Morse Code and the Phillips Code

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D.J.J. Ring, Jr.

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Feb 24, 2013, 1:01:10 PM2/24/13
to Radio Officers &c
An interesting email received from Dr. Frank R. Scheer, Curator
Railway Mail Service Library, Inc. 

I hope you find it interesting.

73
DR


This article from D & H 1983 re: Phillips and other codes by Jos. B Milgram may interest you:

     When Walter P. Phillips devised his method of steno-telegraphing his purpose as a press telegrapher was to make easier (and faster) the burden of copying heavy file that embraced thousands of words in news reporting. Some correspondents learned the Phillips code and in some instances , and in some instances wrote their stories in the code, when the stories were to be filed by telegraph.
 
     Moreover, many commercial telegraphers found the code useful and profitable when used on so-called "bonus wires." which paid off for fast and accurate operators on message traffic by exceeding the basic quotas set by management.
 
     Based on American newspaper reporting the Phillips code was used mainly in the U.S.and Canada The morse code itself originated in America and was basically a compilation of thousands of the most used words and phrases in North American newspaper profession.
 
     Morse's code though, originated in U.S. rapidly spread all over the civilized world. Any nation whose alphabet looked anything like the Roman or Latin alphabets had no difficulty in using the Morse codes to the International Continental versions.
 
     But what do you do when your alphabet is like the Chinese or Japanese whose systems are composed of large numbers of idegraphs? Or like the Arabic alphabet whose characters are all free hand, no caps? The Turks, on the other hand use the 27 letters of the International Code, of which four letters (C.O.S.U)have two forms: three letters (Q.W.X.) are missing.
 
     The Greeks employ 31 letters for their telegraphic language.l The word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet- alpha and beta.

     The Russians use 30 letters of Cyrillic alphet for their telegraph needs to transmit their Slavic language.

     The Japanese had one of the most difficult job of devising a telegraph language. They created a special alphabet in which 59 simplified ideographs embraced the requisite telegraph alphabet. It is a separate language from their ordinary language and is called Kata Kana. The Chinese also have one of their own as a substitute for their extensive ideograph writing,and it too. has its own individual name.

     When Marconi proved you could telegraph without wires, conventions of civilized nations were held. The meetings made changes of the original Morse code. Eleven letters were changed, as were all the figures except "four" and all the punctuation marks. This was called the Continental Code, and is the code used by millions of amataesure, "hams". all over the world when the language used is English.

     For economy in time and communication, special codes have been adopted, such as as the Aeronautical Q Code which now includes the former Marine Radio Telegraph.

Bill Merrifield, KA3EWS ....former Naval Radio and Railroad telegrapher

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello, Bill:
 
Thanks for the interesting information about codes.  Best wishes for a great Morse Day on April 27.
 
73,
 
Dr. Frank R. Scheer, Curator
Railway Mail Service Library, Inc.
f_sc...@yahoo.com
(202) 268-4996 - weekday office
(540) 837-9090 - Saturday afternoon
In the 1913 former N&W Railway depot along Clarke County route 723
117 East Main Street
Boyce, VA 22620-9369  USA
 
Please note: only parcels sent via USPS can be accepted at this address.
 

If you have an interest in RPOs, please visit the RailwayPO group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RailwayPO
 
   


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