A System of Economic and Private Telegraphing, with Apparatus and Appurtenances therefore.
Year: 1891

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A System of Economic and Private Telegraphing, with Apparatus
and Appurtenances therefore.
I, HENRY LASSEN of No. 4, Burton Crescent London W.C., Commercial
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
-
"Code" is telegraphed by signs, consisting for each "code" item in two letters
of the alphabet, differently put together, aa, ab, ac, and so on, thus providing
for 676 items. In cases of this extent being too limited senders may arrange with
their correspondents to let some of these signs have a double meaning, one for
telegrams sent, and another for telegrams received. If it be desired, when tele-
graphing in cipher, to have the "code" part distinctly separated from the ordinary
communications, the same as must be done in the shape of a parenthesis, enclosing
the code part, as above, in plain-language telegrams,--the letters "and"
are left out in the compilation of "code" signs, of which there will thus be 576,-
sender in such case commencing, also if the telegram commences with "code,"―the
"code" part with "x," and finishing it, except when the message ends with "code,"
with "z," the "code" part not containing these letters.
X
Z
The correspondents must each have a book, divided into as many spaces as
required, up to 676, and each space has to be marked with one of the said groups
of two letters, and when "code" is used to any extent, these spaces should be
arranged into certain departments, to suit the requirements of the users; for
instance for an ordinary mercantile wholesale or commission business there should be
departments for goods and their description, quantities, numbers and fractions,
names of months and time generally, terms of payment, conditions, particular
instructions &c. &c.
To give an example of the ordinary use of this "code" system, if a firm had
made a consignment of goods to some port for sale, and if it were desired to
telegraph instructions to the agent to sell best possible, but, if at least the price
of "15" could not be obtained, to put the goods into warehouse, this message would,
put into an ordinary contracted shape, be sketched as follows:
"Sell best possible--warehouse if cannot reach at least 15,"
and the code book should, under "instructions" have a space for "sell best possible"
and another for "warehouse if cannot reach at least," and under "numbers" one
for "15;"supposing these three spaces to be marked respectively "fg," "fm"
and "od," the message would have to be thus framed :
"fgfmod."
The deciphering, division into groups and transformation into " cipher" are
hereinafter described.
Cipher. Telegraphing is done in such a way that varying letters,-one for each
appearance, stand for any individual letter of the message by passing, step by
step, series of letters before or through other series of letters, which during the
operation remain stationary, at each step substituting for each letter of the message
successively the letter in the "cipher" series, which in that position is nearest to it
in the place it occupies in the "plain" series, which is performed by operating.
A with two series of letters.

page_text: to a board. Under the first open space in the same, marked (I), which is arranged to
hold 26 letters, and passing under the side bars, is placed a slide (II) with a series
of 52 letters, consisting of two identical successions of 26 different letters, such a
succession of 26 letters being hereinafter termed an alphabet,-marked upon it, so
that through the open space an alphabet, which represents "cipher," is exposed
to view in any selected position of the slide, which during the process remains
stationary in such position. Under the second open space (III) is passed in the
same way another slide (IV), marked with other two alphabets, as the first one, one
alphabet being likewise exposed to view in any position of the slide, and this
alphabet represents "plain" language. In the commencing position of this second
("plain") slide, the first letter of its 52 is directly below the first letter of the
"cipher" alphabet, which has been selected for use, and the cipher for the first
letter of the message to be sent, is the "cipher" letter, which is then immediately
above the said first letter of the message in the place it occupies in the “plain
alphabet. The second step is to pull the "plain" slide out one letter-space to the
left, in which position the second letter of the message transformed as before, and
so on until 26 letters have been transformed, one by one, when the "plain" slide is
pushed back into its first position, and the process recommenced.
On the "plain" slide, below the first of the alphabets, and in the same spaces as
the letters, are further marked the numbers from 1 to 26 in regular succession,
No. 2 being placed in the same space as and straight below the first letter, and so
on, so that No. 1 in the otherwise empty space before No. 2 will, as during the
operation the following numbers successively will, appear through a small hole,
made in the left side bar, as an indication to the operator of the number of the
letter of the message, which he has to transform, and as a check of mistakes, whilst
the numbers to the right of the one, appearing in the hole, are concealed from view
by the slide moving sufficiently far under a cross bar (V) below the open space, on
which cross bar are marked the numbers from 1 to 26 as headings of 26 vertical
spaces, each holding a letter consecutively of the message, into which a slip (VI)
for the transformation has been ruled, with a line for the transformed letters under
each line of the message. This slip is placed between, with the edges under, cross
bar (V) and the two side bars, which for that purpose extend below the said cross
bar. The "key," which sender transmits to receiver in the telegram itself, is the
first letter of the "cipher" alphabet, selected to appear in the open space (I).
The following suppositional message:
"Lord Salisbury is away"
would, in accordance with the foregoing, and using the alphabets and the "key,"-
"x," given in the drawing, be transformed into cipher as follows:
At the commencement the cipher for "L" is ❝
one letter-space out, No. 2 appearing in the hole, "t" appears as the cipher
J" pulling the "plain" slide
for "
o" the next step shows "3" in the hole and "y" over and as the cipher
for "r," and so on to the end of the message, when the whole will appear in cipher,—
separated into groups of five letters for despatch, as mentioned below,―as:
66
Jtvxy acebd blgaz jlql."
B. WITH MORD HAN TWO SERIES OF LETTERS:
"
For this process drawing B shows the apparatus, consisting of a frame of three
bars, Fig. (1), between which is placed a card or cards with a number as desired of
different alphabets,-fixed, changeable or interchangeable,-representing "plain'
language, and over these alphabets is passed, line by line from the top one down, a
board, Fig. (II), having fixed to it at ton bars, enclosing a double “ainhon” aluhabat
SERIES OF LETTERS:
"
For this process drawing B shows the apparatus, consisting of a frame of three
bars, Fig. (1), between which is placed a card or cards with a number as desired of
different alphabets,-fixed, changeable or interchangeable, representing "plain
language, and over these alphabets is passed, line by line from the top one down, a
board, Fig. (II), having fixed to it at top bars, enclosing a double "cipher" alphabet
on a movable slide and otherwise as the "cipher' slide, sub A, exposing an
alphabet immediately over the "plain" alphabets, which "cipher" alphabet is
selected for and is to be used during the process, and below that the heading
"

