke and Wheatstone (C&W1) code.  This code was used by the largest pre-nationalisation British telegraph company, the Electric Telegraph Company.  But presumably, Belgium communicated with England via the Dover to Ostend cable which was owned and operated by the Submarine Telegraph Company.  The STC only dealt with the British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company at the British end, and the Magnetic used the H&F equipement rather than C&W.  Thus, to the Belgians, H&F would appear as the English system. SpinningSpark 17:04, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: It's taken a week to find it, but I can now say definitively that this code originated with the gold leaf telegraph of Henry Highton.  The same code was used on the needle telegraph he later developed with his brother Edward, shown on an illustration in Edward's book.  The brothers set up the British Electric Telegraph Company using this equipment, but were soon taken over by the Magnetic. SpinningSpark 00:10, 29 September 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  "English" needle code