Format and content of this page, that was undertaken mainly for personal convenience, will continue to change. The level of detail is uneven; inconsistencies in bibliographic information are legion. Mea culpa. Comments, corrections, additions are welcome.
The separation of telegraphic and signal codes is somewhat arbitrary. These obviously differed in usage, domain, and in the nature of the signals, but there was overlap and mutual influence in the areas of phrase vocabulary and arrangement.
telegraphic codes |
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| 1845 | Secret Corresponding Vocabulary | general | Francis O. J. Smith |
| 1845 | The Telegraph Dictionary, and Seamen’s Signal Book | Henry J. Rogers | |
| 1853 | The Traveler’s Vade Mecum | general | A. C. Baldwin |
| 1866 | Diccionario telegrafico | government | Imprenta Imperial, Mexico |
| 1870 | Telegraph Code, to Ensure Secresy in the Transmission of Telegrams | Robert Slater | |
| 1871 | Dianxin xinfa 電信新法 | Chinese character code | Great Northern Telegraph |
| 1872 | Dianbao xinshu 電報新書 | Chinese character code | S. A. Viguier |
| 1872 | Watts’s Telegraphic Cypher | cotton | Joseph A. D. Watts and Co. |
| 1873 | ABC Telegraphic Code (first edition) | general | Clauson-Thue |
| 1874 | ABC Telegraphic Code (second edition) | general | Clauson-Thue |
| 1874 | Bloomer’s Commercial Cryptograph | commercial | J. G. Bloomer, San Francisco |
| 1874 | The General Telegraph Code | commercial | H. R. Meyer |
| 1875 | The International Mercantile Telegraph Code | commercial | H. R. Meyer |
| 1875 | Watt’s Telegraphic Cypher, Revised Edition | cotton | in words of ten letters |
| 1876 | ABC Telegraphic Code (third edition) | general | Clauson-Thue |
| 1876 | Banking Telegraphy...being a Code | banking | Robert Slater |
| 1876 | Three Letter Code for condensed telegraphic and inscrutably secret messages and correspondence | E. Erskine Scott; prospectus | |
| 1877 | Telegraphic cypher of Julius Büttner | cotton, rosin | Mobile, Alabama |
| 1878 | The Cotton Telegraph Code (33rd edition) | cotton | H. R. Meyer |
| 1878 | Telegraphic Cipher Code, Especially Adapted to the Cotton Trade | cotton | A. B. Shepperson |
| 1878 | A. Chesebrough’s Private Telegraphic Code | shipping, chartering | San Francisco |
| 1879 | The Phillips Telegraphic Code | operator’s code | Walter Polk Phillips |
| 1880 | Parker’s Combination Code | combination | Thomas Parker, Manchester |
| 1880 | ABC Telegraphic Code (fourth edition) | general | Clauson-Thue |
| 1880 | Ager’s Telegraphic Primer or Skeleton Telegram Code | blank general | George Ager |
| 1880 | The Telegram Code | blank tables | G. Ager, London |
| 1880 | Private Telegraph Code of Hamilton, Fraser & Co. | shipping | Liverpool |
| 1880 | Maguire’s Code of Ciphers | banking & commerce, cipher | Charles H. J. Maquire; Quebec |
| 1880 | Commercial Telegraph Code | general | H. R. Meyer; supplants International Telegraph Code |
| 1880 | Law’s mercantile cipher code | general | in use by subscribers and attorneys of the Canadian Reporting and Collecting Association |
| 1880 | Appendix Telegraph Code | blank | H. R. Meyer |
| 1880 | Cypher Code | coffee | private code, Phipps & Co. |
| 1881 | The A.B.C. Domestic Code | general | Henry Harvey |
| 1881 | Whittingham’s Skeleton Telegraph Code | blank | for ordinary business purposes |
| 1881 | Wilson’s Ship Broker’s Telegraph Code | grain, cotton | ship brokerage, esp. for American grain and cotton trades |
| 1882 | The Globe Commercial Telegraph Code, for the Use of Mercantile Firms | general | H. R. Meyer, comp. Liverpool |
| 1883 | Scott’s Code : The Ship Owners’ Telegraphic Code | shipping | Reprint, with Supplement 1882 combined |
| 1883 | Telegraph Code | finance | Preston, Kean & Co. (Chicago) |
| 1883 | The Globe Telegraph Code | blank | E. Garsin (London and New York) |
| 1884 | Nonpareil Telegraphic Code | condenser | Latin verb codewords, for figures 1 –10,000,000 |
| 1884 | Cypher Code for Telegraphy | AAA > ZZZ | Thomas S. Dunn; London |
| 1885 | The Telegram Formula and Code Combiner | combination | Frederick George McCutcheon |
| 1885 | Cable Code . John Crossley & Sons, Ltd. | weaving | carpet weaver |
| 1885 | Telegraphic Cipher | livestock, grain | W.G. Press & Co., Chicago |
| 1885 | Pocket Telegraphic Code | social | |
| 1885 | Telegraphic Code | floral | 23 phrases only; The American Florist |
| 1886 | Bloomer’s Commercial Cryptograph | commercial | J. G. Bloomer, New York |
| 1888 | Telegraph Code, to Ensure Secresy in the Tranmission of Telegrams | 3rd edn | Robert Slater |
| 1888 | Science Observer Code | astronomy | Seth Carlo Chandler, comp. |
| 1888 | Telegraphic Mining Code Code | mining | C. Algernon Moreing, comp. |
| 1889 | Clave telegráfica-telefónica mercantile arreglada para el uso del comercio |
general commerce | Monterrey (Nuevo León), México. |
| 1889 | Telegraphic Cipher |
coffee, spice | pp 50-78 of A Brief Sketch of Miner’s Coffee and Spice Mills W. H. Miner, San Francisco |
| 1889 | Unicode, The Universal Telegraphic Phrase Book (Sixth Edition) | commercial, domestic and familiar |
|
| 1889 | Proposed Cable Chess Code | chess | O. E. Michaelis; 3-page article in Columbia Chess Chronicle |
| 1890 | Chess Telegraphic Codes |
chess | Edwyn Anthony; prospectus |
| 1891 | The Anglo-American Telegraphic Code | general | |
| 1891 | Private Telegraphic Code | foods, grains, commodities | Williams, Brown &. Co., San Francisco |
| 1891 | The New General Telegraphic Mining Code Code | mining | C. Algernon Moreing and Thomas Neal, comps. |
| 1893 | United States Telegraphic Cipher | produce | Joseph H. Wilson, comp. fruit, produce and merchandise |
| 1893 | Police Telegraph Code of England for 1893 | police | pp544-548 in George W. Hale, Police and Prison Cyclopaedia |
| 1894 | The Adams Cable Codex | social | Boston |
| 1894 | Inter-state Cipher | fruit shippers, jobbers | H K Pratt, Minneapolis |
| 1894 | Private Cipher Code | coffee | Castle Bros., San Francisco |
| 1894 | H. & W. Pataky’s Telegraphic Code for use in obtaining and Negociating Patents | patents | Berlin |
| 1895 | McNeill’s Code. | mining | New York (reprint of 1895 edition) |
| 1896 | Cipher Code for Astronomical Messages | astronomy | in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific |
| 1896 | The Atlas Universal Travelers’ and Tourists’ Telegraphic Cipher Code | general | T. Walter Hartfield |
| 1896 | (Lieber’s) Standard Telegraphic Code | general | |
| 1896 | The Premier Cypher Telegraphic Code | general | William H. Hawke |
| 1896 | The Dynamic Chess Notation | chess | Code for telegraphing moves |
| 1897 | Mercuur-code / Mercury Code | supplement | Amsterdam; firm & company names, plantations, etc. |
| 1897 | The Robinson Telegraphic Cipher (Revised Edition, probably later than 1897) | grain, provisions | S L Robinson, Chicago |
| 1898 | Telegraphic Code | machinery | pp 529-71 General Machinery Catalogue, Niles Tool Works |
| 1898 | Lieber’s Standard Telegraphic Code | general | |
| 1899 | McNeill’s Code | mining | |
| 1899 | Terminal Index for McNeill’s Code | mining; like a rhyming dictionary | |
| 1900 | Heath telegraphic cipher | flouring mills & merchants | G.M. Heath, La Cross, Wisconsin |
| 1900 | The Twentieth Century Telegraphic Cipher Code | cotton seed products | L. J. Guynes, New Orleans |
| 1901 | ABC Telegraphic Code (fifth edition) | general | W. Clauson-Thue, comp. |
| 1901 | Telegraph Code | motor touring | 3 pages in Official Automobile Blue Book, Eastern Edition |
| 1902 | The Westinghouse Code | electrical | |
| 1903 | Appleby’s Copyright Code | machinery | code contained in Section V, Appleby’s Handbook of Machinery |
| 1903 | Telegraphic Code, Government Bonds | bonds | First National City Bank of New York |
| 1903 | The revised economy telegraphic and cable cipher code | fruit and produce | Edmund Peycke (see also codes of 1908, 1918) |
| 1904 | A Cypher Telegraph Code | social | pp 93-98, George F. Chambers, The Tourist’s Pocket-Book, containing useful words and simple phrases. Seventh Edition |
| 1906 | Telegraphic Cipher Code, Gerrish System | astronomy | Harvard College Observatory |
| 1906 | Standard Cipher Code of The American Railway Association | transportation | |
| 1907 | Standard Lumber Reference Book and Code | lumber | Atlanta: Franklin-Turner Co., and Benj. F. Ulmer |
| 1907 | Un Code Télégraphique Du Portrait Parlé | signaletics | R. A. Reiss |
| 1907 | Postal Code (Telegraph-Cable) | general | Frank Shay and Richard V Day, San Francisco |
| 1908 | The Billionaire Phrase Code | flexible phrases | yielding one billion sentences;56 pages |
| 1908 | The Modern Economy Telegraphic and Cable Cipher Code | green and dried fruit and produce | Edmund Peycke |
| 1908 | Telegraphic Code, Wellcome’s Excerpta Therapeutica | drugs | Serums and Serum-Therapy pp 142-44 |
| 1909 | Brentano’s Telegraph and Cable Code | general | |
| 1909 | Bentley’s complete phrase code | general | E. L. Bentley; reprint of 1906 edition |
| 1911 | Private Telegraphic Code | steel | United States Steel Corporation |
| 1912 | Scientific Dial Primer | Andrew Hallner, comp. | |
| 1912 | The Emigre (P.C.) Cable Code | legal | S.V. Blake and F.A.C. Redden, comps. |
| 1913 | China Inland Mission Private Telegraph Code | religious administration | Shanghai |
| 1913 | The Adams Cable Codex, Tenth Edition | social | |
| 1913 | Telegraph and Cable Code, W. S. Tyler and Company | social | industrial screens, for use in Chilean mines, etc. |
| 1913 | The China Inland Mission Private Telegraph Code | missionary | Methodist Publishing House, Shanghai |
| 1914 | The Private Code and Post-Card Cypher | social, humor | Constance and Burges Johnson |
| 1918 | Finger Prints: The Code | dactylography | chapter 6 of Harris Hawthorne Wilder and Bert Wentworth, Personal Identification |
| 1918 | Peycke’s New Ekonomik Telegraphic Cipher Code for the Fruit and Produce Trade | produce | Edmund Peycke |
| 1918 | The ColoradoCode |
military | General Headquarters, AEF |
| 1920 | ABC Telegraphic Code (sixth edition) | general | William Clauson-Thue, edited by William Droege (not currently available) |
| 1920 | The Nautical Telegraph Code and Postal Guide (fourth edition) | social | Captain D. H. Bernard (?) |
| 1921 | Bensinger’s Special Edition of Complete Phrase Code | general | E. L. Bentley; reset edition of his 1906 Phrase Code |
| 1930 | General Cipher Code | express transport | Railway Express Agency, New York |
| 1957 | A.N.A.R.E. Code | social — Antarctic service | Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions |
signal codes |
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| 1763 | Tactique navale, ou, Traité des Évolutions et des signaux; avec figures en taille-douce. | Bigot de Morogues | |
| 1803 | Telegraphic Signals; or Marine Vocabulary | Home Riggs Popham | |
| 1808 | A Treatise on Telegraphic Communication | John Macdonald | |
| 1817 | A Treatise Explanatory of a New System of Naval, Military and Political Telegraphic Communication of General Application, in which a Comprehensive Numerical Dictionary...is applied... | John Macdonald | |
| 1817 | A system of general signals for night and day | Charles Lenox Sargent (Boston) | |
| 1818 | An Improved System of Telegraphic Communication... a Numerical Portable Dictionary | Thomas Lynn | |
| 1828 | A New Code of Telegraphic Signals for Yachts and Pleasure Boats | Richard B. Wynne | |
| 1832 | The United States Telegraph Vocabulary, being an appendix to Elford’s Marine Telegraph Signal Book. | John R. Parker | |
| 1835 | The Universal Sea Language being a complete code of signals for day and night. | Levin Joergen Rohde, London | |
| 1835 | A Code of Universal Naval Signals | H. Cranmer Phillipps | |
| 1836 | The New Semaphoric Signal Book, in Three Parts | John R. Parker | |
| 1845 | The Telegraph Dictionary, and Seamen’s Signal Book | Henry J. Rogers | |
| 1847 | A Code of Signals | Marryat; 10th edn, entirely revised and corrected |
|
| 1848 | Signal Book for Boston Harbor | Hudson & Smith | |
| 1851 | Code of Signals for the use of Vessels Employed in the Merchant Service | Marryat; 11th edn, entirely revised and corrected |
|
| 1854 | Universal Code of Signals for The Merchant Marine of All Nations | Marryat, Richardson; 12th edn | |
| 1855 | Code international: Télégraphie nautique | Reynold; naval and commercial | |
| 1855 | Reynold’s Code. Polyglot Nautical Telegraph | Reynold-Chauvancy; revised by F. H. Simpkinson | |
| 1858 | Ward’s Code of Signal Telegraph for Ocean Marine Service, alphabetically arranged... | William Henry Ward | |
| 1861 | The Ocean Marine Telegraph | William Henry Ward | |
| 1864 | Universal Code of Signals | Marryat, Richardson | |
| 1866 | Universal Code of Signals | Marryat, Richardson | |
| 1866 | Code Universel de Signaux | Marryat, Richardson | |
| 1866 | International Day, Night, and Fog Signal Telegraph | William Henry Ward | |
| 1866 | International Day, Night, and Fog Signal Telegraph | William Henry Ward; second edition | |
| 1869 | Universal Code of Signals | Marryat, Richardson | |
other primary sources |
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| 1824 | Histoire de la Télégraphie | Ignace Urbain Jean Chappe | |
| 1863 | Handbook of Practical Telegraphy | R. S. Culley | |
| 1867 | Visible Speech Telegraphy | Alexander Melville Bell | |
| 1876 | Oakum Pickings | Walter Polk Johnson | |
| 1880 | Telegraphic Tales | W J Johnston | |
| 1903 | Signaux Télégraphiques | James Nicolson | |
| 1908 | Signals and Instructions, 1776-1794 | Julian S. Corbett, ed. | |
telegraphic codes
- 1845
The Secret Corresponding Vocabulary —
adapted for use to Morse’s Electro-Magnetic Telegraph and also in conducting written correspondence, transmitted by the mails, or otherwise
Francis O. J. Smith
Portland: Thurston, Ilsley & Co., 1845
original at Harvard University: Int 4210.81.5
- 1853 The traveler’s vade mecum,
or Instantaneous Letter Writer, by mail or telegraph, for the convenience of persons traveling on business or for pleasure, and for others, whereby a vast amount of time, labor, and trouble is saved.
by A. C. Baldwin
New York: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1853
original at NYPL12 preliminary pages; 13-299 code; p300 table of contents.
8466 numbered phrases, distribute in the followingdepartments
: traveling, home, clergymen, and commercial (running pp 13-32); and miscellaneous, (pages 33-299).See my discussion of compiler A. C. Baldwin, and this code, at catatan.
- 1866 Diccionario telegrafico
Mexico, Imprenta Imperial, 1866
original at NYPLFigures, times, alphabet (1ff); vocabulary (13ff); names of places (135ff); authorities (175ff). No phrases
This code provides the Spanish-language terms, but no codewords or figure constructs for those. For my own convenience, I provide the preface and a rough Englishing of same, below.
ADVERTENCIA.
El Diccionario telegráfico contiene las palabras mas usadas para la correspondencia secreta ; las que faltan, sean nombres de poca importancia ó nombres propios, pueden ser escritas con letras, ó se compondrán por medio del alfabeto (página 5 – 11).
Los verbos auxiliareshaber,
ser
yestar,
y los verbostener,
poder,
ir,
querer
ydeber,
están puestos en los tiempos que indican el presente, pasado y venidero. De los otros verbos solo se halla el infinitivo, que basta para expresar en combinacion con verbos auxiliares ó los arriba mencionados, para comunicar las ideas de una manera inteligible. Se comprenderá fácilmente por el sentido de la frase, si el infinitivo aislado de un verbo indica el presente ó el venidero, ó un participio usado como adjetivo; compuesto con los auxiliares el pasado ú otro tiempo, estará perfectamente precisado. El gerundio siempre puede ser sustituido reduciendo las frases á las expresiones mas sencillas, y por medio de la combinacion deestar
con el infinitivo del verbo respectivo.
Se ha agregado al fin del Diccionario un vocabulario, que contiene los Soberanos, dignatarios y personajes importantes, y otro vocabulario geográfico del Imperio y del Extrangero.
Para no aumentar el número de las cifras á mas de millares, se ha dado á aquellas palabras una série de cifras ya contenida en el Diccionario. Se distinguirá una série de otra, subrayando la del apéndice.EJEMPLOS.
Ha llegado S. M. el Emperador á Puebla.
Un tal Goldsmith, individuo sospechoso de ser agente de Santa-Anna etc. etc.
S. M. concede el indulto pedido, avise V. al Prefecto Político.
Se hallan tambien en el Diccionario las sílabas necesarias para composiciones.Which, drawn through the Google translation machine, and subjected to amateur tuning, yields something like :
The Telegraph Dictionary contains the words most used for secret correspondence; what is missing — terms of little importance or proper names — can be written in letters, or
spelled out
(page 5-11).The auxiliary verbs
be,
was
andwill be,
and the verbshave,
may,
go,
intend
andduty,
indicate present, past and future. Of other verbs, the infinitive alone is sufficient in combination with auxiliary verbs or those mentioned above, to communicate ideas in an intelligible manner. Be easily understood by the meaning of the sentence, if the isolation of a verb infinitive indicates the present or the future, or a participle used as adjective, compound with auxiliaries or other last time, will be fully clarified. The gerund can always be replaced to reduce the sentences to the simplest expressions, and with combination ofbeing
with the infinitive of the verb concerned.There is added at the end of Dictionary a vocabulary for the Sovereign, officials and important persons, and a geographical vocabulary for locations within and outside the Empire.