page_text: numbers for the transformation slip, corresponding with the check-numbers, which,
in process A. appearing in the left bar hole, are now marked on this or on both
side-bars, No. 1 against the top alphabet, and so on downwards, and then the
said slip, and the cipher for the first letter of the message is that of the slide, which
is straight below the said plain letter, in its place in "plain" alphabet No. 1, and
so on, and when the last "plain" line has been gone through, the transformation
process is recommenced with line No. 1. To reduce the size of the apparatus, half
the number of alphabets may be on each side of the frame.
66
"
If the "plain alphabets be interchangeable, it is not necessary to have a
changeable cipher" alphabet; a fixed one may be used instead, or, dispensing
with the slide, Fig. (11), it may be placed on the top-and on added bottom-and
intermediate bars, as, in accordance with the number of alphabets used, may be
convenient for guiding the eye in passing the letters through the lines, as shown by
Fig. (III), in which the 12 alphabets of Fig. (1) have been made interchangeable
by dividing the card, containing them, into four cards with three alphabets each.
If the "plain" alphabets are fixed or periodically changeable, the "key" is, as
in process A, the first letter of the "cipher" alphabet, selected for use ;-if inter-
changeable it is either a group of the first letters on the cards in the position
selected for the cards, or a letter, arranged between the correspondents to represent
such a combination, 26 of which may thus be arranged for at a time.
γιατ
transformed into "1," and so on through the remaining six letters, when the result
will be:
"Evhtm hxplh mmlzq evhg."
The apparatus as above described are to be made of cardboard, wood, metal, or
other suitable substantial material, and the movable slides of parchment, vellum,
gutta percha and other suitable flexible or of harder material, such as wood or
metal. For "code" books divided into partitions, marked as described above, for
the items required, are used.
The "cipher" letters should be of a different colour or character to the "plain"
ones.
Any sender may have a number of correspondents, and he will, if so desiring, be
able to correspond with each in a cipher, unintelligible to the others, though all
may be using the same "plain" alphabets,-by supplying each with a different
series of "cipher."
The "key" letter must of course not be transformed by sender into cipher, and
must by receiver be expunged before he commences to decipher; he should, to
avoid confusion, decipher his message-by the same process, by which sender
transforms his, so far reversed only, that he substitutes the "plain" for the cipher
letters, right through before commencing to elucidate the "code" part, for which
latter purpose he plainly divides such into groups of two letters, the meaning of
which his code book will supply.
All cipher messages should, to protect as far as possible against mistakes, be
divided by sender into groups of five letters each for Europe and of three_for
North America, which are the numbers allowed to pass at the rate for one word,-
the now generally used "code sign, receiver of course taking no notice of such
division into groups.
"

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
1. The system of "code" telegraphing as above described.
2. The system of cipher telegraphing as above described.
3. The system of telegraphing in cipher ordinary communications and "code"
combined, as above described,-and
4. The apparatus and appurtenances for the application of the above, as above
described.
Dated this 20th day of ML 1001
HENRY LASSEN.