IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF TRANSMITTING MESSAGES BY THE ELECTRIC OR MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Francis John Bolton, of 18, Bruton Street, in the
County of Middlesex, a Captain in Her Majesty's Army, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF TRANSMITTING MESSAGES BY THE ELECTRIC
OR MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH."
Sealed the 18th December 1866, and dated the 19th June 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis John Bolton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th June 1866.
I, FRANCIS JOHN BOLTON, of 13, Bruton Street, in the County of Middlesex,
a Captain in Her Majesty's Army, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF TRANSMITTING MESSAGES BY
THE ELECTRIC OR MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the employment of a written, or. printed code of
signals, and to the manner of using or referring to, such, code when it is
desired to communicate intelligence by means of the electric or magnetic
telograph.
A code, that is a list of letters, words, sentences, or numbers in a tabulated
form having been prepared, I number the pages of the code in consecutive
order, and also the lines on. each page, and when I wish to send a message from
one place to another. I simply transmit (by any of the means employed in the
transmission of messages) the number or numbers referring to the page and
to the line in the code where is to be found the letter, word, sentence, or
number which I desire my, correspondent to be made acquainted with.
Thus if every page in the code has 100 lines, and the pages of the book are.

page_text: consecutively numbered, the two last figures of a group indicated by tele-
graphic means may refer to the line, whilst the other figure or figures refer
to the page where the message or part thereof intended to be transmitted
will be found, where only one or two figures are indicated by the telegraphic
instrument, a certain page of the code will be understood to be referred to,
and the figures or letters will point out the line on that page where the
meaning of the signal is expressed.
It is evident from what has been said that although I have here described
by way of example a method of constructing and using or referring to a code
which is based upon numbers, yet a system essentially the same in principle could
be framed and employed having letters or a combination of letters and numbers
for its basis; thus, for example, in such cases where letters are employed
the pages of the book containing the code might be designated alphabetically
or by a series of letters alphabetically or otherwise arranged, and the last two
letters of a group indicated by telegraphic means may refer to the line, whilst
the other letter or letters refer to the page where the message or part thereof
intended to be transmitted will be found, where only one or two letters are
indicated by the telegraphic instrument a certain special page of the code
will be understood to be referred to, and the letters will point out the
line on that particular page where the meaning of the signal is expressed.
In such cases where combinations of figures and letters are employed the
letters may refer to the page and the figures to the line, or vice versa, or
such combinations may be constructed as may be found convenient to
facilitate the carrying out of my improved system of code signalling.
Some of the advantages of this system consist of gain in speed, extreme
simplicity, non-liability to mutilation, or mistakes in transmitting messages
through different countries, facility of repetition, and its applicability to any
language, because each nation may have the words or sentences in its own
language, whilst the system of numbering such words or sentences will or may
be the same for all.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Francis John Bolton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 19th December 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANCIS
JOHN BOLTON, of 13, Bruton Street, in the County of Middlesex, a Captain 35
in Her Majesty's Army, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year, of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Francis John Bolton, Her special license that I, the said Francis John
Bolton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Francis John Bolton, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, usc, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF TRANSMITTING MESSAGES, BY THE ELECTRIC OR
MAGNETIC TELEGRAPE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Francis John Bolton, my executors, or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Francis John Bolton, do hereby
declare the nature of my said. Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say:―
This Invention relates to the employmout of a written or printed code of
signals, and to the manner of arranging and using such code when it is
desired to communicate intelligence by means of the electric or magnetic
telegraph.
A code, that is a list of letters, words, sentences, or numbers in a tabulated
form, having been prepared, I number the pages of the code in consecutive
order, and also the lines on each page, and when I wish to send a message
from one place to another I simply transmit (by any of the means employed
in the transmission of messages) the number or numbers referring to the page
and to the line in the code where is to be found the letter, word, sentence,
or number which I desire my correspondent to be made acquainted with.
The code which I employ is so arranged that, first, all words and letters of the
English language can be expressed by groups of figures; 2, all words and letters
of any other language capable of being rendered in the English characters can
also be likewise expressed.
The object of my system of signalling is to facilitate the speed of trans-

page_text: mission of messages, and to prevent the liability to error in the rendering of a
message. The telegraphic symbols used to express this code are the dot
and the dash, which have been used before in the system known as the
Morse system; the following arrangement is employed to signal the
numbers
By this arrangement the necessity of mixing dots with dashes is obviated,
errors arising from the use of a combination of both are avoided, and
the signals are equally simple and effective whether used with a short
and long signal or right and left deflections, the latter being the most
expeditious.
The code is divided into five parts, and they are as follows:-
Part I. provides for 110 signals and expresses the letters of the alphabet,
which alphabet though numerically symboled resembles the ordinary Morse
alphabet except that where necessary changes are made so that the necessity
of mixing dots and dashes is obviated (this alphabet, however, will be
seldom required); of these 110 signals 10 are expressed by one figure, the
remaining 100 by two figures.
Part II. provides for 1000 signals limited to 3 figures, and forms the
"spelling code," by which any word in any language having English characters
can be spelt by syllables.
-Part III. provides for 10,000 signals limited to four figures, and forms
a special code applicable to commercial and political intelligence and
frequently recurring names of places, months of the year, days of the month,
and week, time, hours, and dates, and as these signals are sure to be of
frequent occurrence they are denoted by short groups of figures limited to 4
places.
Part IV. provides for 100,000 signals limited to 5 figures, and expresses
every word in the English language alphabetically arranged, and such
sentences as are coded and is called the "vocabulary and sentence code,"