In order not to increase the number of the figures to more than thousands, have been given to those words and a series of figures contained in the Dictionary. Distinguish a series of other, stressing the appendix.
Examples
S. has come M. Emperor to Puebla.
One such Goldsmith, individual suspected of being an agent of Santa-Anna, &., &.
S. M. granted a pardon request, contact V. the Political Prefect.
They are also in the Dictionary of syllables needed to compositions.
- 1870
Telegraph Code, to Ensure Secresy in the Transmission of Telegrams
by Robert Slater, Secretary of the Socièté du Cable Transatlantique Français, Limited.
London: W. R. Gray, 1870
original at Bodleian (232.g.113)Numbered vocabulary : Abridge 00101 > Zurich 25000. The vocabulary is not specialist in any way, let alone classified. Probably best used in conjunction with specialized code, whose codewords aren’t numbered.
The code was developed solely for secrecy: all its ciphers depend on prearranged numbers or rules for addition, subtraction, transposition, alteration of series, or other (progressively) complex operations. Its examples 1–9 (pp vii – xv) are a delightful display of patter/nonsense literature, each a variation of the sentence —
The Queen is the supreme power in the Realm:- Bounteous wedge purifying bounteous biography transparent posed bounteous yoke
(addition of 5555 to each word’s vocabulary number) - Plenty judging diatribe plenty perspective inciter crispate plenty lagoon
(subtraction of 5555 from each word’s vocabulary number) - Talking remonstrated kinks talking starch promised imparted talking quote
(transposition of last three figures for each transmitted word, e.g., 12345 becomes 12453. - Blundered waft presage blundered basalt tadpole pneumonia blundered why
(add 5555, and transpose three right hand figures) - Pillaging jackass darn pillaging posing hulk cousin pillaging ketch
(subtract 5555, and transpose three right hand figures) - Begged bulging freak catamaran beneath bedstead build corrupting claimed beneath autumn few
(five-figure series transmitted in series of four figures) - Blends celestially fivefold brigade bays Brazilian catalogue conjecturing come bays Areopagus few
(series of five figures converted to series of four, the three right-hand figures being transposed) - Beneath celibate fixedness brigandine beaconage breadth catch conjugation comfort beaker argument fiddler
(series of five figures converted to series of four, and transposed by adding 1 to the first result, 2 to the second, 3 to the third, etc.) - Argentine decay antispasmodic conclude beaconage anomalous constitutional dissenter caffre ascribable anneal cupping
(results from using method described in ex 8, by transposing the order of words in the message itself)
- Bounteous wedge purifying bounteous biography transparent posed bounteous yoke
- 1871
Dianxin xinfa 電信新法
S. A. Viguier, revised by De Mingzai 德明在 on the basis of Viguier’s 1871 code.
Published in Tongzhi xinwei (1871).
original at Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Oriental and Judaica Collections (Copenhagen)Opens at page
97,
near end of book, showing codes for alphabetical letters A through Z (7961 through 7986), and figures 1 through 0 (7991 through 8000).See pages 98 and 99 for
The Great Northern Telegraph / China and Japan Extension Company.
Page 99 provides information in four-figure codes, and page 98 provides (same? but quick/cursory check suggests not) information in Chinese characters. See also pages 8 and 9 for English-language preface by C. M. Têh, written inParis, November, 1871.
Something on Chinese telegraph code at wikipedia; see also Jim Reeds on this topic here.
- 1872
Dianbao xinshu 電報新書
New numbercode for the telegraph in Chinese made by S. A. Viguier in 1871 based on the first invented code made by the Dane H.C.F.C Schjellerup from 1871.
No internal reference (in English, anyway) to the Great Northern Telegraph Company.
Published in Shanghai in Tongzhi shiyi (1872).
original at Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Oriental and Judaica Collections (Copenhagen)Opens to front (Chinese) cover.
Like the preceding (1871) publication, characters arranged by radicals (familiar dictionary format).
- 1872
Watts’s Telegraphic Cypher
Liverpool: Printed and Published by Joseph A. D. Watts, 1872
At Bodleian (196.e.20)cotton code, in three parts,
- a table containing the figures 1-xxxxx, together with instructions for order of figures, i.e., first figure to express whether cost and freight, per steamer or sail, or cost, freight and insurance, per sail; second figure to express the price; third figure to express the quality; and fourth figure to express the quantity;
- dictionary furnishing words for the numbers,
but these words must be restricted solely to the use in connection with the numbers as to be constructed on the basis of the table;
and
- an appendix, containing cypher for
a. Prices rising every sixteenth.
b. Numbers.
c. Descriptions and classifications of cotton.
d. Quotations.
e. A set of cyphers for shipments from the different parts of the United States
f. Cyphers for the transmission of orders, increasing, reducing, or other remarks about limits.
g. Remarks about firm offers.
h. Consignments and advances.
i. Freights.
k. Insurance.
l. Limits for time and duration of firm offers.
m. Shipments.
n. Crop accounts.
o. Market reports.
p. Contracts for forward delivery.
q. Monetary drafts, credits, etc.
The scanned copy misses the table, unless I am misreading pp 1 (100/aachen) through 66 (9999/tippencac); this being followed by pp 68-69 A. cyphers rising every sixteenth, and so forth. It may be that a table exists, but is omitted in the scan because it is on hidden side of foldout page. Still, the protocols of cypher construction might be clear enough to moot use of a table; three examples are given on page iv —
The code seems rather more cumbersome and dangerous than later cotton codes of Meyer and others.
- a table containing the figures 1-xxxxx, together with instructions for order of figures, i.e., first figure to express whether cost and freight, per steamer or sail, or cost, freight and insurance, per sail; second figure to express the price; third figure to express the quality; and fourth figure to express the quantity;
- 1873
ABC Universal Commercial Electric Telegraphic Code
Specially adapted for the use of Financiers, Merchants, Shipowners, Brokers, Agents, &c — Simplicity, Economy & Secrecy
W. Clauson-Thue. London: Rock Terrace, Talfourd Road, Peckham, 1873
At Bodleian (196.e.26)
- 1874
ABC Universal Commercial Electric Telegraphic Code (second edition)
Specially adapted for the use of Financiers, Merchants, Shipowners, Brokers, Agents, &c — Multum in Parvo — Second Edition.W. Clauson-Thue. London: Eden Fisher, 1874
At Bodleian (196.e.35)Excluding front matter, this is 312pp, versus 216pp in the first (1873) edition.
A
Note to the Second Edition
explains that this to have beencarefully revised and considerably enlarged by numerous additions adapted to suit the requirements of all branches of commercial interest...
There is also an explanation of the requirement by telegraph administrations that words that can be found in Webster’s are charged at an ordinary (presumably advantageous) rate. It appears that codewords generated by a cipher table at pp viii-ix would not satisfy that requirement.
- 1874 Bloomer’s Commercial Cryptograph, Telegraph Code and Double Index-Holocryptic Cipher
J. G. Bloomer. San Francisco: A. Roman & Co., 1874
original at Stanford (384.2 B655)By the use of this work, Business Communications of whatever nature may be telegraphed with Secrecy and Economy.
- 1874 The General Telegraph Code
Compiled for the use of Bankers, Merchants, Brokers, and Sharebrokers, for the economical and secret transmission of mercantile telegrams.By the author of the
[Henry Robert Meyer]Cotton Telegraph Code
.
London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., Paternoster Row. St. Petersburg: Watkins and Co. 1874From whom Special Private Editions may be obtained.
xvi, 270 + 12 unpaginated blue ruled sheets (24 pp) at end
At Bodleian (25789.d.56)English dictionary codewords.
- 1874 The International Mercantile Telegraph Code
Compiled for the use of bankers, merchants, manufacturers, contractors, brokers, shipowners, &c., and their agents, for the economical and secret transmission of Business Telegrams. The ciphers being words of ten letters or under, to meet the requirements of the rules adopted at the St. Petersburg Interational Telegraph Conference of 1875.By the author of the
General Telegraph Code,
theCotton Telegraph Code,
&c. [Henry Robert Meyer]
London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 32 Paternoster Row. Liverpool Agents: J. Mawdsley and Son, Castle Street.
At Bodleian (25789.d.11)English dictionary codewords. 226pp.
- 1875 Watts’s Telegraphic Cypher, Revised Edition
In words of ten letters to suit the regulations of the St. Petersburg Convention.
Liverpool: Printed and Published by Joseph A. D. Watts and Co., 1875
Pronounceable codewords. Dictionary for numbers pp 1-44 — 100/Aachen > 9999/Tatouhou; followed by phrase appendix pp 25-103 (devoted to cotton and cotton related); followed by
Detector
pp 106-107, showing likely Morse errors.
At Bodleian
- 1876 ABC Universal Commercial Electric Telegraphic Code (third edition)
Specially adapted for the use of Financiers, Merchants, Shipowners, Brokers, Agents, &c. —Multum in Parvo.
Third Edition.W. Clauson-Thue. London: Eden Fisher, 1876
- 1876 Banking Telegraphy
Combining Authenticity, Economy, and Secrecy. Being a Code for the Use of Bankers and Merchants.Robert Slater. London: W. R. Gray, Change Alley, Cornhill, 1876
at Bodleian (196.h.33)Tables, across two pages, throughout.
Table of Contents.
Introduction (3). Tests for Messages (7). Key to verify amount transmitted (8). List of words illustrating ditto (10). Mode of using the Code (11). Messages illustrating the mode of using the Code (12). Secret method of Spelling Names, &c (13). Cash Payments (14). Credits (16). Bills of Exchange (18-27). Document Bills (28-33). Lost or Missing Cheques (34). Lost or Missing Drafts (36). Orders to Cancel previous instructions (38). Enquiries and Replies touching Credit of Firms (40). Rumours Current (42). Gold, Bonds and Exchange, Movements therein (44). Produce Markets, Movements therein (46). Purchases and Sales, and Enquiries thereon (48). Telegrams, Enquiries and Instructions respecting them (50). Letters, ditto (52). Amounts or Numbers (54-67). Shillings and Pence (68). Calendar (70).
- 1876 The Three Letter Code
For Condensed Telegraphic and Inscrutably Secret Messages and Correspondence.E(benezer) Erskine Scott, Actuary and Accountant, London. London, 1876.
At Bodleian (25789.d.42)Impractical and inferior to other codes already available. Use of pre-concerted keyword enables a variety of permutations of three-letters to generate cryptograms. one three-letter code per word (not phrases).
This copy (like same at BL), seems to be deposited to protect copyright; it provides a four-page
explanatory preface,
a two-pageexamples and illustrations,
and three pages of vocabulary.Its Table of Contents projects a volume of 227+ pages.
- 1877 Telegraphic cypher of Julius Büttner, Mobile Alabama.
Mobile: Prices-Current Job Print. 1877.
original at NYPLcotton, rosin
no tablesExamples the earlier practice in which different topics are indicated by codewords with respective initial letters, e.g., A for
Quantities or Numbers,
E forInsurance and Freights,
and T forMiscellaneous.
Also of interest is the instruction at p2 for the
Rotation of my Daily Dispatches
—
First Word Day’s receipts Second Word Price of Good Ordinary Mobile Classification Third Word Price of Low Middling Mobile Classification Fourth Word Price of Middling Mobile Classification Fifth Word Freight to Liverpool Sixth Word Market Report
- 1878 The Cotton Telegraph Code
with ciphers not exceeding ten letters... Thirty-third Edition, for the use of the American Cotton TradeH. R. Meyer. Liverpool, 1878
At Bodleian (25789 d. 154)Major code
- 1878 A. Chesebrough’s Private Telegraphic Code
San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft & Company, Printers, 1878
At UC Berkeley, The Bancroft LibraryShipping, chartering. 16pp only, and code on pp 3-8, 9-16
p3 bears LC no. HE7676 C45 (x).
- 1878 Telegraphic Cipher Code
— Especially Adapted to the Cotton Trade.Alfred B. Shepperson. New York, 1878
University of CaliforniaFor domestic use; Shepperson’s Standard Telegraphic Cipher Code (1881) was conceived for international cabling.
- 1879 The Phillips Telegraphic Code
for the rapid transmission by telegraph of press reports, commercial and private telegrams, and all other matter sent by wire or cable.Walter Polk Phillips. Washington, D.C., Gibson Brothers, Printers. 1879
NYPLOperator’s code, abbreviations for words and short common phrases
- 1880 Combination Telegraph Code
Arranged by Thomas Parker.Manchester, 1880
At Oxford UniversityRoot and terminal (
stems and terminations
),Latin verbs of first and third conjugations only.
A shipping code, comprised ot tables allowing 161,280essentially different telegrams
whose facets are qualities (56 possible), prices (72), quantities (10) and times of shipment or delivery (four).
- 1880
ABC Universal Commercial Electric Telegraphic Code (fourth edition)
Specially adapted for the use of Financiers, Merchants, Shipowners, Brokers, Agents, &c — Multum in Parvo. Simplicity and Economy Palpable, Secrecy Absolute. — Fourth Edition.
W. Clauson-Thue. London: Eden Fisher, 1880
At Bodleian (196.e.56)Another online encoding/decoding utility, based on the ABC Fourth, can be found here. The idea appears to be, to use the code more like a
texting
utility, on the fly. Assemble a message piece by piece... In fact, there were some patents for such utilities (ccl 380/56), for example —US 1,570,178 1926 F. Prevost Code Machine US 1,598,437 1926 K. S. Guiterman Coding Device US 1,749,933 1930 H. R. Barnett Apparatus for selective verbatim coding and decoding I doubt these devices went into production. Usage of the codes was as much an art as a rote look-up-and-click operation. Will need to spend more time with this. The ABC Fourth was a beautiful achievement, yielding secrecy and economy yes, but also poetry.
- 1880
Ager’s Telegraphic Primer or Skeleton Telegram Code
Consisting of 16,000 good English telegraphic words, compiled from the dictionaries of Webster and Nuttall.by Geo. Ager, LL.D., author of
The Social Code,
The Standard Telegram Code,
The Telegram Code,
andAger’s Shipping Telegram Code.
London: Dr. Ager, 50, Wellington Road, Stoke Newington, N., 1880
At Bodleian (196.h.62)blank code: 000 / aback > 248,999 septennial. Ager’s preface is instructive —
Preface.
The Telegraphic Primer has been compiled to suit a large body of Merchants, who, on commencing business, wish to make their own Codes, and has been prepared upon a plan which experience has suggested to the Compiler is expecially suited to that purpose.
The words—16,000 in number—are all good
Dictionary words,
and are all to be found in the Dictionaries of Webster or Nuttall.The words are all accompanied with cyphers. In the first 6,000 the cyphers proceed from 000 to 999 in separate thousands, as they are intended to facilitate the filling up of the Code at both ends, the Merchant in England filling up the odd numbers, and his correspondent the even numbers.
The first 160 pages are printed with 25 words per page, and afford facilities for writing any of the longer sentences. The next 40 pages (161-200) contain two columns of 25 words each, and are intended to afford Code Words for the names of articles, indents, and shorter sentences, &c.
The remaining 10,000 words, intended for Tables, Market Advices, Prices, &c., are arranged in closer columns of 50 words per column on the last 48 pages. The numbers indicating the thousands have been omitted at the head of the columns, so as to admit of their being added from the beginning or only from page 161.
The Author is preparing a small work on Coding which will be ready shortly.
- 1880 The Telegram Code
Consisting of nearly 56,000 good telegraphic words, 45,000 of which do not exceed eight letters. Compiled from the languages sanctioned at the London telegraph convention, 1879.G. Ager. Third Edition. London: Dr. Ager, 1880
original at Harvard University, Cabot Library (Eng 4348.80.3)By
good telegraphic words
is meant pronounceable words (as required by European telegraph administrations) that are sufficiently different from each other to be distinguishable from others even in the event of mutilation in transmission.The code words are numbered, so that in some pre-concerted applications, the codewords could stand for a phrase alone, and/or for their respective figures. Thus, Encenago might signify either "Large clip of (Wool) this season" or the figure 14746. Ager instances the codeword Mutual 29795, which might be agreed to indicate time (first figure), destination (second figure), price (third and fourth figures) and order number (last figure). Thus : 2, 9, 79, 5 could signify : 2 (within 21 days), 9 (to Glasgow), 79 (at 16s. 9d. per barrel), and 5 (This is order No. 5).
This copy is stamped B. S. Pray & Co., and includes holograph additions relating to wool, e.g., Batuffo 164/39 / The wool is full of carrot seed.
The Telegram Code provides numerous blank tables, in the form of five columns of code words on a page facing a column of code words. The user fills in the column at left with
names of the leading articles traded in, or with different qualities of the same
and the headings to the columns at right with other facets of information (e.g., mode of shipment, or quantity). The arrangement — which is commonly encountered in the code dictionaries — allows of a better surveyability and saving of space but does not result in a saving of the number of indications, i.e., code words or ordinals. (Barto 1934 : 36)British Library lists numerous codes compiled by Ager, including general, social, special (engineering, shipping, financial) and private (indigo) codes, as well as combination codes; he also compiled several lists of code words complying with Telegraph Convention rules. It is likely that Ager compiled other private codes, consistent with his willingness, expressed in the preface,
to assist purchasers of the Code who may wish to construct Special Tables with the Cyphers.
- 1880
Private Telegraph Code of Hamilton, Fraser & Co.
Liverpool, 1880
At Bodleian (196.h.54)shipping.
- 1880
Maguire’s Code of Ciphers:
A comprehensive system of cryptography designed for general use and arranged in conformity with the rules and regulations adopted by the International Convention of Telegraph Companies, respectingSecret Language Telegrams.
Charles H(enry). J(Joseph). Maguire, Chief Accountant of the Union Bank of Lower Canada. Quebec, 1880.Filmed from a copy of the original publication held by the D.B. Weldon Library, University of Western Ontario
[eight prelim pages (only v and vii paginated)]; 1-113, [1]; index tabs at right.
