I studied nearly a year selecting a list of words I considered safe to use, analyzing every one from a telegraphic standpoint, as well as from their liability of being misread from manuscript. In many cases several words equally safe, if but one used. Cutting out the words from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary till I had between five and six thousand I considered safe to use as "code words."
Every word added, the danger of error increases, and the more words added the ratio of danger increasing in proportion.
In this selection I gave the benefit of fifteen years' personal experience as an operator and manager, over three years as operator and cipher clerk for the United States Government, and ten of the fifteen as telegraph manager on the Chicago Board of Trade.
In the majority of codes the cipher words are virtually copied as they come out of a dictionary. Many words so little in use that the sending operator for fear of sending one wrong asks to have the words rewritten, thus causing delay that may cost as much as if sent wrong.
During the past thirty-five years The Robinson Telegraphic Cipher has been, and is still in use in nearly every city and town in the United States and Canada having a telegraph office. Thousands using it, yet the errors in transmitting its code words are less even than in messages in plain English. In fact virtually nil.
Its record speaks for itself.
INDEX
See Index on Page 4 of Additional Supplement.