A wire signal is a
brevity code
Brevity codes are used in amateur radio, maritime, aviation and military communications. The codes are designed to convey complex information with a few words or codes. Some terms are classified to the public.
List of brevity codes
* ACP-131 A ...
used by telegraphers to save time and cost when sending long messages. The most well-known of these was the 92 Code adopted by
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...
in 1859. The reason for this adoption was to reduce
bandwidth
Bandwidth commonly refers to:
* Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range
* Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...
usage over the
telegraph lines and speed transmissions by utilizing a numerical code system for various frequently used phrases.
[
]
92 Code
Several of the codes are taken from ''The Telegraph Instructor'' by G.M. Dodge. Dodge notes:
:Other numerical signals are used by different railroads for different purposes, for instance, the signal “47” upon some railroads means “display signals”; while the signal “48” means “signals are displayed”. The numerals “9” and “12” are frequently used for “correct”. Other numerals are used for the different officials’ messages, agents’ messages, etc.
Codes that are not listed in the 1901 edition of Dodge are marked with an asterisk (*).
In the above list, the numbers 19 and 31 refer to
train order operation
A train order is "an order issued by or through a proper railway official to govern the movement of trains". Train order operation is the system by which trains are safely moved by train orders. It is distinguished from other forms of train opera ...
s, whereby messages from the dispatcher about changes in railroad routing and scheduling were written on paper forms. Form 19 was designed to be passed to the train as it went through a station at speed; Form 31 required hand delivery for confirmation.
Contemporary usage
Today,
amateur radio
Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency commu ...
operators still use codes 73 and 88 regularly, and
-30-
-30- has been traditionally used by journalists in North America to indicate the end of a story or article that is submitted for editing and typesetting. It is commonly employed when writing on deadline and sending bits of the story at a time, v ...
is used in journalism, as it was shorthand for "No more - the end". The
Young Ladies Radio League uses code 33 to mean "love sealed with friendship and mutual respect between one YL
oung ladyand another YL." The other codes have mostly fallen into disuse.
1873 Telegraph Rules from the Lakeshore and Tuscarawas Valley Railway Company
The following code was taken from 1873 telegraph rulebook of the
Lakeshore and Tuscarawas Valley Railway Company of
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S ...
.
See also
*
Morse code abbreviations
Morse code abbreviations are used to speed up Morse communications by foreshortening textual words and phrases. Morse abbreviations are short forms, representing normal textual words and phrases formed from some (fewer) characters taken from the w ...
*
Phillips Code
The Phillips Code is a brevity code (shorthand) created in 1879 by Walter P. Phillips (then of the Associated Press) for the rapid transmission of press reports by telegraph. It defined hundreds of abbreviations and initialisms for commonly use ...
External links
Stuttgart Telegraph Convention 1857 between states of the Austro-Germanic Union.official title "Revised Convention of the Austro-German Telegraph Union, Stuttgart, 3 October 1857, 118 CTS5"? ("Service Instructions" section)
Radiotelegraph and Radiotelephone Codes, Prowords And AbbreviationsInternational Communications: The International Telecommunication Union and Universal Postal Union (page 19)Western Union and the Creation of the American Corporate Order, 1845-1893 By Joshua D. WolffThe Western Union Telegraph Company, rules, regulations, and instructionsWood's Plan of Telegraphic Instruction88, Or How Telegraphers Coded 'Love and Kisses'The Telecommunications Illustrated Dictionary, Second Edition*
ttp://cryptiana.web.fc2.com/code/telegraph2.htm Nonsecret Code: An Overview of Early Telegraph CodesCipher and telegraph codes
References
{{reflist
Encodings
Telegrams
Western Union
Brevity codes