LC describes thus : vii, 113, [1] p. 21 cm.; call number: HE7673 .M23
Introduction pp v-vi, followed on p vii by a (transposition) key, one column of which is filled in.one page geographical names, two of banking phrases (pp99-101), and numbers pp 102-103; the rest is 18,000 words, each indicated by a 3-letter cipher, whose letters in turn point to
page
(table), column, and word.In essence a three-letter code, each 3L cipher pointing to a location in the book. Brings to mind John Brookes his Alphabet Telegraph Code, specially prepared for the butter and general provision trades (Manchester, 1889). Maguire did not elaborate a phrase vocabulary, however, beyond the two pages shown below.

details, ex Maguire’s Code of Ciphers (1880), pp 100-101, from scanned films
Could not work in this form for cable; purely suited to secrecy, not safety.
- 1880
The Commercial Telegraph Code
— for the use of Bankers, Merchants, Manufacturers, and Brokers and their Agents. A re-compiled edition of theInternational Telegraph Code,
with Ciphers of ten letters or under, and specially selected to meet the requirements of the Rules adopted at the London International Conference of 1879,Compiled by H. R. Meyer, B12, Exchange Buildings, Liverpool, author of the
International,
General,
Cotton
Telegraph Codes, etc.
London: Hamilton, Adams & Co, 1880; Liverpool Agents, J. Mawdsley & Son.
At Bodleian (196.e.61)Important Notice. The International Telegraph Code.
The International Telegraph Congress, held in London this year (1879), having decided to prohibit the use of proper namesused adjectively,
the author of theInternational Telegraph Code
much regrets to be compelled to issue a New Edition of that work for use with countries affected by the new rules, as it contained some ciphers which come under the above clause. For such countries as are unaffected by the rules of Telegraph Congress — for instance, theUnited States
— the original edition will remain as effective as ever, and therefore, in announcing the issue of a new edition, the author desires it to be distinctly understood, that the original edition of theInternational Telegraph Code
will be continued as heretofore. In order to distinguish the new edition from the old, it will be published under the name of theCommercial Telegraph Code.
at 25ss. per Copy.
- 1880
Law’s mercantile cipher code
— for forwarding business communications by telegraph, telephone or postal card, with secrecy and economy. Published by W. A. Law & Co., Union Loan Buildings, Nos. 28 and 30 Toronto Street / In use by subscribers and attorneys of the Canadian Reporting and Collecting AssociationToronto: Bingham & Taylor, Printers, 33 Colborne St. 1880
Filmed from a copy of the original publication held by the National Library of Canada;
Microfilm is of poor quality.
(English) dictionary codewords. All codewords/phrases are numbered, with extra blank provided for private code words, to be selected from codewords provided, along the lines of Slaters.
instructions and examples pp 106; blank cipher code 7-14, weights and quantities 15; freights 15-16; railways 16017; state of markets 17; time 18; drawing 18; financial 19-20; communications 20-21; notes and protests 21; selling 21-22; buying 22-23; shipping and forwarding 23-24; arrivals 24; advances 24-25; commission 25; interest 25-26; stocks, banks, etc. 26-27; insurance companies 28; railways [bonds] 28-29; mercantile reports — amounts 29-32; articles [e.g., Wheat, No. 1 Spring] 32-34; hardware 34-35; oils 35-36; lumber 36; months 36-37; leather 37-39; tanner’s supplies 39; terms 39-40; miscellaneous 40-44; index 45
- 1880
Appendix Telegraph Code —
A Blank Code of German Ciphers, selected to meet the requirements of the rules passed at the London Telegraph Congress of 1879.Compiled by H. R. Meyer, B12, Exchange Buildings, Liverpool, author of the
Commercial Telegraph Code,
International Telegraph Code,
General Telegraph Code,
andCotton Telegraph Code,
To which it is intended as a Supplement, as well as to Private Codes
London: Hamilton, Adams & Co, 1880; Liverpool Agents, J. Mawdsley & Son.At Bodleian (196.e.62)
- 1880 Cypher Code
Compiled by Messrs. Phipps & Co. for their own use and for the use of Messrs. J. L. Phipps & Co. of New YorkLiverpool, 1880
original at Bodleian (196.e.63)coffee, and (to a lesser degree) River Plate produce, cereals, cotton
elaborate tables for combinations of grades, intelligence on tone of market, etc. to be compared against other coffee codes, including Doane.
- 1881 The A.B.C. domestic code
— All words of six to ten letters, from Webster’s Dictionary.Henry Harvey 125 Pearl Street, New York. 1881
original at Harvard’s Cabot Library : Eng 4348.81Several pages of preliminary matter (title page, intro) followed by code pp 1-360.
Codewords at outside columns; most spreads provide blanks on one page, phrases (or occasional tables) on other. Handsome typography.
A.B.C. / The Send-off.
The principal idea in a Code Book on this plan is that it requires no Introduction or Explanation whatever.
He who runs may read
a message, or send one off, with equal facility; All the Leading Words, printed in SMALL CAPITALS, being run in strict Alphabetical order like a Dictionary, as are also the Code Words, over Ten Thousand in number. Only, when you don’t find a needed phrase under one of its Leading Words, try under another.In making up the Sentences, I have sought to cover General Domestic requirements rather than Specialties of any particular trade, though some of these may be found too.
Abandon the whole thing. disemploy Abandon to insurance. disempower The color will answer, but the quality won’t do. flipdog Be very careful about color. flipflap Thermometer now — degrees below zero. thuringite Thermometer now — degrees above zero. thussock thwacks Tables include p124 for dimensions in feet, or pp 220-221 for percentages.
A second edition appears in 1885, with a 60-page appendix of additional matter, e.g., sterling amounts, but also new phrases.
- 1881
Whittingham’s Skeleton Telegraph Code.
...A Secret, expansive code for ordinary business purposes. With code words representing fractions, weights, numbers, pounds sterling, merchants’ orders, every date in the year, &c., including blank pages and extra lines available for 4,148 special messages. All Code Words revised under the latest International Regulations.London: W. B. Whittingham & Co., 1881
original at Bodleian (25789.e.5)Copyright page advert describes Whittingham & Co. thus :
Wholesale & Retail Manufacturing & Export Stationers, account book makers; commercial, law and general steam printers; lithographers & engravers of bills of exchange, bills of lading, promissory notes, bankers’ cheques. Printers in all heads of Plain and Chromo-Litho Circulars and Price Currents. Booksellers and Publishers. Office for The Peninsular and Oriental, The British India, Australian, Eastern Trade, Cape, Continental, Sailing, and other Bills of Lading.
Works — 4, White Hart Court, Bishopgate Church.
91, Gracechurch Street, London, E.C. (six doors from Cornhill).blank. pp 195-205 are a
Merchants’ Secret Order Code,
being three columns of code words (1-16) arrayed with blank row and column heads
- 1881 Wilson’s Ship Broker’s Telegraph Code
Compiled specially for chartering negotiations.London: Effingham Wilson, 1881
Bodleian (196.e.80)Ship brokerage, especially American grain and cotton trades —
The combinations and sentences have, however, as far as possible, been so arranged as to make them suitable for other trades.
- 1883 Scott’s Code
The Ship Owners’ Telegraphic Code 1880. By E. B. Scott. Reprint, with Supplement 1882 combined.London: Published by the Author, at 2, Brabant Court, Philpot Lane, E.C.
Liverpool and London [1883 from internal evidence]
BodleianArranged in two parts: the first being thesauric, the second (pp 271-535 being alphabetical order of codeword). This is one of several ship owner’s codes compiled by Scott, somewhat transitional in character. This is comparable to Scott’s The Steam Ship Owners’ Telegraphic Code (1874). The thesauric arrangement of phrase matter, and alphabetical order of codewords, yields non-sequitur phrase sequences in the second part of the code, as shown at p272 :
- 1882 The Globe Commercial Telegraph Code
for the use of mercantile firms and their agents and correspondents. with ciphers of ten letters or under, to conform to the Rules of the London International Telegraph Congress of 1879.Compiled by H. R. Meyer. Liverpool and London, 1882
Bodleian (196.h.50)Faulty scan; all printed pages appear to be present, but code proper commences at page 212 of the PDF, following 200 blank pages.
- 1883
Telegraph Code, 1883. Preston, Kean & Co., Bankers
100 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill.
1883At University of Illinois at Chicago
Index to code.
Amounts, 38; Character of Firms, 28; Chicago Banks, 35; Collections, 30; Commercial paper, 27; Correspondence, 32; Foreign Exchange, 25; Government Bonds and Miscellaneous Securities, 18; Land Warrants and Scrip, 21; Lost or Missing Drafts, 34; Municipal Bonds, 20; Purchase and Sale of Securities, 22; Rates, 40; Tranfers, Remittances, Etc., 36Telegraph code pp 18-40
- 1883
The Globe Telegraph Code.
Specially compiled to meet the requirements of all branches of the mercantile profession throughout the world. on the twoletter difference principle,in accordance with the Rules of the Telegraph Convention.By E. Garsin.
All the ciphers used being Spanish, and not over then letters, they are adapted for both European and extra-European messages.
London: Wm. Dawson & Sons / New York: George Cumming, 1883
original at Bodleianroot and terminal, blank
- 1884
Nonpareil Telegraphic Code
Liverpool: Printed and Published by Turner, Routledge and Co., 1884
at Bodleian (25789.d.13)This code is composed entirely of Latin verbs, each page providing a set of roots and terminals to yield a unique codeword for figures from 00,000 to 99,999
in consecutive order,
100,000 to 1,000,000in 50’s,
and 1,000,000 to 10,000,000in 250’s.
- 1884
Cypher Code for Telegraphy
arranged for use with telegraphic codes, vocabularies, etc., etc., etc. By Thomas S. Dunn.London: Waterlow &: Sons Limited, Printers, London Wall, and 49, Parliament Street, 1884
At Bodleian (shelf number obscured)3L ciphers. 113 pages, from p1 AAA to 113 ZZZ.
- 1885
The Telegraph Formula and Code Combiner,
Enabling the Transmitter of a Telegraphic Message to connect and combine any number of sentences from a given selection, without the necessity of using a fresh cipher word for every fresh sentence.Frederick George McCutcheon, comp. London: Marchant Singer and Co., 1885
At Bodleian (25789.d.32)This, together with McCutcheon’s other codes, constitute a stunning instance of amateur lexicography. These excerpts, and my intermittent comments (written some years since), must do for now.
It is an axiom that... the vast number of statements made regarding any given subject are capable of being classified and reduced to such a limit as to comprehend the fewest possible number of sentences which, for all ordinary purposes, will be sufficient to enable any persons to express those leading facts and probabilities which constitute what might be termed the harmonies and variations or the affirmations, negations, and interrogations relating to such subject.
(8)McCutcheon identifies the tasks: (1) selection of subjects (domains); (2) selection of most-likely properties and relations; and (3) organization of these in menus that are consistent with known
laws of thought
— that is, subject, predicate, object. He does not provide an ontology — in its sense ofspecification of a conceptualization
— for his system; that is, he does not articulate the rules by which subjects are reduced to their more probableharmonies and variations.
Yet his invocation ofprobabilities
does allow for an idea of a rough-and-ready, but potentially elaborated, statistical means.Subjects are to be classified carefully as to the affirmations or assertions that might be made about them. Three divisions are generally found to suffice:
- Sentences as to what may or may not be affirmed as to the present state, condition, situation or position of any subject, person, or event.
- Sentences as to what may or may not be affirmed as to the probable causes which may or may not have influenced or occasioned such state, condition,
- Sentences as to the results, probable results, future probabilities or effects arising, or likely to arise, from the operation of any such influences...
When these have been carefully dissected, analysed and condensed, it will be found that the task of reducing the subject down to the very narrowest limits is not so difficult of attainment as it at first sight appears.
(10)McCutcheon’s first example regards three subjects — a stock market report; Missouri, Kansas and Texas shares; and arrivals and departures of steamships.
Each of these subjects heads a three column table, each column containing 26
orientations
A-Z. One first builds three, three-letter ciphers for each of the subjects; then selects (1) the codeword indicating the combination of tables, and (2) the three codewords indicating the respective three-letter selections.The sequence of orientations — those harmonics and variations — is discovered to accord nicely with the
laws of thought which are known to govern our utterances on any subject... Classification and arrangement is undeviatingly followed in every extended communication of our ideas. As the simple sentence or assertion commences with the noun or subject, the verb or predicate, and the object, and may consist of only three words placed in a certain order, so we proceed step by step, still adhering to fixed arrangements of position, until we attain to the use of complex and compound sentences... when we find the same analogy preserved and the same classification and arrangement followed the substantive clause ...
<12>
- 1885
Cable Code
John Crossley & Sons, Limited. Halifax, England. 1885.dictionary English code words.
viii, 1-72pp; blank code pp 55-72At Bodleian (25789.d.14)
John Crossley & Sons was (and remains) a major carpet weaving firm; incorporated jacquard process in the 1830’s; produced printed tapestries and velvets. Code phrases regard ordering, inventory and shipments of mats, carpets, rugs, tapestries, saddle bags, royal velvet; tapestry and velvet
squares
(floor coverings); table covers.
- 1885
Telegraphic Cipher,
Compiled by W. G. Press & Co. Chicago. (for the exclusive use of themselves and their correspondents.
Chicago: Press of Cameron, Amberg & Co., 1885.
At Harvard YBKL P935dictionary English code words. i-v, 6-66
Meat, grain (trade, commission).
- 1885 The Pocket Telegraphic Code
Containing more than 300 one-word telegra[ms ?]
London: W. H. Beer & Co., 1885
Bodleian (25789.f.5)(poor scan)
Index to subjects
Absence from Home; Appointments; Betting; Bookseller; Bootmaker; Buying and Ordering; Cabs and Carriages; Calls; Dinner, Not Coming Home, Bringing Friends Home, &c.; Dressmaker; Gunmaker; Health, Questions and Answers Concerning; Houses, Hotels and Apartments; Invitations, Giving and Receiving; Legal Proceedings; Letters, Sending, to be Called for, &c.; Livery Stable Keeper; Milliner; Money, Telegraphing for, Transmitting; Pastry Cook; Physician or Surgeon; Servants, Engaging &c.; Tailor; Telegrams on Business (Agents and Correspondents); Theatres and Concerts, Taking Seats for; Washerwoman; Weather.Zopis / What is the sea like?
Zymo / Better not cross to-day.
- 1885
Telegraphic Code
ex The American Florist, A Semi-Monthly Journal for the Trade 1:7 (November 15, 1885)At Cornell University
Entirety below.
Telegraphic Code. We print below the code adopted by the committee appointed at the Cincinnati meeting of the Society of American Florists, and recommended to the wholesale flower trade for general use.
Abrogate. In case you cannot fill order, telegraph at once. Anticipate. Answer at onoe, stating whether you can or cannot fill order. Ambition. If you can only partially fill order, do so, and reply, stating what. Ambulance. Want all of order filled or none, and prompt answer back. Admiral. Order must be sent on train mentioned only. Adjacent. If cannot send on train mentioned next one will do. Affection. Fill if possible, even at extra expense. Affable. Send prepaid by baggage master, if no express messenger on train. Ancestor. This order is in addition to my regular order. Admission. This order is a substitute for my regular order. Decorate. If cannot send all on train mentioned, send all you can, and send balance on next train. Dancing. If cannot fill exactly as specified, you may substitute according to your best judgment. Durable. These flowers are for funeral purposes and colored flowers must not be substituted for white. Fabricate. Flowers ordered are to be reshipped to a distance, therefore buds must be cut specially close. Fortunate. Select extra stock and charge accordingly. Devotion. For cheap work, and can use second-class flowers if at reduced price. Flattery. If price has advanced since last quotation do not send goods, but telegraph. Forgery. This order countermands all previous orders. Fandango. This order to be duplicated daily till further notice. Formation. Add these items to the order which you already have, but in case first order is already shipped, cancel this addition. Flamingo. We are In a bad pinch; send us something to help us out, even If of poor quality. Flocking. Have sent mail order; if not yet received, send following at once, and cancel mail order when received. Foraging. This order includes all items previously ordered and wanted for this date. Unquestionably the above will save the trade much expense, and at the same time make plain many points continually arising, which have heretofore been left in doubt because of the large number of words necessary to fully explain. Let every dealer see that both his customers and shippers are provided with a copy. —Ed.
- 1886 Bloomer’s Commercial Cryptograph,
— A telegraph code and double index—holocrytic cipher.
By J(ohn). G(odfrey). Bloomer, author of thePacific Cryptograph.
By the use of this work, business communications of whatever nature may be telegraphed with secrecy and economy.
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1886
NYPL231 printed pages, including title.
The sole difference between this and the 1874 San Francisco edition appears to be the title page, which was slightly more decorative in the earlier version.
- 1888 Telegraphic Code
to Ensure Secrecy in the Transmission of Telegramsby Robert Slater, Secretary of the Socièté du Cable Transatlantique Français, Limited.
Third Edition. London: W. R. Gray, 1888
Internet Archive; original at University of Toronto (HE7675.S6.1888)See longer entry for 1870 edition
- 1888 The Science Observer Code
Pt. 1. Explanation of the number code, [by] S. C. Chandler, and J. Ritchie.
Pt. 1a. Number code, compiled by John Ritchie. 1885.
Pt.2 Phrase code, [by] S. C. Chandler, and J. Ritchie.
Pt. 3. Tables
Boston: Boston Scientific Society, 1888
Internet Archive; original at UC BerkeleyParticularly interesting for protocols by which the seventeen-word despatch and six-word "position message" are assembled; see pages 6-11.
