6 ms·

Also interesting, there is a set of telegraphic codes used to decrease the size of messages due to cost: http://people.eku.edu/styere/Encrypt/ABC4/ http://peop

Also interesting, there is a set of telegraphic codes used to decrease the size of messages due to cost: http://people.eku.edu/styere/Encrypt/ABC4/ http://people.eku.edu/styere/Encrypt/ABC4/ Definitely has to be one of the earliest examples of electronic signal compression.

Scaevolus 10y ago
Even beyond explicit codebooks, telegraph operators extensively used standardized abbreviations, meaning what they actually sent/received was remarkably similar to SMS text-speak, for obvious reasons! "Wr r ty gg r 9" => "Where are they going for No. 9?": http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2015/05/11/history_of_telegraph_operators_abbreviations_used_by_telegraphers.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2015/05/11/history_of_t...