#telegraphic code

  Echoic       In the absence of Enucleate       Act-ion   Exhaling       Alphabet Tunicate       — word not understood   Estray       Advised in error Excogitate       All   Oarlock       In hands of Narratory       Fate   Strewment       At sight Riptide       Position (Standing)   Roam       As far as possible Urceolate       2025

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ex The American Bankers Association Code “ABACO” (1951) i-xii, 1-340

"In December 2013, a curator and archaeologist purchased an antique silk dress with an unusual feature: a hidden pocket that held two sheets of paper with mysterious coded text written on them. People have been trying to crack the code ever since, and someone finally succeeded: University of Manitoba data analyst Wayne Chan. He discovered that the text is actually coded telegraph messages describing the weather used by the US Army and (later) the weather bureau. Chan outlined all the details of his decryption in a paper published in the journal Cryptologia. [...]

When Rivers-Cofield turned the dress inside-out, she found a small hidden pocket. Many women's dresses of the era had pockets, but this one would only be accessible by hiking up the overskirt. She puzzled over why anyone would make a pocket so inaccessible and thought it might have been used to smuggle messages. Hidden inside, she found two sheets of wadded-up translucent paper measuring about 7.5 inches by 11 inches. The text on each sheet consisted of 12 lines of recognizable common English words—except they made no sense. "Bismark omit leafage buck bank"? "Paul Ramify loamy event false new event"? [...]

With the invention of the telegraph, "For the first time in history, observations from distant locations could be rapidly disseminated, collated, and analyzed to provide a synopsis of the state of weather across an entire nation," Chan wrote in his paper. But it was expensive to send telegrams since companies charged by the word, so codes were developed to condense as much information into as few words as possible.

The challenge was figuring out which code book had been used since, otherwise, it would be nearly impossible to decode the message. Chan perused some 170 telegraphic code books, finally coming across a section about signals used by the US Army Signal Corps that were similar to the pages found in the antique silk dress. Eventually, he realized that the words were codes used by weather stations in the US and Canada to condense telegraph messages about meteorological observations. He relied on old maps to narrow the date to May 27, 1888."

7915 . 20250415

within   to load at Chittagong wittiness   to load at Ahyab woman   to load at Rangoon wonderfulness   to load at Bassein — workmanly   to load at Ahyeb, Rangoon, Bassein, or Moulmein, one port only, a cargo of rice — worry   or on the Continent between H & H both inclusive

printouts surfaced here (couldn’t recall the source, at first), same day as scribble (no connection, so random this living), from Code télégraphique privé d’une maison de commerce impr. de Lemale (Le Havre), 1874

back cover, 90º cw (link) Telegraphic Code between New Bedford, Massachusetts, and San Francisco, California, kept by J. and W. R. Wing. (1883) New Bedford Whaling Museum, via archive.org : link

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Abandon       We have arrived all right Abator       [Bark] A[dmiral]. Barker arrived Abbess       [Bark] Atlantic arrived Abbot       [Bark] Fleetwing arrived Abdicate       [Bark] John Dawson arrived   Abet       Whales beginning to arrive   Advice       Have offer for sperm oil Affable       Have offer for whale oil Affair       Have offer for whalebone   Affirm       Think some are selling sperm oil export Afflict       Think some are selling sperm oil home use Afford       Think some are selling whalebone   After       Getting along well here Against       Your family as well as usual Agent       When do you start for home Ahead       Start for home in a few days Aid       Start for home tomorrow   Aim       How much whale oil will be sent East in Vessels Air       How much whale oil will be sent East in tank cars

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  By, and by.                                     48 ₁ Do, does, doing.                                     49 ₁ Else, where.                                     54 ₁ Ever.                                     55 ₁   Where, ever.                                     92 ₁ Weather.                                     875 ₁ Whether.                                     881 ₁ Weather.                                     885 ₁   Noon.                                     61 ₂ Nor.                                     62 ₂ Nobody.                                     63 ₂ Nothing.                                     64 ₂   Beacon.                                     188 ₂ Bow.                                     189 ₂ Breeze, s.                                     190 ₂ Baffle, s. d.                                     191 ₂   Chafe.                                     230 ₂ Chain.                                     231 ₂ Channel.                                     232 ₂ Character, s, ized.                                     233 ₂   Cold.                                     247 ₂ Combination.                                     248 ₂ Communicate, s, d.                                     250 ₂ Compose, s, d.                                     251 ₂   Hard, er, ly.                                     404 ₂ Harden, s, ed.                                     405 ₂ Havoc.                                     406 ₂ Hazard, s, ed, ous.                                     407 ₂   Influence, d.                                     432 ₂ Ink.                                     433 ₂ Instance.                                     434 ₂ Undo, did, done.                                     604 ₂   What, ever.                                     631 ₂ When, nce, ever.                                     632 ₂ Where, ever, of, on.                                     633 ₂ Wherry.                                     634 ₂   Tie your bouquet more accurately.                                     140 ₃

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ex The floral telegraph; or Affection’s signals, by the Late Captain Marryatt [sic]. London : Saunders and Otley, [1850?] Cornell copy, accessible at hathitrust : link

₁ : from Vocabulary, Part I, “One knot to be tied on the string between each number [i.e., flower].” ₂ : from Vocabulary, Part II, “Two knots to be tied before each number.” ₃ : from Vocabulary, Part III, “Three knots to be tied before each number.”

see Daniel Wuebben, “Captain Frederick Marryat and the Floral Telegraph; Or, a Forgotten Coder and his Floral Code,” Victorian Literature and Culture 42:2 (June 2014) : 209-233 : link (no access); link (readable, at least)

  Umbonulate     Don’t fear — — Umbrageous     Don’t fear we are working carefully Umbralabas     Don’t fear we are well Umbralada     Don’t fear here is no confusion Umbralamos     Don’t fear here no cholera — Umdecken     Don’t keep — Umdraengen     Don’t keep longer Umdrehen     Don’t keep privately Umdrehung     Don’t keep ready Umdruck     Don’t keep share — Umduften     Don’t load

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ex Telegraphic Code Prepared by Anundjee Roognathjee (? Anandji Raghunáthji, as listed in Bengal Library catalogue for first quarter, 1897, here), Freight Broker, Calcutta. “Code words taken from The Official Vocabulary by the International Telegraph Office of 1894.” Printed by Narayan Chandra Ghosh at the Criterion Press, No. 115 Amherst Street (Calcutta, 1896) : 203-204 title page, at archive.org National Library of India, Kolkata copy, here

  17148       Your accounts are puzzling 17149       Your accounts are wrong   17412       Be careful of weights 17413       Be careful of color and roots   17533       Do 17534       Please do

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ex Private Jute Code, compiled by A. C. Sen. Manager, Khetter Mohun Dey & Co. Chandpur. Tipperah. [now Chandpur District, Chittagong Division, Bangladesh]

Bengal Library accession stamp (4 August 1910) now National Library of India (Kolkata) copy, via archive.org

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  17662       Landed 17633       Landed in bales 17634       Landed in drums 17665       Landed in loose 17666       Landed per rail 17667       Landed per steamer 17668       Landed per country boat 17669       Landed Goalundo thence by rail to Calcutta   17671       We have landed   17785       See 17786       See about   18276       Nobogram Rope Works and Jute Waste Factory (M. N. Dass & Co, agents)

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ex Private Jute Code, compiled by A. C. Sen. Manager, Khetter Mohun Dey & Co. Chandpur. Tipperah. [now Chandpur District, Chittagong Division, Bangladesh]

Bengal Library accession stamp (4 August 1910) now National Library of India (Kolkata) copy, via archive.org

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