- 1888 Telegraphic Mining Code
Alphabetically arranged for the use of mining companies, mining engineers, and all persons interested in minescompiled by C. Algernon Moreing; London: William Clowes and Sons, Limited, 1888
Internet Archive; original at UC Berkeley
1 / Abaceria / Abandon
2 / Abacial / Do not abandon
- 1889 Clave telegráfica-telefónica mercantile arreglada para el uso del comercio
Ségunda Edición Espaňola
Imprenta Católica. Calle de Dr. Mier, Num. 70. Monterrey (Nuevo León), México. 1889original at University of Michigan
Index (table of contents, and provisional translations)
Nombres y definición de la Mercancías 1 names and definitions of goods Empaques y clases 16 packaging and classes (or qualities) Preguntas sobre cosechas 25 questions about crops Respuestas sobre cosechas 27 answers about crops Existencias y entradas al mercado (Preguntas) 39 stocks & market entries (queries) Informe sobre existencias y entradas al mercado 41 report on stocks & market entry Consümo y ventas (Preguntas 57 consumption & sales (queries) Consumo y ventas (Respuestas) 66 consumption & sales (replies) Compras (Preguntas) 87 shopping [?] (queries) Compras (Respuestas) 97 shopping [?] (replies) Muestras (Preguntas) 124 samples (queries) Muestras (Respuestas) 127 samples (replies) Consignaciones, embarques y fletes (Preguntas) 131 consignment, shipping and freight (replies) Consignaciones, embarques y fletes (Respuestas) 134 consignment, shipping and freight (replies) Clases y colores (Preguntas) 139 classes & colors (queries) Clases y colores (Respuestas) 139 classes & colors (replies) Importaciones y Exportaciones (Preguntas) 142 imports and exports (queries) Importaciones y Exportaciones (Respuestas) 143 imports and exports (replies) Mercado al día (Preguntas) 145 market day (queries) Mercado al día (Respuestas) 147 market day (replies) Adición á consumo, compras y ventas (Pgtas.) 151 addition to consumer purchases and sales (queries) Adición á consumo, compras y ventas (Rptas.) 154 addition to consumer purchases and sales (replies) Comisión y Corretaje (Preguntas) 157 commission & brokerage (queries) Comisión y Corretaje (Respuestas) 158 commission & brokerage (replies) Seguro (Preguntas) 161 certain [?] (queries) Seguro (Respuestas) 163 certain [?] (replies) Cambios, giros y remesas de fondos (Pregunta>) 169 exchange, transfers and remittances (queries) Cambios, giros y remesas de fondos (Rptas.) 173 exchange, transfers and remittances (replies) Fletes (Preguntas) 186 freight (queries) Fletes (Respuestas) 187 freight (replies) Ganadería (Preguntas) 193 livestock (queries) Ganadería (Respuestas) 198 livestock (replies) Telegramas (Preguntas) 207 telegrams (queries) Telegramas (Respuestas) 209 telegrams (replies) Cartas (Preguntas) 215 letters (queries) Cartas (Respuestas) 217 letters (replies) Para conocer si una plaza es buena (Preguntas) 223 to know if a place is good (queries) Para conocer i una plaza es buena (Rptas.) 224 to know if a place is good (replies) Miscelanea 228 miscellaneous Operaciones Bancarias (Preguntas) 253 banking (queries) Operaciones Bancarias (Respuestas) 262 banking (replies) Opiniones 272 opinions Capital, crédito, pagos y quiebras (Preguntas) 276 capital, credit, payments and bankruptcy (queries) Capital, crédito, pagos y quiebras (Respuestas) 279 capital, credit, payments and bankruptcy (replies) Filiación personal 290 personal attributes Documentos y Libros 294 documents & books Noticias de sensación (Preguntas) 297 sense of the news
(queries)Noticias de sensación (Respuestas) 299 sense of the news
(replies)Números 302 numbers Tanto por ciento 315 percentages Meses 319 months Horas 319 hours Fechas 320 dates Años, meses y dias 321 translation Monedas, pesas y medidas 322 coins, weights & measures Divisiones de la Tierra y puntos cardinales 341 divisions of land, points of the compass Divisiones del Agua 342 water divisions Naciones y Ciudades principales (Europa) 342 countries and principle cities (Europe) Naciones y Ciudades principales (Asia) 358 countries and principle cities (Asia) Naciones y Ciudades principales (África) 360 countries and principle cities (Africa) Naciones y Ciudades principales (América) 362 countries and principle cities (Americas) Naciones y Ciudades principales [Oceanía 373 countries and principle cities (Oceania) Alfabeto para marcas y lista de palabras en blanco 374 Alphabet for brands and blank word list
- 1889 A Brief Sketch
— Of Miner’s Coffee and Spice Mills and Coffee Hulling and Cleaning Establishment together with a history of coffee, some valuable statistics, telegraphic cipher and coffee shrinkage table..Written and compiled by W. H. Miner; San Francisco (?), 1889 (?)
Internet Archive; original at Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley (HD 9195 B72 M52 1889 BANC)contents
Introduction (7); Early History of Coffee (12); The Coffee Plant and its Cultivation (19); The Berry and the Bean (21); Harvesting and Preparation (25); Miner’s Mills—Coffee Roasting (29), Coffee Grinding (31), Spice Department <32), Packing Department (33); Miner’s Coffee Hulling and Cleaning Establishment (35); Medical and Dietetic Properties of Coffee (37); Statistical Tables (46); Coffee Shrinkage Table (49); Telegraphic Cipher — compiled and in use by W. H. Miner (50) — Price of Coffee (53), Price of Sugar (56), Price of Syrup and Molasses (59), Price of Rice (61), Price of Tea (63), Number of Lot (65), Amount in Bags, Hogsheads, Tierces or Barrels (68), State of the Market / Active (70), About Shipping (71), Terms and Stipulations (71), About telegraphing (72), Grades of Coffee (72), Grades of Syrup (72), About Insurance (73), Private Correspondence and Additions (74-78).
- 1889
Unicode
The Universal Telegraphic Phrase-Book
A code of cypher words for commercial, domestic, and familiar phrases in ordinary use in inland and foreign telegrams, with a list of prominent commercial firms who are Unicode users.Sixth Edition. London, Paris, New York & Melbourne, 1889
original at University of MichiganSocial code.
Pages 1-96 are phrases, followed by several pages of free codewords.
Table of Contents.
Preface (iii). Transformations of Telegraph Signals (vii). Regulations as to Transmission of Telegrams (viii). Apartments (6). Appointments (7). Arrivals (9). Births (11). Cheques (16). Deaths (21). Departures (24). Detentions (25). Dinner Engagements (26). Goods (35). Health and Illness (36). Hotels (41). Invitations (48). Legal (51). Letters (55). Lunch Engagements (57). Marriages (59). Military (62). Money (64). Orders (67). Patterns (68). Racing (74). Railway Travelling (80). Remittances (81). Telegrams (88). Theatre Engagements (90). Weather (95). Private Code (97).UNICODE
Users (103).
- 1889
Proposed Cable Chess Code
O. E. Michaelis, Ph.D., Major of Ordnance, U.S.A.
Columbia Chess Chronicle vol 5 (15 December 1889) : 111-113 ; refers to article a few pages previous (this scan) on same topic.Each square bears a 2L (consonant) name; a move from one square to another involves a 4L
move-pair.
. In order to form a word (in one of the eight permissible languages), one adds vowels as required. Thus, cncr yields concur, and rnpc yields ironspike or any other word, in any of the languages, that answers the purpose.
- 1890 Chess Telegraphic Codes
by Edwyn Anthony, M.A. Printed and published by Waterlow and Sons Limited, London Wall, London. 1890
original at Harvard : SG 3673 14Employs
Compass Notation
and a special form of same for the eight possible moves of a Knight. Figure code involves two tables (for two players remote from each other). Description of each move seems to depend on the coding for the opposite side’s move. A complete word code would require 315 pages, and so only one specimen page is printed.
- 1891 The Anglo-American Telegraphic Code
to cheapen telegraphy and to furnish a complete cypher, adapated to use in general correspondence; including business, social, political and all other subjects of correspondencePublished by the Anglo-American Code and Cypher Co.; Third Edition; New York, 1891 (1886)
attributed to James K. Selleckoriginal at University of Michigan
Made famous in the blog and tweeto-sphere by Ben Schott in his twittergraphy essay in The New York Times (2 August 2009), and not only that, but an online
twitter secret code book
here prompted by that column and incorporating the Anglo-American.
- 1891 Private Telegraphic Code
Williams, Brown &. Co., San Francisco. 1891
William C. Brown, Book and General Job Printer
Internet Archive; original at UC Berkeleydictionary English codewords
canned fruits, canned meats, soups, salmon, etc., (packed at various locations, including Alaska); dried fruits (sun-dried), evaporated fruits, raisins, honey, beans, dried peas, nuts, seeds, rice (Sandwich Island, China), salt salmon; descriptive phrases for all above commodities; pig tin, onions, morning glory, clothes pins, codfish, hams, hops, coffee, oysters, corn and succotash; freights, insurance, shipping, etc., samples, quoting, offering, buying, selling (instructions, inquiries, ability to, inability to, declining sale, advice of sale, market, names of firms, routes; On the Road and at Home (112-114); money; flour, wheat, corn, barley; miscellaneous (137-142); lumber; weather reports (145-46)
- 1891 New General and Mining Telegraph Code
alphabetically arranged, for the use of mining companies, mining engineers, stockbrokers, financial agents, and trust and finance companies.By C. Algernon Moreing and Thomas Neal; London: William Clowes and Sons, Limited, 1891
Internet Archive; original at UC Berkeley1 / Aaaronic / Abandon
2 / Aaronsrod / Do not abandon >
Zygosos / Ask the Pulsometer Engineering Company, 63, Queen Victoria Street, E.C., to give you quotation for pumps suitable for work.
- 1893 The United States Telegraphic Cipher
Adapted to the use of dealers in fruit and produce, and merchandise brokerscompiled by Joseph H. Wilson; revised edition. New York: Charles H. Parsons, 1893
original at University of MichiganAbaft / New Layer Raisins
Abandon / Boxes New Layer Raisins >
Scuttle / 15/16 >
- 1893 Police Telegraph Code of England for 1893
pp544-548 in George W. Hale, Police and Prison Cyclopaedia (Newly revised and enlarged edition, 1893)
Harvard copy
Hale is identified on title page as
Police Department, Lawrence, Mass., Member of the 30th National Conference of Charities and Correction.
An important feature of the code — one that is shared by all police codes, as well as meteorological and astronomical codes, and certain commodities codes (cotton, hemp, &c.) is the requirement that messages be formed in strict order of faceted information.
The phrases are to be inserted in the telegrams in the following order, and to prevent confusion this should be strictly adhered to : —
- Offense, or reason of Message.
- Person wanted.
- Age, height, and build (5 figures).
- Complexion, hair, eyes, whiskers and moustache, and shape of face (5 figures).
- Peculiarities and distinctive marks (5 figures).
- Description of clothing (5 figures).
- Where likely to be found.
- Instructions.
- Registered No. of Office or Chief Officer sending wire as per
Police Almanack,
page 102.
(See Specimen Telegram.)
Phrase. Code Word. Wanted at this office on a charge of Murder Capital. Manslaughter Abhor. Burglary Burgle. Shopbreaking Balmy. Housebreaking Banana. Horse-stealing Bridle. Larceny Beagle. Fraud Combat. Stealing from the person Cupola. Embezzlement Curdle. Receiving stolen goods Cymbal. Forgery Digit. Perjury Diploma. Highway robbery Dirge. Criminal assault Disarm. Shooting and wounding Disgorge. Unlawfully wounding Dismay. Assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm
Embroil. &c. In the transmission of inland telegrams, figures are counted at the rate of five figures to a word, and the first group of figures must be set apart for the age, height, and build of the person wanted; thus : Age 36, height 5ft. 9in., slender build, should be grouped 36593 ; and when the height reaches 5ft. 10 or 11 inches, the figures must be inverted thus : 05 15. The height given will be the approximate height.
There follows more code: for
build,
description of head and face,
distinctive marks and peculiarities,
anddescription of clothing.
Then is given a speciment telegram, followed by a numberedList of Chief Constables of Counties in England, Wales, and Scotland, with their Stations, 1893.
From p547 —
The Specimen Telegram —
Wanted, at this office, on a charge of burglary, a man of the following description, viz.: Age 36, 5ft. 9in. high, stout build, fresh complexion, dark brown hair, blue eyes, black whiskers and moustache, full round face. Has cut on upper lip and abscess mark right side of neck. Dressed, when last seen, in black billycock hat, dark coat, black vest, light mixture trousers, and lace up boots. Please cause inquiries to be made at common lodging houses and other likely places, and if found apprehend and wire.
The registered number of chief office to be put at the foot of telegram.Burgle. Goblet. 36591. 54119. 32,70. Henbane. 11142. Lyceum. Mantelet. Nutmeg.
- 1894 The Adams Cable Codex
Seventh Edition. Boston, 1894
original at Cabot Science Library, Harvard (Eng 4348.94)Preface explains the use of a cable code, to individuals who may for the first time need one. E.g., —
In regard to illness, Mr. Towzer’s wife is ill at home and he must be notified of the fact. Turning to the Index, we find a number of pages under this heading, and from page 17 we can make the following message: —
MRS. TOWZER, ALBURNOUS,
which would read,Mrs. Towzer is ill. Sickness is not serious, but keep within reach of telegram so that we can communicate with you if wanted.
- 1894 Inter-state Cipher
arranged by H(armon). K. PrattMinneapolis, 1894
original at Duke Universitydomain : fruit shippers and jobbers
code pp 3-182; index pp 183-84
English and English-y codewords; phrases only
index to jobbers and shippers pp 129-182
- 1894 Private Cipher Code
Castle Brothers, San Francisco, 1894
original at UC Berkeleycode pages 5-154, in these categories (from Index) —
Buying (109-1230; Calendar (90-93); Complaints and Allowances (67-72); Eastern Firms (124-142); Financial, Terms of Sale, etc (59-66); Grades and Qualities (79-89); Miscellaneous (143-154); Offerings, etc (19-24); Prices, etc (51-52); Responsibility (55-58); Samples, etc (5-11); San Francisco Firms (107-108); Selling (25-31); Shipping and Ordering (43-50); Shipping Routes (73-78); Stock and Market Prospects (12-18); Table of U.S. Gold Cents (94-97); Table of U.S. Gold Dollars (98-106); Writing and Telegraphing (32-42).
code words: aback, abaft, abasement, abatable > gruff, grumpy, gruntle
- 1894 H. & W. Pataky’s Telegraphic Code
—for use in obtaining and Negociating Patents.Berlin. H. & W. Pataky, 25, Luisenstrasse, 1894
original at NYPL[11pp] + 1-128pp (odd numbers on verso side)
codewords may be Official Vocabulary, not limited to one European language.
Table of contents provides subjects and their subdivisions, which are presented in what might be called (but is not)tables.
The headings below are taken not from the TOC but from actual pages. For each section, phrases head columns (at top), and respective countries (and subcategories for different durations, etc.) head rows (at left).
Subject pages Instructions relating to the Filing of Applications, etc. 1-8 Instructions relating to the Amendment of Applications, etc. 9-16 Instructions relating to Appeals in the case of Applications being Rejected 17-24 Instructions relating to the Payment of Annuities and the Working of Patents 25-32 Instructions relating to Withdrawal of Applications and Extension of Time 33-40 Instructions relating to the forwarding of Papers, etc. 41-48* State of the Case 89-96** Assignments of Patents; Copies of Patents and Applications (Papers); Requests for Certificates of Filing and Annuity Receipts 97-104 Inquiries relating to Applications for, Granting of, and Validity of Patents, Costs of Applications, Annuities and Working 105-112 Dates 113-115 Time 116 Special dates for Filing 117 Dates at which Annuity due / Working due 118 Action where case rejected 119 Dates of Granting / Issue 120 Forwarding of papers, Remittances, etc. 121-122 Correspondence 123 Telegrams sent and received 124 Sales of Patents 125-126 Assignments 127 Costs 128 * page 47 is given as page 55.
** pp 89-96 is correct, pp 49-88 do not appear.
ex Google scan of NYPL copy
- 1895 McNeill’s Code.
Arranged to meet the requirements of mining, metallurgical and civil engineers; directors of mining, smelting and other companies; bankers; stock and share brokers; solicitors, accountants, financiers and general merchants. Safety and Secrecy.Bedford McNeill. New York: The American Code Company, 1895
original at University of California
HE7677 .M6M2Must be later than the 1895 given on title page: an advertisement for Pieron’s Code Condenser (another American Code Co. title) mentions the ABC Code (fifth edition), which appeared in 1901)
- 1896 Cipher Code for Astronomical Messages
Edward S. Holden. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 8:49 (April 1, 1896): 109-133 (followed by appendix
Figure-Code Employed on the Continent of Europe
).
original at NYPL
- 1896 The Atlas Universal Travelers’ and Tourists’ Telegraphic Cipher Code
Compiled by T. Walter Hartfield for the proprietor, C. Amory Stevens, 30 Broad Street, New York, U.S.A.
original at NYPL
xviii + 726pp ; codewords selected from those published by the Berne Convention; phrase lists, excepting only calendar and similar tables.
from private collection.
An example of a (Gertrude) Steinian phrase sequence... (Beckett listening in, too)
- 1896 Standard Telegraphic Code
B. Franklin Lieber. Also known as Lieber’s Standard Telegraphic Code. New York: Lieber Publishing Co., 1896
original at University of TorontoPronounceable code words of five to ten letters taken from the Berne Official Vocabulary. 75,878 entries (including blank phrases).
One of the major general codes, also published in German, French (and other?) editions; same code words would be retained in a in a 5-letter edition published in 1915.
- 1896 The Premier Cypher Telegraphic Code
William H. Hawke, comp. London: Effingham Wilson, 1896
original at HarvardAn elaborate code, involving phrase vocabulary and multi-orientation tables that roughly approximate later figure code/condenser arrangements. The tables economize on codebook length, and theoretically aid quick location of needed phrases or other expressions contained within them. They merit close study.
From the 3-page preface, one page of which is given over to example phrases, this :
This ’saving in expense’ is of course the primary object of a Code, but the next consideration is to arrange a Code so that what is required to be transmitted can be sent with the least possible trouble and waste of time. ¶ This has been most carefully studied, and entirely novel and simple methods of tabulation introduced (as well as abundant references and cross-references) to make the Code rapid of use in every aspect.
From notes to my own copy :
pp 1-185 abaissais / A(an) [and instruction
See page 309
being asundry combinations
table : cross referencing throughout ] > ayudado / Zinc-lined
186-195 blank ayudantes > badehemd
196-197 a blank combination table [ 1-60, a-k ]
198-200Reserved Tables. For combinations of 10 x 6 x 5.
blank table, first orientation a > k, second and third orientations indicated by figures 1>30, in table. Added bonus : some of these tables have been filled in by user, including here; where three orientations in one codeword can be seen in action.201-500
consist of tables incorporating the whole of the ordinary English language as required in business and social communications, besides useful tables embodying the most important subjects which require to be telegraphed about.
