Telegraphic Codes

—Cipher systems, used in telegraphy for the sake of economy and secrecy. No cipher word may exceed ten letters, nor may it be a nonsensical or made up word, but one taken from civilized languages. Codes may be arbitrary or selective. In the former case, one word means a definite phrase or term, according to the vocabulary of the parties interested. With the latter, each word is regarded as a numeral of six to ten figures; each two figures represent a definite idea according to their position, the combinations being apparently numberle , yet easily translatable with the proper key. As an example, me age containing 144 code words, when translated, occupied 75 foolscap pages of typewritten matter,