page_text: the latter of which is employed to denote such sentences and series of words
as are most likely to occur in telegraphic messages.
Part V. provides for 127,000 signals limited to six figures, and expresses
the name of every known place in the world, an abstract of which including
the principal places likely to be referred to in messages is incorporated in
Part III.
Each part (intended to be referred to) is readily distinguishablo by the
number of figures in the group, for instance, a group of 3 figures must
refer to Part 2, which provides for signals limited to 3 figures or multiples of
the same, and which I designate as the spelling code, and a group of five figures
to Part IV. and so on.
In the formation of this method of codification a system of page and line
has been established indicating by a single glance at the group of figures
the particular page and line in the code book to which they refer, thus con-
siderably facilitating the rendering of messages from code into ordinary
language; for instance, every page in the code has 100 lines, numbered from
line 00, 01, 02 to line 99, inserting a cypher before the unit numbers up to 9
inclusive, and tho pages are also numbered, consecutively. In the receipt
of a group of figures the two last figures (or the units and tens as they would
appear in numeration) represent the line, whilst the other figure or figures
represent the page, thus the group 11865 would signify page 118, line 65 of
Part IV. The group 1866 would signify page 18, line 66 of Part III., and
the
group 866 would signify page 8, line 66 of Part II.
In the event of only one figure or a group of two figures only being
received it is known to have reference to the corresponding lines in the blank
page of the code or that portion of it providing for the letters of the alphabet
and particular signals classed as Part I. Whereas the rendering of a messuage
from code into ordinary language is particularly easy as just demonstrated,
the rendering of a message from the ordinary language into code is equally.
easy inasmuch as the vocabulary and sentence part (Part IV.) is arranged
alphabotically, and therefore any word or part of a sentence is as easily
found as is any word in an ordinary dictionary, and its page and line instantly
ascertained. Thus the message "as soon as convenient" would be found under
the word "convenient" in the codo book, which being numerically paged
and lined may be described for illustration as at page 116, line 78, or as it
would appear in group 11678.,
By the foregoing explanation of the component parts of this code it will
be observed that the uneans have been furnished to express. by,―
:

page_text: Part I., the letters of the alphabet particular telegraphic signals and
the like.
Part II. a ready means of spelling any word in any language having
English characters.
Part III., sentences pertaining to commercial and political intelligence, and
the names of the principal places in the world.
Part IV., every word in the English language, together with several thousand
sentences likely to form the subject of telegraphic messages.
Part V., the name of every known place in the world, an abstract of which
is in Part IV.
This system is applicable to all long telegraphic lines, but especially to
submarine lines, and by its adoption the working power of transmission over
the ordinary system is considerably increased. Blank spaces may be left at
intervals in the numbers of the code, which may be filled up from time to
time by inserting such other sentences as may be found convenient and useful.
It is evident from what has been said that although I have here described
by way of example a method of constructing and using or referring to a code
which is based upon numbers, yet a system essentially the same in principle
could be framed and employed, having letters or a combination of letters and
numbers for its basis; thus, for example, in such cases when letters are
employed the pages of the book containing the code might be designated
alphabetically or by a series of letters alphabetically or otherwise arranged,
and the last two letters of a group indicated by telegraphic means may refer
to the line, whilst the other letter or letters refers to the page where the
message or part thereof intended to be transmitted will be found, where only
one or two letters are indicated by the telegraphic instrument a certain special
page of the code will be understood to be referred to, and the letters will
point out the line on that particular page where the meaning of the signal is
expressed.
In order to facilitate the finding of a specified line I employ a moveable
graduated scale divided in such a manner as that the numerals or other
indications placed thereon, when placed parallel to the column of printed
matter and properly adjusted thereto, shall correspond to the lines or rows of
printed matter contained in each page or part thereof.
It will be readily understood that in such codes or other printed matter
as shall have numerals or other indications opposite to or incorporated
with such printed rows or lines that the use of the scales as before mentioned
will be unnecessary.

page_text: Having now described my Invention, and the manner in which it is to be
performed, I claim the use of a code of signals arranged and used as berein
described.
In witness whereof, I the said Francis John Bolton, have to this my Specifi-
cation set my band and seal, the Seventeenth day of December, Ono
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
FRANCIS JOHN BOLTON. (L.S.)