The code’s Index to Tables provides the followingsummary of tabulations
:
reserved 196-199; verb tables 202-273; auxiliaries 274-283; adjectives, etc. 284-305; interrogatives 306-307; [sundry
] combination phrases 308-347; names combined with phrases 348-351; dates, time, etc. 352-399; prices, amounts, etc. (sterling) 400-413; prices combined with quantities, etc. 414-453; finance 454-461; decimal currency 462-470; quantities 471-479; terms and ports 480-481; shipping 482-485; market 486-493; telegrams, letters, etc. 494-499.A sundry combination phrase might involve : g / there is some + 29 / misunderstanding about = expletioni.
anames in combination with sundry phrases
might involve : k / [blank for name] + 16 / ’s consent has been obtained = ficedulis
389Firm offers with quantities and dates
might involve : n / We make firm offer 250 (bales, cases, tons, or other quantities) + 14 / Feb., Mch., Apr. OR Aug., Sep., Oct. = grediner
427CAN BUY combined with QUANTITIES and PRICES
might involve : i / Can buy 50 (bales, cases, tons, etc.) + 24 / [here, any one of six partical price ranges, each range offering as many as six possibilities] = investida (this page is among several missing from scan — though I’ve not checked the PDF; see instead pp 442-443, foryou may sell
combinations.
- 1896 The Dynamic Chess Notation
containing aCode for Telegraphing Moves.
from F. Startin Pilleau. The Dynamic Chess Notation : whereby any possible move in a game of chess can be accurately described by the use of two letters only.
Illustrated by the complete set of games of The Petersburg Tournament, 1895-96.
Published with the imprimatur of the British Chess Club. London, 1896.appeared as a supplement to the Chess Monthly, whose lovely cover is to be seen here
The code enables any possible move to be described by two letters; it does not indicate position on board, thus, every piece must have a name (or label).
original at Harvard : SG3673 231.2
- 1897 Mercuur-code / Mercury Code
Second revised and enlarged edition, First supplement
Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1897
[4], 1-240, followed by six pages of advertisements.
original at NYPLofficial vocabulary;
Table of contents (index) : Firms and companies; Estates (in Netherlands East Indies, West India); Trade marks (East-Indian trade marks, West-Indian trade marks); Names of steamers; Names of sailing vessels; Stocks (officially quote, not officially quoted); Additional Code words.
- 1897 The Robinson Telegraphic Cipher
Revised Edition
originally published by S L Robinson, Author and Proprietor, Board of Trade, Chicago. This copy bears the pasted stamp of American Code Company, Publishers of Telegraph Codes, 83 Fulton Street, New York City.
Cornell copy, but probably later than 1897 : this copy incorporates a Supplement, possibly prior to 1917, and certainly prior to 1925 (when the copyright was renewed, and a second supplement added). (I say this with some confidence: I have a copy of the 1897 edition, containing only the 103 pages.)The whole is 103pp (plus 29 page supplement), 3. x 5.25 inches.
Grain, market, trade. Also provisions (hogs, pork, lard,
green meats,
bulk or dry salt meats, boxed or English meats, &c.), hay and straw, in salt, in pickle, etc. Pages with new content (that is, additions to an 1872 edition), are asterisked in the Index.Uses what Barto calls
particle prices
—When the price is manifestly above 1.10 the dollar will be understood and not expressed, as
(Churl,
for 1.35 1/4.Churl
means35 1/4
).The Supplement has a separate pagination pp 4-29 (following its own title page, introduction and index), and covers breadstuffs (barley, buckwheat, corn, flour, oats, etc), as well as railroads, transportation lines, indemnities, miscellaneous.
Designed for convenience and economy in domestic trade.
- 1898 Telegraphic Code, The Niles Tool Works Co.
from General Machinery Catalogue, the Niles Tool Works Co., Hamilton Ohio, 1898
original at NYPLThe code words used to designate the various machines on the preceding pages do not conflict with Lieber’s Standard Telegraphic Code, and can, therefore, be used in connection with it without any confusion. Below will be found a selection of phrases with their corresponding code words which will, it is believed, be very convenient in ordering from this catalogue. Both words and phrases were selected from the Lieber Code which is regularly used by us and to which we would refer those desiring greater variety, or who are unable to express their meaning with the phrases given.
code pages 529-571
Bataholas / At the price of
Pinturn / Patent Portable Crank-Pin Turning Machine (page 181)
- 1898 Standard Telegraphic Code
Lieber’s Standard Telegraphic Code.
B. Franklin Lieber. New York: Lieber Publishing Co., 1898
original at Cabot Science Library, Harvard : Eng 4348.78.2
- 1898 McNeill’s Code.
Arranged to meet the requirements of mining, metallurgical and civil engineers; directors of mining, smelting and other companies; bankers; stock and share brokers; solicitors, accountants, financiers and general merchants. Safety and Secrecy.Bedford McNeill. London: Printed and published by Whitehead, Morris & Col, Limited, 1899; New York: The Scientific Publishing Company. New York: Lieber Publishing Co., 1898
original at Cabot Science Library, Harvard : Eng 4348.99
- 1899 McNeill’s Code. Terminal Index for Use with McNeill’s Code.
London: Whitehead, Morris & Co., 1899
original at University of California : HE7677 .M6M23Works much like a rhyming dictionary. See for example Walker’s Rhyming Dictionary, which went through many editions but whose late nineteenth-century editions offer instructions for its use in deciphering telegraphic errors, e.g., here, in the 1904 edition.
- 1900
The Heath telegraphic cipher for the use of flouring mills and flour merchants
— and their traveling salesmen for the economical and secret transmission of business telegrams.
Sold only by G. M. Heath, Author and Proprietor, La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1900
original at Duke Universitydomain : flouring mills and merchants
This copy no. 149 (rubber stamped on
property of
page), property of Listman Mill Company, La Crosse Wisconsin and is loaned to E. Provost & Fils, Lewiston, Me.[8], 1-128, [4]; index last two unnumbered pages in front.
all English & English-y codewords, Abaft – Umpire
phrases only, no tables.some pasted in additions (printed)
- 1900
The Twentieth Century Telegraphic Cipher Code
L. J. Guynes
L. J. Guynes, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1900
original at NYPL [LC cat number HE7677.C82.G9]domain : cotton seed products
[4], 1-527
codewords selected from Berne Official Vocabulary; unnumbered entries; numerous tables including offer tables pp 224-307In the use of the Offer Tables in this Code (from page 224 to 307 inclusive), it will be understood when cabled from Europe to America to be a nm offer to
BUY,
and when cabled from America to Europe will be a firm offer toSELL
.
- 1901 The ABC Telegraphic Code, Fifth Edition.
The ABC Universal Commercial Electric Telegraphic Code, specially adapted for the use of financiers, merchants, shipowners, underwriters, engineers, brokers, agents, &c.; suitable for everyone. Multum in Parvo. Simplicity and Economy Palpable, Secrecy Absolute.London, 1901
original at Cabot Science Library, Harvard University
Eng 4349.01.8
- 1901 Telegraph Code.
pp 209-110, Official Automobile Blue Book, Eastern Edition (1901).
original at Harvard (Cabot Science Library, Eng 801.24)

details page 209-11 (cropped), ex
Telegraph Code,
Official Automobile Blue Book (1901), from Google scan
The code is to be used by members of this automobile club while touring, particularly with reference to the service stations associated with it. An introductory explanation of the
Use of Stations
includes this passage about the telegraphic code —While our stations carru supplies, etc., sufficient to meet the demands of ordinary touring, and for their regular customers, it should not be expected that they will be able to care for a number of automobiles without notice. We therefore suggest that in the case of club runs or even parties of five or six, they be notified in advance by letter or telegram so as to assure sufficient supplies and attendance. Our telegraph code is intended to cover such notification, and a little forethought in its use will absolutely assure sufficient attention and possibly save much valuable time.
(p8)Not to be confused with Robert Edwin Pye, his The automobile telegraphic code, (San Francisco: Code Publishing Company, San Francisco, 1917), 834pp
- 1902 The Westinghouse Code
Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co., 1902
original at Harvard University : KE 4561Index v-xii; Instructions for Using the Westinghouse Code xiii-xiv; Code Condenser xv-xvi; Cable Addresses xvii-xviii; General Phrases 1-432; Index of Machinery and Apparatus 433 — specs presented in tables 435-495
00001 Kabache Abandon 00002 Kabakos Abandon for the present 00003 Kabasdah Abandon the whole thing 00004 Kabasjes Abandoned on account of Codewords begin with the letters K through W exclusively. Hence, as is (confusedly) explained in the introduction, the code may be used in conjunction with Lieber’s (code and appendix), whose code words begin with the letters A through E.
Users are invited to send
phrases in frequent use, not found in this code
to the Westinghouse Companies’ [sic] Publishing Department, for inclusion in printed slips of additional phrases to be attached to page margins.
- 1903 Appleby’s Copyright Code for Correspondence by Telegram
pp i-iv of
Appleby’s Illustrated Handbook of Machinery. Section V. Steam and Electric Plant &c., &c.. London and New York, 1903
original at University of Wisconsin, MadisonCodes used : A B C, Mooreing’s [sic], The A1, and Appleby’s Code.
Each of the volumes has its respective code name :
Section I Admugitum
Section II Adnatobat
Section III Adociria
Section IV Adoliridas
Section V Adumbrato
Section VI, Part A Adonteremo
Section VI, Part B Adopterus
- 1903 The Billionaire Phrase Code
containing Flexible Phrases; Numerals, Decimals and Dimensions; Qualities and Measurements; Fractions and Dimensions; Dollars; Cents; Foreign Currencies; Shillings and Pence; Percent; Days and Hours; Calendar and Dates; Blank TablesPublished by The Business Code Co. New York, and E. & F. N. Spon Ltd., 57 Haymarket, S.W., London
original at Harvard : KE 5922No phrases other than contained in flexible tables; similar structure and arrangement, even typographical detailing, to the Master Telegraph Code (1909), the Miners’ & Smelters’ Telegraph Code (same year), Brentano’s (1909), etc. Flexible tables generate ciphers of 10 letters, ciphers beginning from letters U through Y. Ciphers must be taken from each of the used columns consecutively: the first two (or three, if one assembles ciphers in that way) columns provide pronouns, adverbs, modals, etc.; the
Fourth Column
pp9-39 contains the topics. All contained in 56 pages total.
- 1903 Telegraphic Code for bonds
pp 102-109 of Government Bonds, The First National City Bank of New York, 1903
original at Harvard : Econ 5588.1All codewords start with L, e.g.,
Labadist / 1/16
Lazaroni / Bid and offered prices for coupon 5’s of 1904 to-day are ——
Lemming / Your telegram came too late for execution to-day.
- 1903 The revised economy telegraphic and cable cipher code
adapted to the use of buyers, sellers, brokers, shippers and receivers of green and dried fruit and produce.Edmund Peycke (c), Los Angeles and Kansas City, 1903; printed by Lechtman Printing, Kansas City, 1903. This copy stamped
Amercian [sic] Code Company
original at NYPLv-xii, 1-344; apparently pasted on to obverse of additional pages 0a and 0b (between xii and p 1), is this typewritten notice :
The first of three Peycke codes, this one concludes (at page 344) with a special notice, that infringements of
our Marginal Index arrangement
(for which a patent application has been filed) will be prosecuted.While the index seems to be the salient virtue, code offers thorough phraseology, much of it in tabular form. And a remarkable passage (in the Preface) regarding the nature and eccentricity of its codewords :
The Book before you has a Vocabulary of Code words numbering over 40,000. There is not that number of words in
Webster’s Unabridged
that can be used for this purpose, for aCode-word
must have no meaning in the particular line of business in which the Code is used, nor should words be used the spelling of which differs in but one letter. Furthermore, all compound words, as well as words consisting of more than ten letters are barred by recent ruling of the Telegraph Companies. In order to follow thee rules, as we have done, not onlymade-up
words (pronounceable groups of letters) have to be used, but also a great many that have the appearance of beingbadly misspelt
dictionary words. Use the words just as they are, use them with the above suggestions in mind and you will find the Revised Economy Code more satisfactory than any other Code that has heretofore been on the market. ¶ We have kept away fromforeign languages,
from which so many words have of late years been used in Cipher Codes, most of them being harder to copy and spell, and a great deal worse to telegraph than the worst of our made-up words.
- 1904 The tourist’s pocket-book
containing useful words and simple phrases in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Greek, Hindustani, Arabic, Turkish, Russian, Latin and Hungarian. and Hungarian. Medical and surgical hints; cypher code for telegrams and post cards; blank forms of washing lists; together with much practical information calculated to facilitate the sayings and doings of British and American travellers.George F. Chambers. Seventh Edition. London: Hugh Rees Limited : 124 Pall Mall, S.W.
1904
original at University of Californiaex libris C. K. Ogden.
The cypher telegraph code is not well suited to telegrams, subject as they were to mutilations : aa ab ac ad ae > zx zy zz, followed by aaa aab aac > bci bck bcl (
f
is not used), and one letter each for numerals, some fractions, and to pluralize a word. The words are arranged alphabetically : a about above accept account act acted action add > yesterday yet you young your, followed by the numerals.The following example will illustrate the use of this cypher Code:—
WP ABT AEE AIG AFY ACG ABA ZM CD XQ BE TB AVT AQG XA AVX XL AVT DF BBL BCI AVW FT L N AWK ALICE ZL DX FQ WZ IG ZL ARS CT AEE XT ABC VVAZI VT AMM Q AILS SZ B ADTS.
Have lost my portmanteau, omnibus man left it at hotel, am forced to sleep here to-night, hope to be with you to-morrow by 10.15 train. Alice is better, but her cold is still bad. My house let, got very good rent, 50l. for 2 months.
Note the C. K. Ogden provenance. Devisor of BASIC (for
British American Scientific International Commercial
English, Ogden might well have drawn instruction from this and other polyglot phrase books. Above all, he might have derived some ideas from the reduction of vocabulary to a bare minimum within respective topical groupings. Here are the categories for this polyglot phrase dictionary :cardinal numbers. ordinal numbers. fractions. various numbers. the seasons. the months. the days of the week, etc. articles of food and drink. short sentences. railway. steamboat. at an hotel. post office; telegraph office. travelling by road. illness. in a shop. useful words of various kinds. washing lists.
Ogden’s
panoptical
reduction of expressions down to the 850 words in Basic English parallels — if it does not owe something to — the analytical and synthetic work that underlies the telegraphic codes in their selection and topical arrangements of phrase matter and which, in some instances, received extended explanation — in one case something like a theory of language — in prefatory sections.The Ogden papers are held in Special Collections, Young Research Library, UCLA. The finding aid is available at content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt7p3021p9/. Acquisition of the Ogden collection is described in Lawrence Clark Powell his Books in My Baggage: Adventures in Reading and Collecting (Cleveland and New York, 1960): 130-136. The collection totalled 403 packing cases, some 80,000 volumes, including hundreds of manuscripts. The material was dispersed (
divided,
sometimes by lot) amongst the various UC libraries. No codes are contained in the Ogden archive, I was told some years ago.An essay relating the Ogden’s BASIC Panoptic Conjugation and
eliminator
with the arrangements of some telegraphic code dictionaries is under way.
- 1906 Telegraphic Cipher Code, Gerrish System
Harvard College Observatory
Cambridge (Massachusetts), 1906
original at Harvard University : Astr 659 06Like many specialist codes, this one involves a step-by-step assembly of a message. One follows a set of rules — as if filling in a series of data entry
fields
— and derives the code from that. Here, messages are assembled from figures, and then converted to syllables yielding the pronounceable (oreuphonic,
as the expression went) codewords preferred by telegraph administrations.Several examples are provided; one of these (taken from pages 11 and 13) is shown below:
1 ba 2 de 3 fi 4 go 5 ku 6 am 7 en 8 ip 9 ot 0 ux not utilized (blank) vy
This code, with its strict procedural aspect, is similar to meteorological codes that are discussed elsewhere under the heading
observational
codes.
- 1906 Standard Cipher Code of the American Railway Association
For the Use of All Departments of the Railway ServiceThe American Railway Association, 1906. Press of John A. Phillips, New York.
original at MichiganSome examples —
Clypeolet Commodity rate(s) governed by — classification Clysmian Emigrant movables as per — classification Coachbell Estimated weight as per — classification Coachbox Exception sheet to the — classification Coachdog Governed by — classification Coached How do you classify? Coachful How shall I classify? Coachlet I understand proper classification to be
- 1907 Standard Lumber Reference Book and Code
A Complete Compendium of the Rules of Classification and Inspection of Lumber, as adopted and in use by the principal Lumber Associations and Railroad Companies in the United States, together with a comprehensive Telegraphic Cypher Code and other information of interest and value to the Lumber TradeFirst Edition; Sold Exclusively by Southern States Publishing Co.; 65-71 Ivy Street, Atlanta Ga.
Copyright, 1907, by The Franklin-Turner Co., and Benj. F. Ulmeroriginal NYPL : HD9754.S7 Rules, classifications, specifications pp 9-204, followed by 1 page (unnumbered, but Google p209) a
Private Cypher Code
of Lunkenheimer Co., Cincinnati, Ohio (valves, gauges, whistles, injectors, ejectors, lubricators, grease cups, oil cups) followed by the code proper, Ulmer’s Yellow Pine Code separate pagination pp 1-44 (Google p211), beginning with General Instructions.The code is artificial English, some stem and terminal, some tables :
Ulmer’s car number; Board measure contents; Dollars and cents; Specific lengths in feet and inches; Specific dimensions, thickness by feet, in even inches (all tabular); Thicknesses and widths in inches and fractional inches; Time of delivery in weeks and months; Time table by hours, days and months; Questions; Instructions, miscellaneous phrases, etc.; and Railroad companies (pp43-44).Nice code/phrase pairings —
Frolic Cut all you can Lantern If we can Latin If we cannot Linger In addition to Liquid In box cars Lizard In flat cars Minister Let us have Miser Let us know Mission Let us know when Mister Let us know where Monkey Load last Monstrous Load next Motto Make a price Mumble May be cut in multiples
- 1907 Un Code Télégraphique Du Portrait Parlé
R. A. Reiss (1875-1929);
Documents de Criminologie et de Médecine Legale,
Paris: A. Maloine, 1907
original at HarvardInspired by the classification system of Paul Otlet, Reiss developed a decimal classification system for Bertillon’s portrait parlé procedure and controlled vocabulary.
Reiss observed that Otlet’s scheme was inferior to the anthropometrical classification of Bertillon, but saw that decimalization could provide the basis for economic telegraphic transmission of signaletic information. His solution was to retain the Bertillon terminology — e.g., very small, small, medium, large, very large — and to assign to every signaletic term and qualification its own decimal classification number.
ex R A Reiss, Un Code Télégraphique Du Portrait Parlé (1907); content on page 7 rearranged here for presentation in two columns.
