The Phillips Code 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 ...

(shorthand) created in 1879 by

Walter P. Phillips Walter Polk Phillips (June 14, 1846 – January 31, 1920) was an American journalist, telegrapher, and inventor who created the Phillips Code, a brevity code which introduced the abbreviations POTUS, for president of the United States, and SCOTU ...

(then of the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

) for the rapid transmission of press reports by

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

. It defined hundreds of abbreviations and initialisms for commonly used words that news authors and copy desk staff would commonly use. There were subcodes for commodities and stocks called the Market Code, a Baseball Supplement, and single-letter codes for Option Months. The last official edition was published in 1925, but there was also a Market supplement last published in 1909 that was separate. The code consists of a dictionary of common words or phrases and their associated abbreviations. Extremely common terms are represented by a single letter (C: See; Y: Year); those less frequently used gain successively longer abbreviations (Ab: About; Abb: Abbreviate; Abty: Ability; Acmpd: Accompanied). Later, The Evans Basic English Code expanded the 1,760 abbreviations in the Phillips Code to 3,848 abbreviations.

Examples of use

Using the Phillips Code, this ten-word telegraphic transmission:

ABBG LG WORDS CAN SAVE XB AMTS MON AVOG FAPIB

expands to this:

Abbreviating long words can save exorbitant amounts of money, avoiding filing a petition in bankruptcy.

In 1910, an article explaining the basic structure and purpose of the Phillips Code appeared in various US newspapers and magazines. One example given is:

T tri o HKT ft mu o SW on Ms roof garden, nw in pg, ''etc.''

which the article translates as:

The trial of Harry K. Thaw for the murder of Stanford White on Madison Square Roof Garden, now in progress, ''etc.''

Notable codes

The terms POTUS and SCOTUS originated in the code. SCOTUS appeared in the very first edition of 1879 and POTUS was in use by 1895, and was officially included in the 1923 edition. These abbreviations entered common parlance when news gathering services, in particular, the

, adopted the terminology. Telegraph operators would often interleave Phillips Code with numeric wire signals that had been developed during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

era, such as the 92 Code. These codes were used by

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

telegraphers to indicate

logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

instructions and they proved to be useful when describing an article's priority or confirming its transmission and receipt. This

meta-data Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...

would occasionally appear in print when typesetters included the codes in newspapers, especially the code for "No more—the end", abbreviated as "- 30 -" on a

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selective ...

Excerpts of the codes

Editions

* 1879: ''The Phillips Telegraphic Code for the Rapid Transmission by Telegraph'', published by Gibson Brothers Printers * 1909 Market Supplement * 1918 edition (implied by an article in the September 1923 edition of the ''Commercial Telegraphers' Journal'', Volume 21) * April 1, 1923, edited by E. E. Bruckner and published by ''Telegraph & Telephone Age''. * 1925

References

{{reflist 1879 introductions Brevity codes Encodings Telegraphy Shorthand systems Writing systems

Examples of use

Notable codes

Excerpts of the codes

Editions

See also

References