It featured a nine-heading decimal classification system. The initial
0
indicates the start of eachsign
(or decimal cipher). The first two figures of any message do not employ the initial0,
as these indicate respectively age and height (in centimeters). Figures following the initial classification number indicated various sub-categories; e.g., 1,134 forforehead of medium height.
The nine categories were0,1 Front — forehead
0,2 Nez — nose
0,3 Oreille — ear*
0,4 Les Lévres, la bouche, le menton — lips, mouth, chin
0,5 Contour général du profile, naso-buccal — general profile, naso-oral outline
0,6 Profil du crâne proprement dit, général de la face — profile of skull, facial contour
0,7 Les sourcils, paupières, globes oculaires, orbites — eyebrows, eyelids, eyeballs, orbits
0,8 Le cou, les rides, la carrure, la ceinture, l’attitude, l’allure générale, la voix — neck, wrinkles, build, waist, attitude, general appearance, voice
0,9 Yeux, cheveau, barbe, pigmentation de la peau — eyes, hair, beard, skin pigmentation* Because cartiliginous, ears and noses were important in Bertillon’s system.
The message rigorously follows the order of entries on the fiche that were attached to, or the reverse of, side- and front-view photographs of the subject on Bertillon’s signaletic fiche, shown below. It thus takes the form of an ordered list of attributes, or facets (much like astronomical and meteorological codes).
ex R A Reiss, Manuel du portrait parlé à l'usage de la police: méthode Alphonse Bertillon, Lausanne and Paris, 1905. scan here, with a guide to abbreviations and special signs (as seen above), here.
The entries shown above refer to the portrait of Reiss shown here —
ex R A Reiss, Manuel du portrait parlé à l'usage de la police: méthode Alphonse Bertillon, Lausanne and Paris, 1905
The treatise concludes with an example of a telegraphic message, in which the savings of words is noted —
- Service sûreté Paris.
30 175 01512 0224 0234 0255 02732 03116 03233 03243 03325 03415 03522 04121 04144 04147 0 5221 06214 06218 07151 07161 0911112 0912211 092413
Sûreté Lausanne
total : 29 mots (5 chiffres comptant pour 1 mot). - Service sûreté Paris.
Age apparent 30 Taille 175 sinus dos nex rectiligne base horizontale saillie grande limite particularité cloison non apparete oreille bordure originelle grande lobe traversé limite et dimension petite limite antitragus saillant limite pli inférieur vexe limite forme rectiligne limite particularité sillons séparés orthognate supérieur face longue biconcave sourcils clairsemés blonds clairs lèvre inférieure proéminente épaisseur grand inférieure pendante cou long auréole jaune moyen périphérie intermédiaire verdâtre moyen cheveux blonds foncés.
Sûreté Lausanne
total: 75 mots
More on Reiss — including his later career in Serbia — here (in a recent addition to wikipedia).
- 1881
Whittingham’s Skeleton Telegraph Code.
- 1907 Postal Code (Telegraph-Cable)
Adapted to the requirements of merchants, bankers, brokers, professional men, miners and operators in mines, stock operators, railroad and transportation companies, real estate dealers, shippers and shipping men, travelers, tourists, farmers, horticulturalists, viticulturalists, etc., etc.by Frank Shay and Richard V Day; San Francisco: Freygang Publishing Co., 1907
original at Columbia UniversityOfficial vocabulary
, or (for landline only) five figures. Totals 862 pages; 93,480 numbered entries (including blanks), phrases (and names, numbers, prices, etc.) but no analytical tables. An expansion from Shay’s 1888 (and 1899 reprint) Cipher Book published by Rand McNally.Title page bears two seals, for the Commercial Pacific Cable Company and The Commercial Cable Company, respectively, containing maps showing their Pacific and Atlantic cable routes.
Good phraseology.
- 1908 The Modern Economy Telegraphic and Cable Cipher Code
Adapted to the Use of Buyers, Sellers, Brokers, Shippers and Receivers of Green and Dried Fruit and ProduceEdmund Peycke, Los Angeles, 1908
original at NYPLThis is a (February) 1914 reprint, on evidence of an
Addenda
coveringall Refrigerator Cars added to Equipment of Railroads and Car Lines since the issue of the Modern Economy Code in 1908.
The addenda continues earlier pagination, and runs pp 247-254. Obverse of title page omits name of printer (The Segnogram Press) that had appeared in 1908 edition. Cannot tell from scan what color original is; 1908 version was printed on blue paper.Five-letter code, generally one-letter difference : probably good on the phrase side, but vulnerable to mutilations.
Some fuller notes, and an extract, can be found here.
- 1908 Wellcome’s Excerpta Therapeutica
(Canadian Edition), Burroughs Wellcome & Co., London (1908)
original at StanfordSection
Serums and Serum-Therapy
(pp 137-44) includes a telegraphic code (pp 137-144), accompanied by this instruction —When therapeutic serums are ordered by telegram, it is often undesirable to use the words
Diphtheria,
etc. A telegraphic and cable code for ordering serums has therefore been adopted. It consists of ROOTS and TERMINATIONS. The ROOTS appear in the margin opposite the serum they indicate. The TERMINATIONS are given below and indicate quantities and sizes. Examples:—
Send six phials of Diphtheria Antitoxic Serum (’Wellcome’) each containing 5000 units in 5 cc. =
HIMEBASEDO
Send five phials of Anti-venom Serum (’Wellcome’) each containing 25 c.c. =
FIVE HITETENOBA.Terminations One Three Six 1 doz. Regular size ARYCE ASATA ASEDO ADSEZA 10 c.c. ENEWE ENEYU ENEZA ENGRA 25 c.c. ENOBA ENOGU ENRIO ENTAO 50 c.c. ENYHA ENYMO EPAVA EPESO Arrangements are made at the London Offices for the immediate dispatch of telegraphic orders for serums received between the hours of 9 a.m. on week-days, and 3 to 3.30 p.m. on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
A tipped-in
Addendum
provides 5L codewords for Diphtheria Antitoxic Serum (available in 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000 units — JORAS, JORIM, JORUH and JOSER), and Anti-Streptococcus Serum (in 10 c.c. syringe containers — JOSIV).
- 1909
Bentley’s complete phrase code
(nearly 1000 Million Combinations)
1909 reprint of first (1906) edition
original TorontoTitle page stamped
C. Bensinger Co., Inc. Code-Book Supply Dept. / 15 Whitehall St. New York City
Does not include 2-letter difference claim. One Million Cyphers appear at end of volume (compare with Bensinger edition described below. The following (odd, and even misleading) explanation faces first page of code :
Bentley’s Million Cyphers for the transmission of Numbered Sentences from Public or Private Codes in one word are to be found at the end of this Volume with full directions, showing that they can be indiscriminately mixed with Cyphers from this Phrase Code.
See fuller discussion in description of the 1921 Bensinger reprint.
- 1909
Brentano’s Telegraph and Cable Code
New York, Brentano’s; copyright by The Business Code Company. 1909.
original Harvard5-letter code. Flexible Phrase Tables pp 1-10 (ten tables in all, e.g., Table No. 9
affirmative and questions
) ; General Phrases 11-285; Tables 287-313 (some of these 3+2 or 4+1 flexible tables, say, for calendar; Supplement 314-320 (blanks, followed by Stocks 321-328)
- 1911
Private Telegraphic Code
For Land Line Telegrams between Points in the United States, Canada and Mexico used by the United States Steel Corporation and its Subsidiary Companies (1911)
original NYPLSections I Structural Shapes, Plates, etc. 1-18; II Bars, Small Shapes, Hoops, etc, 19-64; III Axles, Miscellaneous Forgings and Wheels, 65-72; IV Semi-Finished Steel, etc, 73-77; V Steel Rails and Accessories, 79-111; VI Frogs, Switches and Special Track Work, 113-130; VII Rail Bonds, 131 to 145; VIII Bridges and Structural Steel Work of Buildings, 147-202; IX Sheet and Tin Mill Products, 203-243; X Tubular Products, 245-311; XI Pipe Fittings, Valves, Cocks, etc, 313-422; XII Wire Products, 423-568; XIII Horse and Mule Shoes and Calks, 569-576; XIV Coal, Coke and Pig Iron, 577-584; XV Shipment, Freight and Transportation, 585-680; XVI General [phrase] Section , 681-948; Index, to Products, Materials and Erection Plant, 949-981
5L throughout, following the two-letter difference rule, and, it is claimed in Preface, no code word can be converted into any other
in this code or its supplements,
if two consecutive letters are reversed. Each of the first 15 sections is mostly tables, supplemented by phrases pertinent to those sections’s respective topic.
- 1912 The Scientific Dial Primer
Containing universal code elements of universal language, new base for mathematics, etc.Andrew Hallner, comp. San Francisco: Sunset Publishing House, 1912
Internet Archive; original at UC BerkeleyMotto: Brevity, Simplicity, Legibility
157 + (3 table of contents, and index)
seems to divide matter up according to degree in the dial. From page 10:
The Scientific Dial contains:
200 one-syllable two-letter words.
2,525 one-syllable three-letter words.
8,000 two-syllable four-letter words; consisting of two vowels and two consonants.
12,000 in the second class of four-letter words.
adding another letter, as, Elana (1911) swells the list of words almost beyond calculation.Note: this is not a practical telegraphic code. It reads something like an epistolary novel, in which the existence of a
scientific
code encourages communication of even delicate matters, that social pressures might not otherwise allow. For example, a woman (spinster or widow) can more easily propose marriage to a man with this code, than without.Hallner also authored Uncle Sam, the teacher and the administrator of the world. Sacramento, Cal.: The News. Pub. Co., 1918.
- 1912 The Emigre (P.C.) Cable Code
For use in connexion with Privy Council Appeals, &c.Printed for private circulation only.
Folkestone, 1912
Internet Archive; original at University of Torontocode pages 5-89
Latinate codewords (abactas, abalienans, abavos, abdebant, abderem, abdetis > crevimus, crevisti, crevit.
phrases only (no tables), notable typographic treatment of phrase keywords (bold, sans serif).ex preface —
The ordinary telegraphic Codes are designed mainly for commercial purposes, and we have repeatedly, in communicating with clients in regard to Privy Council appeals and other legal matters, elt the want of a code containing legal phrases. For the convenience of our correspondents and ourselves... An amateur work is likely to be very imperfect, and we shall be grateful to any correspondents who may assist us with suggestions for insertion in a second edition.
- 1913 China Inland Mission Private Telegraph Code.
Shangai: Printed at the Methodist Publishing House, 1913
original at Cornell (Wason Collection) : HE7679.C53
(scan was Universal Digital Library, now Internet Archive.)Figure code (every page a
table
, e.g., No. 105, with 50 entries 00-49, involving use of a condensing table (inside front cover). Phrase and other matter is primarily administrative, but does include phrases of theThe natives in the disctrict are very troublesome,
as well.Preceded by a Private Telegraph Code published in Shanghai in 1907, this volume was consulted in preparation of The Missions Code in 1930, by the Foreign Missions Conference of North America. The 1930 code incorporates the five-letter principle rather than a condenser, and offers an enlarged vocabulary
- 1913 The Adams Cable Codex, Tenth Edition.
Boston: The Financial Publishing Company, 1913
original at University of Michigan : HE7673.A22 1913
- 1913 Telegraph and Cable Code., pages 49-53 in
Catalogue No. 35, The W. S. Tyler Company, Maufacturers of Ton-Cap Screens made from iron, steel, brass, copper and phosphor bronze for all uses: also makers of Tyler double crimped cloth and mining screens. General Offices and Works St. Clair Ave N.E., from 34th to 38th Strs., Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A., 1913
original at University of Michigan : TS 273.T98There is a code word shown for each number of Ton-Cap screen in the following tables, also code words for specifying the number of pieces, dimensions of each piece, also whether brass, steel, copper, bronze or phosphor bronze is required. If no metal is mentioned, steel will be furnished. ¶ Each code word contains five letters...
Ton-Cap
is short for tonnage capacity : increased throughput tafforded by the company’s superior screen design (oblong, rather thanround hole screen producing the same sizing
(p 16). The catalogue itself is nicely designed and illustrated.
- 1914 The Private Code and Post-Card Cypher
A Telegraph and Post-Card Code-Book for Family UseCompiled by Constance and Burges Johnson. New York and London: G.P. Puntman’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1914
NYPLQuite amusing, first encountered at BL.
dedicated to
THEODORE N. VAIL / whose kindly hospitality is requited by the publication of this method of beating his company
The book is prefaced by an
Apology
—No literary critic has ever paid sufficient attention to the effect of the ten-word telegram upon American style. Yet undoubtedly the old problem of how to say what must be said within a ten-word limit has had a powerful effect upon prevailing terseness of expression. The fact that eleven words would cost but a cent or two more has made little difference. Ten words it must be. And if the message has used but four words, then six more must be found, at whatever cost of mental effort. A generation ago the Peterkins faced that very problem, and when their four words had been written, added —
The house is not on fire.
This code will aid the perplexed or homesick absent one to put many essential messages into the ten-word announcement of his safe arrival; and it will enable the abandoned one, after she has put her necessary inquiry into eight words, to find two more that will fill out the allowance most delightfully.
In addition to the use of this code in telegrams, its compilers suggest that the picture post-card, containing as it does an irritatingly small space for messages as well as an exposed one, is much in need of a private cypher.
It is proper to add that the telegraph companies do not encourgae the use of a code in connection with
night letters
andday letters;
but the fifty-word allowance in those forms of telegram makes a code unnecessary.The compilers admit that there are other codes in existence more complete than this in many particulars. For that very reason there is no attempt here to enter the field of business messages. In other ways, however, they maintain that this code has no parallel.
C. and B.J.
Port Washington, N.Y.Topics
Bulletins en route
Intimate Messages —
Things Needed or Forgotten
Arrival at Destination
Accommodations
Letters and Telegrams
Baggage
Home News
Sickness and Health
Money Matters
Commissions and Messages to Others
The Return
Concerning Food
Appointments
Model Letters between Husbands and Wives
The Telegram Game
- 1918 Peycke’s New Ekonomik Telegraphic Cipher Code for the Fruit and Produce Trade, Containing Equivalent to 1,310,000 Cipher Words.
Edmund Peycke, author and publisher, Los Angeles. 1918
original at NYPLAdvertisement at end of code includes, among
a few short facts,
this —
It required three men six months to get the material for this code ready for the print.
5L, some 3 + 2 prefix and endings combinations. Indexed, and tabbed.
Unclassifiable phrases and connecting sentences
pp 185-204;Traveling men
pp 204-205; 3+2 Table A for apples and pears pp 231-239; Table B for cranberries/berries 241-243; Table C for deciduous fruits 244-248; grapes 249, &c., &c.; a very few phrases for Avocados at p276, preceded by this:AVOCADO (ALLIGATOR PEAR)
The best known varieties are the following: Blakeman. Dickenson, Furte, Lyon, Sharpless, Spinks, and Taft, which will probably survive, but for commercial purposes the Furte and Spinks and Lyon varieties are expected to lead; the Lyon being an early bearer, followed by the Spinks, and the Furte being later in the season. ¶ Probably a good many other varieties will be developed, as the industry is in the hands of men of more than ordinary intelligence, whose object is to develop Avocados so that they may be had at any time of the year. ¶ Four very promising varieties are named, brought from Guatemala. These are the Knight, Queen, Linda, and Ray, which are expected to come into bearing very soon. ¶ The style of package to be used has not been decided upon, but flat cases with excelsior packing seem to be the logical solution. ¶ The great food value of the Avocado will in time be recognized by the consumer, and a large trade in the commodity must ultimately follow. The dealer paying attention to this line in its early stages must eventually reap the benefit from his efforts.
(Evidently, avocados were only now being developed as a California crop.)
The Author of this Code is also the Author of the Economy Code of 1897, Revised Economy Code of 1903, and the Modern Economy Code of 1908. ¶ Ten years ago when the last named Code was compiled it was possible to telegraph ten letter pronounceable words making a certain construction imperative and greatly limiting the number of available words in order to meet the requirements for pronounceability. ¶ A few years later the Telegraph Companies rescinded this privilege substituting a rule limiting the use of made words to groups of letters not over five letters in length wholly disregarding pronounceability. This opened a wide field to the Code compiler, so many more five letter words being available with the former restrictions removed, making the compiling of this book possible, whereas, it could not have been done under previous limitations. ¶ We claim this book to be the largest Code in existence, and the most efficient Code ever issued in any line of business. Several of our tables, notably the
Apple
Table and theSize
Table contain approximately 400,000 cipher words each. The total number of cipher words contained in this Code is in excess of 1,310,000, and all of these words have one or more vowels with the exception of theCar Numbers
in theBulletin Table
which have purposely been confined to consonants to distinguish them from the regular code words. ¶ As far as possible we have limited the beginning letter of the Cipher Words to one subject, and the construction of our words will at once allay any fear of confusion with other Codes that might be used in the Trade. ¶ Careful attention has been paid to avoid any undesirable combinations from the telegrapher’s point of view.
- 1918 The
Colorado
Code
General Headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces
47pp, 20cmDigitizing sponsor
: Duke University LibrariesBook contributor
: Private Collectionalso on title page :
Secret / Must not fall into hands of enemy. / No. 2 / Memorize this group:
DAM---Code Lost.
Reverse of title states : This book has been issued / To — / for official use under his direction only. / By command of General Pershing: / James W. McAndrew, Chief of Staff. / Official: Robert C. Davis, Adjutant General.Front matter and folios are typeset, code vocabularies are completely typewritten.
Instructions on unnumbered pp1-2; example dated 1918, suggesting publication of code also
Page 3 provides codes for figures 1-100, three each for figures 0-24, two each for figures 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 90; and four for 100. This is followed on page 4 by several special figures, e.g., 155 (presumable artillery caliber), and the phrase and word vocabulary itself (some entries given several 3L ciphers). The coding vocabulary continues (with nulls and some blanks) through page 22; followed by Decoding, with 3L ciphers in alphabetical order.

pages 12, 25, both showing entry for CFM / Lachrymatory, ex The
Colorado
Code (1918), from Duke University scan of copy in private collection.
- 1918 Finger Prints : The Code
Personal identification; methods for the identificationof individuals, living or deadby Harris Hawthorne Wilder and Bert Wentworth. Boston: Richard G. Badger, The Gorham Press, 1918
Lane Medical Library, Stanford UniversityChapter 6, Finger Prints: The Code (pp 234-259)
Short English language codewords; covers not only finger prints, but also Bertillonesque features.Chapter headed by this epigram —
We had a Rabbinical Divine in England, who was Chaplain to the Earl of Essex in Queen Elizabeth’s Time, that had an admirable Head for Secrets of this Nature. Upon his taking the Doctor of Divinity’s Degree, he preached before the University of Cambridge, upon the First Verse of the First Chapter of the First Book of Chronicles, in which, says he, you have the three following Words,
Adam, Sheth, Enosh.
He divided this short Text into many Parts, and by discovering several Mysteries in each Word, made a most Learned and Elaborate Discourse.
— Joseph Addison; in the London Spectator, No. 221. Nov. 13, 1711.
- 1920 The Nautical Telegraph Code and Postal Guide
For Officers of the M.M. and for All persons travelling abroad.Fourth edition, 1920
The front cover illustrated at this website omits name of author; a volume with same title (and phrase matter) was authored by Captain D. H. Bernard and published by James Brown & Son, Glasgow,
A full transcription by Eveline Houweling (to whom thanks for this labor of love). See her sitemap for some additional telegraph material.
- 1920 A B C Universal Commercial Telegraphic Code
—Specially Adapted for the Use of Shipowners, Bankers, Merchants, Brokers, Underwriters, Solicitors, Engineers, Forwarding Agents, and Tourists, Etc., and as a General Code Suitable for Everyone: Multum in Parvo...London: Eden Fisher & Co., Ltd.; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1920
original Princeton University [not currently (6 March 2010) available, but must have been when I created this link.]Five-letter (artificial codeword) edition, two-letter difference. Pages 1-1386 for entries 00000 ABAAB through 88849 IUZXL. Inline tables, rather than segregated as in previous editions of the ABC.
Terminal index separate pagination i-cxlii.
Two-letter Morse similarities listed cxlii-cxlvi.
from page vii,
The five-letter codewords used in the A B C Code, 6th Edition, are composed of groups of letters having the appearance of real words and are built on the principle of at least a two-letter difference in each five-letter codeword.
As a further safeguard against possible error, a great effort has been made to construct the codewords so as to counteract possible transmutations of the two-letter Morse groups, by the automatic check of a third letter and where this has not been possible, to eliminate such words from the Code. Consequently less than one per cent can have been left in the entire work. (See end of Code for the Morse Alphabet and the two-letter Morse Similarities.) In addition, every effort has been made to eliminate from the codewords five-letter words having a commercial meaning in the following languages : English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian; as well as the five-letter names of the principal Ports and Places of the World.
- 1921
Bensinger’s Special Edition of Complete Phrase Code
— (nearly 1000 Million Combinations) (with a Difference of at Least 2 Letters in Each Code-word)1921 Reprint of First Edition
original NYPLNowhere save for a librarian’s penciled mark does E. L. Bentley’s name appear in this version of his code. This is not a stereoplate reprint of first edition; pagination is different; 5-letter codewords are presented all caps (which is nice).
It also includes at pp242-252 One Million Cyphers (eight letters each with a 2-letter difference), for
transmitting any figures within the following range: 0/9, 00/99, 000/999, 0000/9999, 00000/99999, 000000/999999
.This feature, which drops out in (some?) later printings of Bentley — presumably with the nigh universal adoption of 5L codes — enables users to generate messages from both
vocabulary
and figure codes. The numbers standing against the sentences in such Codes are converted into these Cyphers instead of using the Code words in those Codes, thus preventing any possibility of confusion arising from mixing such sentences withBentley’s Complete Phrase Code.
A 1st series provides cyphers abev through zuof, for figures 0-999; thesehalf ciphers
are to be combined to form 8L ciphers; a 2nd series runs zuker through zyzwo (0-210), with higher numbers to be taken from 122-25); But ciphers from the two series are not to be combined. The second series cyphers are specifically intended to signify figures from separate figure codes, and work with together the 5L ciphers from the rest of the Phrase Code.Private supplement WUVNE-ZIZWO runs pp 253-301, followed by
Telegraph Cyphers in Terminational Order, for checking errors occurring in transmission of messages,
starting at page 307 (after some preliminary matter) and running for 40 pages (separate pagination).
- 1930
General Cipher Code, Railway Express Agency
New York, November 1930
Book No. 2324 (number rubber stamped)
[4], 1-126
5L CAABO-ZAUJF flexible phrase tables pp1-7; general phrases start at p9 more flexible tables (for dates, etc) at 113ff.
some handwritten additions, including added phrase at head of p9: AIRYX / Ship by Air Express Division of R.E.A., Inc.
- ca 1957 A.N.A.R.E. Code
of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions, here archived by the NSW Branch of the ANARE Club. This was used for private messages over radio-telegraphic link to Australia, perhaps commencing around 1957. The code was also known asWYSSA,
for a reason that will become apparent from these few examples —
WUVNE Penguins have begun to arrive on the Island WYSSA All my (our) love darling YIHMO I have grown a beard but think I’ll shave it off before I get back to Australia YIKLA This is the life YIVUC Days are short in the antarctic at present, the sun appering above the horizon for no more than three hours YITIX Time seems to be only thing we're short of YITOZ Very busy preparing gear for spring work including training dogs YITUB I am not sure whether men training dogs or dogs training men YOHNA My message is contained in following quotation YOHOR See Oxford dictionary of quotations YOHPE See Oxford dictionary quotations indexed as beginning YOHRO See Shakespeare play: initials, act, scene, line follow YOHTY See Bible quotation: abbreviated name of book with chapter and verse follow YOHUS Have recently been reading these books YOIKS Thinking of you especially when reading following book and chapter (code word followed by name of book and number of chapter) YOILT Our Position is Latitude...deg...mins Longitude...deg...mins. (code word followed by one four figure group for degrees and minutes of latitude; then one five figure group — commencing with 0 if necessary — for longitude). An account of the use of the ANARE Code is included in a fascinating interview with Doug Twigg, an ANARE Radio Supervisor who spent several winters and summers in Antactica between 1956 and 1992. The whole (recorded on 23 February 1996) can be found here, in a section entitled
Communications 1911-1985,
within the website of the Australian Antarctic Division. I include the relevant passage from that interview below (without permission, for now) to be sure it is not lost! The interviewer was Annie Rushton.Morse code was used before the advent of teleprinters. AAD photograph (4215-C6) And it was through using the teleprinter system that we developed the
WYSSA.
WYSSA
is local ANARE jargon for a private telegram.
They were called that back in the Heard Island days, before we settled Mawson in 1954. However,WYSSA’s
continued to be sent by teleprinters and then by satellite.So did the first
WYSSAs
start using Morse Code?Yes, initially, this was the only communications that the expeditioners had then, until the
WYSSAs.radphone
came along, but they still continued sendingThey’d be cheaper, I guess.
Than the
radphone,
yes. Each expeditioner got so many free words a month, I think it was 175 free words a month. And if you exceeded that you paid about five cents a word. This allocation was divided up, the expeditioner could use 100 of those and his next-of-kin could use 75, that is how it was supposed to have been divided up. And then there was the code book, an adaptation of Bentleigh’s (sic) Telegraphic Codes. A code word would be a substitute for commonly used phrases or sentences. It was an economic means to reduce the number of words in a telegram, both for the expeditioner and for the radio operator who had to transmit it letter-by-letter by Morse Code. You could send a lot of words, a lot of conversation, by using about 10 code words, which would result in about half a page of letter when you decoded theWYSSA.
Some of the cleverer expeditioners used todoctor
the code a bit, they would develop their own private meanings to the code words with their next-of-kin. They might change the meaning for a code word about elephant seals or the sea ice, but in fact they were really talking with their own private code. You got to know many of the commonly used code words without having to look them up in the code book. It was used for many years.
signal codes
- 1763
Tactique navale, ou, Traité des Évolutions et des signaux; avec figures en taille-douce.
Bigot de Morogues, Sebastien François (1705-1781). Paris, H.L. Guerin & L.F. Delatour, 1763
original at Michigan.in two parts :
Livre Premieur — Des Évolutions. (13 chapitres).
Livre Second — Des Signaux et Ordres Généraux.Tactique Navale is primarily devoted to tactics, but integrates signals with its presentation, so important are they to the success of naval
evolutions
involving multiple vessels. - 1803
Telegraphic Signals; or Marine Vocabulary.
By Sir Home Popham. Printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Near Whitehall. 1803
original at NYPL, which copy contains annotations/additions throughout, though only scarcely visible in this scan.This is an expansion of a Popham’s earlier (1800) code, not so much replacing as being supplementary to the regular signal code. It adds to that earlier code, which is now incorporated in a first section), two more, of —
words next useful to those in the first,
which areplaced opposite to it in alphabetical order, to save the trouble of opening the book twice
and a third separate part (beginning at page 63), consisting ofsentences most applicable to military or general conversation. These sentences should be frequently practised to make them familiar, as they will save many signals.
Faint annotations throughout, flag-numbered tabs. Full credit to Google.
- 1808
A Treatise on Telegraphic Communication, Naval, Military, and Political.
in which the known defects of the present system of telegraphic practice by sea and land are obviated by the introduction of a Numerical Portable Dictionary...By John Macdonald. Printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Near Whitehall. 1808
original at Michigan. - 1817
A Treatise Explanatory of a New System of Naval, Military and Political Telegraphic Communication
of General Application, in which a Comprehensive Numerical Dictionary...is applied...By John Macdonald. T. Egerton’s, Military Library, Whitehall. 1817
original at NYPL. - 1817
A system of general signals for night and day
whereby merchant vessels may communicate at a distance by means of the common colours of the ship, and with four lanterns by night, without going out of their course.By Charles Lenox Sargent. Boston: Printed by Wells and Lilly, 1817.
original at Harvard Nav 578.17.2circular signals (white and black, also semicircles), also flags and lanterns; some questions, names of places, compass directions, alphabet, description of vessel, &c., provisions, orders, &c. no long phrases.
First entries are questions — (1) Whence came you? (2) Where bound? (3) How long out? ... (16) Have you had soundings, where and how much? (17) Is it peace still? (18) Who are we at war with? (19) Any cruisers on the coast? (20) What coast is blockaded?
- 1818
An improved system of telegraphic communication.
Including a copious list of the names of places, persons, ships, articles in London price current, medicines, ship’s indent book, and an easy means of reference toWalker’s Critical Pronouncing Dictionary,
whereby Every Word therein may be most easily signified, to the Exclusion of the tedious Operation of Spelling by Signal.By Thomas Lynn. Second Edition (Carefully revised and further improved.) London 1818.
original at Bodleian 231.g.32This book is interesting largely for the arrangement of its phrase matter. Lynn (1774-1847) was a commander of the East India Company and author of Nautical and Astronomical Tables (1825), Horary Tables for Finding Time by Inspection (1827) and other works, hints of which can be found in the contents of the telegraphic code described here. He was also one of the authors of An Historical and Descriptive Account of China (Edinburgh, 1836), his contribution being a chapter on navigation to China.
Lynn is briefly described at the online pages to The Skilfull Seaman, An exhibition of items from the Foyle Special Collections Library to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar (notes to Case 5). There is an entry on Lynn in the DNB.
BL has the earlier edition : An improved system of telegraphic communications. (Continuation of the general vocabulary. Supplementary vocabulary.), London 1814. Shelfmark 534.l.29.
The following list of contents is based on the Table of Contents found in the volume, which, however, does not accurately reflect what is in the book, whose pages have no folios.
- Instruction to the Second Edition.
The Introduction explains the incorporation of
Mr. Walker’s stereotyped
Critical Pronouncing Dictionary at pp xxvii-xxxi, starting here. The basic idea is to indicateWalker
with a D (forDictionary
) pennant, followed by indicators for page and word-number, respectively.The examples he shows do not exactly match page number, nor even location of folios, of editions available online, but this American edition published in 1818 serves well enough. Lynn’s usage of Walker is presented as a temporary expedient: he has been called to sea again, he writes, so that publication of his work in a complete state iincluding
a simple system of signifying all the words of the English Dictionary,
must await another time. (pp x and xxvii). - Two-Flag Index and Vocabulary.
promised in TOC, but does not appear in the volume. - Three-Flag Index and Vocabulary.
Single words, phrases, some instructions. Some surprising entries, too — for
dear,
forlove,
thoughtless,
turtle.
S83 Turtle. 1 -s. 2 a turtle feast, 3 I will send you some turtle, 4 have you any turtle? 5 I have turtle, 6 I have no turtle, 7 a good beach for turtle, 8 send on shore and endeavor to catch turtle, 9 I intend to try for turtle, 0 there is a fine turtle close to your ship apparently asleep on the water, S come and eat turtle with me!!!
- Vocabulary of the Names of Places, &c.
(Indicated by the Red Pennant.) - Vocabulary of the Names of Persons, &c.
(Indicated by the Blue Pennant.) - Vocabulary of the Names of Ships, &c.
(Indicated by the Blue Pennant.) - Blanks for Local Significations.
(Indicated by the Blue Pennant.) - Alphabet and Spelling Table.
(Indicated by the Yellow Pennant.) - Auxiliary Verbs.
(Indicated by the Yellow Pennant.)followed by main heading Miscellaneous Matter, beginning with
- Articles In Price Current.
(Indicated by the Yellow Pennant.)Terms used in Prices Current, &c.
- Ship’s Tradesmen, Stores, &c..
(Indicated by the Yellow Pennant.)This interesting list, grouped thematically, names the trades equipment pertaining to them. The larger categories are: Ship’s Stores, Boatswain’s Stores, Carpenter’s Stores, Coopers’s Stores and Tools, Gunner’s Stores, Cook’s Stores, Ship’s Steward’s Stores, Sails and Sail-Maker’s Stores, Captain’s Steward’s Stores, and Surgeon’s Stores,
The above followed by two additional sections, not included in Table of Contents —
Instructions relative to Sails.
Two pages of coded instructions, and two pages ofSails with their respective Primes
and
- 1828
A New Code of Telegraphic Signals for Yachts and Pleasure Boats
Richard B. Wynne. Edinburgh, Printed for the Author, 1828
original at Bodleianunpaginated. includes these sections :
- Requisite Flags (pdf 11)
- Introduction (pdf 14-15)
- Local Table (pdf 16-21)
The following Seventeen Signals are made by hoisting the Substitute either over or under one of the flags. The Substitute is represented in the margin by the letter S.
The blanks may be filled up by such local significations or particular sentences as any two parties may previously agree upon.
This Table will be found particularly useful in communications between Steam Boats or other Vessels and their Agents on shore.[this page is lithographed ("Forrester lithog. Edin.r" shown at bottom); other pages showing penants are likely also lithographed.]
- Significations Denoted by the flags when hoisted singly; and alphabet instructions (pdf 22-24)
- Part I. Distinguishing Pendants of Particular Vessels and Signal Posts. Compass Signals. Alphabet. (pdf 26-29)
- Part II. Sentences. (pdf 30-61)
In the first ninety Signals of the following division of the Code, the Substitute is hoised over the Numeral Flags, and is represented in the marginal number by the letter S. - Part III. Flag 7, Preparative.
Numeral Table. Time Table. Persons’ Names. (pdf 62-76)
When any Signal is to be made from this division of the Code, First hoist the Numeral Flag 7, as a Preparative, and when that is answered, make the intended Signal. - Part IV. Flag 8, Preparative
Sea Port Towns, Islands, Headlands, &c. (pdf 78-95)
When any Signal is to be made from this division of the Code, first hoist the Numeral Flag 8, as a Preparative, and when that is answered, make the number of the intended Signal. - Part V. Vocabulary. (pdf 98-187)
Signals made from this Division of the Code, are distinguished by having Four FLAGS hoisted at a time. - Yachts’s Names (pdf 190-211)
- 1832
The United States Telegraph Vocabulary
being an appendix to Elford’s Marine Telegraph Signal Book.John R. Parker. Boston: From the Steam Power Press Office. W. L. Lewis, Printer, 1832.
original at Harvard: Nav 578.32 - 1835
The Universal Sea Language,
being a complete code of signals for day and night. Adapted to the use of vessels of all nations, and requiring no additional flags, or means, but such as are found in every vessel, even the smallest fishing craft... Published also in Danish, French, and German.
Levin Joergen Rohde
Translated from the Danish by Captain H. B. Dahlerup, R.D.N.
Second Edition. London, 1835Bodleian 35.785
Front matter pagination starts at p vi (counting from title page) through xxviii, then code proper 1-175
Flags, phrases,compound
tables.Rohde is mentioned in David Lyndon Woods his The evolution of Visual Signals on Land and Sea (Ohio State University dissertation, 1976), but only with regard to his night signals.
General Contents at p xiv :
I THE GREAT CODE OF SENTENCES, expressed by Pair Signals xv PREPARATORY SIGNAL xvii Introduction xviii SIGNAL TABLE xxii, xxiii Explanation of the Code xxv Contents of each Chapter xxviii Communicating Sentences 1 to 76 COMPOUND TABLE 79 to 123 Alphabetical INDEX to Sentences 171 to 174 II SELECTED SIGNALS, being certain Signals set apart for some of the most important sentences, required to be communicated with as little loss of time as possible
125III THE LESSER CODE OF SENTENCES, expressed by Pair Signals, for the use of vessels not provided with the number of flags required for using the greater Code
127Introductory Remarks 128 SIGNAL TABLE 130, 131 Contents of each Chapter 134 Communicating Sentences 135 COMPOUND TABLE 147 IV SIGNALS to be used by PILOTS to vessels in distress, when it blows so hard that they cannot be boarded
152V SIGNALS to be used by Vessels having lost their Masts, or for Wrecks 158 VI NIGHT SIGNALS 163
Shown below are the underlying flag signals for s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g and for Great and Lesser code vocabularies. The elementary signals run 1-40. —

ex Levin Joergen Rohde, The Universal Sea Language, London, 1835; pp xxii-xxiii, from google scan
Here are sentences taken from Chapter 12 in the
Great Code of Sentences,
with indications for use of the Compound Table, including one instance (1245) with two usages within one sentence. A page from the Compound Table is shown immediately following these sentences. —

ex Levin Joergen Rohde, The Universal Sea Language, London, 1835; pp 60, from google scan
The correct meaning of the signals taken from the Compound Table will always be given in the sentence that precedes it. Some later telegraphic codes employed variations of this technique. Here is the salient passage from the
Directions,
which also provide examples. —This Table is composed of such objects of inquiry and conversation at sea, as generally require to be formed into so many different tables, with each its proper distinguishing signal; such as points of compass, date of the month, day of the week, hour of the day, degrees of latitude and longitude, names of harbours, towns, headlands, &c. The bringing of this heterogeneous matter together into one table, is founded upon the supposition, that a preceding sentence clearly shows the column of the Compound Table to which the signal made refers, or in which the answer to be given must be sought for. And though the signals for this table are the same which are used to express sentences, yet no mistake can happen, as it will always be clear from a preceding signal, whether the signal following, or the answer required, is to be looked for in the Compound Table, or not.

ex Levin Joergen Rohde, The Universal Sea Language, London, 1835
Here are sentences taken from Chapter 15 in the
Great Code of Sentences
—

ex Levin Joergen Rohde, The Universal Sea Language, London, 1835; pp 70, from google scan
The phrase vocabulary in Rohde is rich and interesting (e.g., the sentences regarding piracy); see also pp 125-26 for
SELECTED SIGNALS, being certain Signals set apart for some of the most important sentences, required to be communicated with as little loss of time as possible.
- 1835
A Code of Universal Naval Signals
A Code of Universal Naval Signals, Calculated to afford the means of Communication between Ships of All Nations; and arranged so as to be easily translated into foreign languages: in which are included Night Signals, a plan for boat signals and for a semaphore or telegraph; together with a cypher for secret correspondence.H. Cranmer Phillipps, R.N. London: 1835
on cover : London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, Paternoster Row; and G. Tremlett, Bristol, MDCCCXXXV.
original at Bodleian (35.777)employs five flags — pendant, National Jack, guidon, cornette, two balls, vane and wheft.
The Flags or Symbols used in the following Signals (Plate 1); examples (Plate 2); Size of the Flags; Alphabetical Index of Sentences (xiii-xviii); Sentences (1-17); Auxiliary Words (18-21); Compass Signals and Bearings (22); Alphabet (23); Numeral Signals (24-25); Vocabulary (explanation pp 26-28; 29-54); Alphabetical Index to Vocabulary (55-102); Geographical Table I (103-116); Geographical Table II (117-127); Geographical Table III (128-132); Night Signals (133-137); Fog Signals (138-139); Signals with Bells (139-140); Convoy Signals (141-142); Private Signals and Cypher (143 —
merely by altering the order of numbers in Plate I
); Distant Signals (146); Semaphore & Manual Telegraph (147-148, plus Plate 3); Boat Signals (149-150); Local and Pilot Signals (151); Shipping List (158)The sentences are arranged thematically and, as is the case with the first part of other signal codes, are devoted to distress, navigational, security and other critical communications. The explanation of the
vocabulary
cautions against its use by foreigners without acquaintance with the language. - 1836
The New Semaphoric Signal Book, in Three Parts
containing the Marine Telegraph System, with the Appendix, The United States Telegraphic Vocabulary and embracing the Holyhead Signals, to which is annexed The Boston Harbor Signal Book.John R. Parker. Boston: Printed by Light and Stearns, 1836.
original at Harvard: Nav 578.36 - 1845
The Telegraph Dictionary and Seamen’s Signal Book
adapted to signals by flags or other semaphores; and arranged for Secret Correspondence, through Morse’s Electro-Magnetic Telegraph: for the use of Commanders of Vessels, Merchants, &c.Henry J. Rogers. Baltimore: Published by F. Lucas, Jr., 1845.
original at Harvard: Nav 573.45.3 - 1847
A Code of Signals
for the use of vessels employed in the Merchant Serviceby Captain Marryat, R.N.. Tenth Edition, entirely revised and corrected. London. J. M. Richardson, 23, Cornhill., 1847.
original at Bodleian : 47.312 - 1848
Signal Book for Boston Harbor
by Hudson & Smith. Offices; Observatory, Central Wharf, and Old State House. Boston: 1848. Eastburn’s Press.
original at NYPLpp6-14 phrases; pp 15-77 are telegraphic register (mostly blank in the earlier pages) of vessel names.
- 1851
A Code of Signals
For the use of vessels employed in the Merchant Service. (Eleventh Edition, entirely revised and corrected)Captain Marryat, R.N. London: J. M. Richardson, 1851
original at Bodleian (231.h.11)Dedicated to The Committee of the Society of Ship-Owners of the Port of London.
Note to the Eleventh Edition :
With the view of rendering this Code of Signals as complete and as perfect as possible, there has been added to the present Edition a plate of the Mercantile Flags of those nations whose Merchant Vessels are more frequently met with at sea; the list of Lighthouses has not only been much enlarged in number, but for the first time it has been rendered still more serviceable by the addition of the description of light, whether fixed or revolving, its latitude and longitude, and the number of miles at which it is visible; and to afford greater facility in reference, the Sentences have been further extended by reduplication.
- 1854
Universal Code of Signals
For The Merchant Marine of All Nations, by the late Captain Marryat, R.N., with a selection of sentences adapted for convoys, and systems of geometrical signals.Twelfth Edition.
By G. B. Richardson. London: J. M. Richardson, 1854
original at Bodleian (231.h.12)Successive editions of Marryat introduce changes. This introduces a
second distinguishing pendant,
to accommodate the increased number of Merchant Vessals requiring distinguishing numbers. - 1857
Code international: Télégraphie nautique (quatrième edition)
— Nautique réglemantaire pour les bâtiments de guerre et de commerce Français, acceptée par les gouvernements d’Angleterre, des Pays-Bas, de Sardaigne, de Suède / de Grèce, de Naples, de Belgique, de Prusse, de Novége, de Russie, de l’Uruguay, de Hambourg / d’Oldenbourg, du Chile, de Danemark, d’Autriche, etc., etc. publiée sous les auspices et par les ordres de S. Exc. M. Le Ministre de la Marine et des Colonies / par Charles de Reynold de Chauvancy... Quatrième ÉditionParis: Librairie de L. Hachette et Cie, 1857
original at Stanford - 1855
Reynold’s Code. Polyglot Nautical Telegraph
Reynold-Chauvancy, Charles de. Reynold’s Code. Polyglot Nautical Telegraph for the use of men of war and merchant vessels.Revised by F. H. Simpkinson. London, 1855
title page missing in scan; original at BodleianObservations on the use of the repertory. (xxii)
The subjoined repertory has no pretensions to be a complete dictionary of marine terms and geography; its size is too restricted. The object that the Author has had in view, and which he hopes to have attained, is to give to the Marine Telegraph Code greater extension, by suppressing all causes for slowness and errors, by the addition of numerous phrases, and the suppression of divisions and chapters or series, and to make a vocabulary applicable equally to ships of war and merchantmen...
This work, which will appear shortly translated into various languages, with great care, cannot fail to become general under the protection of the respective Governments; it will permit all vessels to converse as easily as if all the sailors in the world spoke but one uniform language.
note — In 1855-56, the Board of Trade examined 13 codes of signals that had been published between 1808 and 1856, and made recommendations based on that study. In 1857, there was published The Commercial Code of Signals, for the Use of all nations, compiled by John T. Forster and based on those recommendations.
- 1858
Ward’s Code of Signal Telegraph, for Ocean Marine Service, alphabetically arranged
with all the principal seaport towns, light-houses and islands in the world, with their latitudes and longitudes, including North American Lake and River Navigation.William Henry Ward,
inventory of the Marine Telegraph,patented bullet-and-shell moulding machine, turn-tables, etc.
Auburn, N.U.: Published by the Author, 1858
original at NYPLSystem and mechanism, no vocabulary. Twelve (12) pages only — introductory material — of a volume whose table of contents covers pp 14-287. See entry for Ward’s The Ocean Marine Telegraph (1861).
- 1861
Second Edition of Ward’s Ocean Marine Telegraph, Illustrated.
By William Henry Ward, 7, Sackville Street, Piccadilly. London: Published by the Author, January 1861
original at Bodleian (231.e.46)pp5-8 Instructions for using the "Lights" for Night Signals
This system is so well adapted for spelling, taht good operators would prefer it to code-books for maintaining continuous communications.
The following Tables will serve to illustrate the indications, without reference to the Plates — and should be committed to memory...
followed by pages (including unscanned plates) on the fog signals and their use.
followed by title page reading :
Seventh Edition of Ward’s International Prize-Medal Signal Telegraph. Illustrated. / London: W. H. Ward, 24, Union Square, N., and Auburn, New York, United States... 1863), followed by plates 1-3 of Ward’s Night Signals (employing 7 lantern positions), followed by pages devoted to Ward’s Bullet Machine, Shell Moulding Machine, and Self-Centering Railway Turn-Table. - 1864
Universal Code of Signals
For The Merchant Marine of All Nations, by the late Captain Marryat, R.N., with a selection of sentences adapted for convoys, and systems of geometrical, night, & fog signals.By G. B. Richardson. London: Richardson & Compy., 1864
original at BodleianThe Code consists of Six Parts:— 1. A list of English Men of War. 2. A List of Foreign Men of War. 3. A List of Merchant Ships of all Nations. 4. A List of Lighthouses, Ports, Headlands, Rocks, Shoals, Reefs, &c. 5. A Collection of Sentences. 6. The Vocabulary.
- 1866
Universal Code of Signals
For The Merchant Marine of All Nations, by the late Captain Marryat, R.N., with a selection of sentences adapted for convoys, and systems of geometrical, night, & fog signals.By G. B. Richardson. London: Richardson & Compy., 1866
original at Bodleian (231.h.7) - 1866
Code Universel de Signaux
Code Universel de Signaux. À l’usage Des Navires du Commerce de Toutes les Nations, de Frederic Marryat, Capitaine de Vaisseau de la Marine Anglaise; aven une Liste de Yachts, et un Recueil de Phrases à L’Usage des Convois, et des systèmes de Signaux Geometriques, de Nuit, et de Brume.Par G. B. Richardson. London: Richardson & Cie., 1866
original at Bodleian (231.h.8) - 1866
International Day, Night, and Fog Signal Telegraph (first edition — although Google Books
overview
identifies it as 2nd edition)TWith all the chief sea port towns, places, islands, seas, and rivers of the world, alphabetically abbreviated in dictionary order, likewise many useful nautical sentences, etc.
William Henry Ward. London: 75, Hatton Garden, 1866
original at Bodleian (231.h.4)general abbreviations
pp 19-34, including these —B,O,S, — Boston, Mas. U.S.
B,O,U, — Boulogne, France.
B,P, — Be Punctual.
B,Q, — Be Quiet.
B,Q,I, — Be Quick.
B,R, — British.
B,R,&, — British and Irish Steam Packet Company’s Steamer No. ——
B,R,A, — Brazil.
B,R,E, — Bremen, Holland.
B,R,G, — Brig.
B,R,I, — Bristol, England.
B,R,K, — Broke.
B,R,O, — Broken.
B,R,T, — Brest, France.
B,S, — Be Steady.
B,T, — Be Taken.
B,U. — Be Urgent.
B,U,A, — Buenos Ayres, S.A.
B,U,O, — Buoy.
B,U,O,A, — Buoy, or otherwise mark the place.The system is a kind of stenographic shorthand, whose abbreviations are comparable to the Phillips telegraph code, or to mnemonic systems.
pp 35-36 discuss the system of which which the book is a part, along with signal flags, lantern, etc.
...But do not allow yourself to be perusaded that eighty shillings—equal to one hundred francs or twenty dollars—is the price for this little book, as a book. Not so, the price affixed is for the system. The book,
as a book,
is not considered, and will not be in the book tradeas a book
only to be had of the author, who will affix the number and his signature to the bottom of the TABLE, which will be authority for the holder or purchaser thereof, to use book and SYSTEM.The producer of the foregoing is the author of a work on THEOLOGY, entitled
THE TREE OF LIFE IN THE PARADISE OF GOD.
It being a key to the deep things of the Bible, corresponding with the foregoing on signal telegraphy; and is worthy the attention of all who love their bibles...Ward is further described as the inventor and/or patentee of a
self regulating bomb-shell fuze,
abullet compressing machine,
and thecheapest, and easiest turning Railway Turn Table heretofore offered...
For further information, or for any of the foregoing articles—please communicate with their author, W. H. Ward, 75, Hatton Harden, LONDON, whose terms are exclusively CASH.
- 1866
International Day, Night, and Fog Signal Telegraph (second edition)
William Henry Ward. Second Edition of the International Day, Night, and Fog Signal Telegraph, with all the chief sea port towns, places, islands, seas, and rivers of the world, alphabetically abbreviated in dictionary order, likewise many useful nautical sentences, etc.
London: 75, Hatton Garden, 1866
original at Bodleian (231.h.5)32 pages, most given to promotional language and instructions in use; the
abbreviations
are in pp 17-32.With reference to things in general, and new in particular,—first, Is it good?—Second, Will it advantage matters to use it—Third, If used—will it pay?—To all these questions this new system answers YES—at a much less cost in addition—as by it all signal flags and codes are dispensed with. Do you enquire how? The answer will be found by a careful perusal of what follows..."
- 1869
Universal Code of Signals
For The Mercantile Marine of All Nations, by the late Captain Marryat, R.N., with a list of yachts, and a selection of sentences adapted for convoys, and systems of geometrical, night, & fog signals.By G. B. Richardson. London: Richardson & Compy., 1869
original at Bodleian (231.h.10)introduces a "fourth distinguishing pendant," and a correct List of Yachts; other changes include "additional words and sentences inserted in Part V."
other primary sources
- 1824 Histoire de la Télégraphie
Ignace Urbain Jean Chappe. Paris: chez l’Auteur, 1824
transcription of Table of Contents
two scans are accessible, from Michigan and the Bodleian, respectively :
scan 1 : Michigan copy
Histoire de la Télégraphie
This copy contains the plates, which are not always found bound with the text. Naturally, the scans do not capture the line detail of the original. There is no index to the plates, which are referred to in the body of the text.scan 2 : Bodleian copy
Histoire de la Télégraphie
This scan misses page 262; this copy excludes the 34 plates. - 1863 A Handbook of Practical Telegraphy
Published with the sanction of the Chairman and Directors of the Electric and International Telegraph Company. Illustrated with Numerous Diagrams.Robert Spelman Culley. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green. 1863
original at BodleianPreface (vii); Introduction (1); Part 1, Sources of electricity (batteries) (4); Part 2, Magnetism, and the connection between magnetism and electricity (26); Part 3, Resistance and the laws of the current (43); The earth as part of a circuit (54); Part 4, Insulation (59); Part 5, Induction (83); Atmospheric electricity (93); Earth currents or deflections (94); Part 6, Testing for insulation or resistance (96); Part 7, Faults, and the methods of discovering them (103); Part 8, Signal apparatus:— Switches, commutators, or turnplates (126); Printing telegraphs (130); Cooke and Wheatstone’s needle telegraph (146); Part 9, Construction of a line (155); Part 10, The strain and dip of suspended wires (168); Appendix and notes (173); Index (189).
-
Visible Speech Telegraphy
in
Alexander Melville Bell. Visible Speech : The Science of Universal Alphabetics; or Self-Interpreting Physiological Letters, for the Writing of All Languages in One Alphabet, illustrated by Tables, Diagrams, and Examples.
London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co, 1867
original at Bodleian
pp 101-103
- Oakum Pickings
A Collection of Stories, Sketches, and Paragraphs contributed from time to time to the telegraphic and general press, by John Oakum, "A Snapper-Up of Unconsidered Trifles"
(Walter Polk Phillips)
New York: W. J. Johnston, Publisher, 1876
original at NYPLLove and Lightning (7); Old Jim Lawless (11); Thomas Johnson (16); Little Tip McClosky (21); Stage Coaching (28); Posie Van Duzen (41); Block Island (51); Bad Medicine (57); The Bloodless Onslaught (64); Cap. De Costa (68); Uncle Daniel (75); Summer Recreation (83); The Blue and the Gray (87); An Autumn Episode (91); An Old Man’s Exegesis (99); Departed Days (106); Minor Paragraphs (119-176)
- Telegraphic Tales and Telegraphic History
A Popular Account of the Electric Telegraph—its Uses, Extent and Outgrowths
W. J. Johnston
New York: W. J. Johnston, Publisher, 1880
original at MichiganAn expansion of the same author’s Lightning Flashes and Electric Dashes: A Volume of Choice Telegraphic Literature, Humor, Fun, Wit & Wisdom. New York: W. J. Johnston, Publisher, 1877
Passages on codes transcribed here.
- Signaux Télégraphiques
Signaux Télégraphiques adaptés au nouveau langage convenue, classification des signes, etc.
James Nicolson, 1903
original at MichiganProposes a novel system of consonant-vowel pair code-words, each letter-pair given a single Morse-like elementary signal set. Nicolson writes, in 1897:
Uncommon words, or words not generally employed in ordinary parlance, are, for evident reasons, generally used in the formation of telegraphic codes. Our codes provide this requisite, and combined with two alternate series of signals, of odd and even numbers of elementary motions, will prove more intelligible to the telegraph operator than promiscuous signals of from one to five motions, representing the letters of the Official Vocabulary, the words of which are, for the most part, unintelligible to him.
author of —
Telegraphic Signals and International Code Vocabularies, with a suggested reclassification of conventional telegraph signals, etc.
(1897)Telegraphic Vocabularies adapted to Telegraphic Signals.
Whittaker & Co.: London and New York; Robert Grant & Co.: Buenos Aires [printed], 1902-1903Nicolson’s Consono-Vowel Vocabulary for Telegrams in Preconcerted Language. I.— Part I.
(1904)It will be apparent that this System, far from interfering with the phraseology of existing code books, will afford an important economy in the transmission of the same.
000000 EBEBEBEN
000001 EBEBEBOP
000002 EBEBEBUV
000003 EBEBECEP
000004 EBEBECOV >
004196 ECELUPEZ
004197 ECELUPOB
004198 ECELUPUC
004199 ECELUVEBNicolson’s Consono-Vowel Condensor C. for Telegrams in Preconcerted Language (1904)
- Signals and Instructions
Signals and Instructions, 1776-1794: with addenda to vol. xxiv
Julian S. Corbett, ed. Navy Records Society, 1908
- 1876 Banking Telegraphy
- 1872
Watts’s Telegraphic Cypher
Entries in tabular index at left lead to further details for each code — lower down on this very long page — and onward links to external sites (Google Books, &c.). The categories here are:
telegraphic codes,
signal codes, and
related primary material
Related content can be found via:
telegraphic codes and message practice, including a collection of
specimen pages,
an introduction, and a neglected
resources page.