The Phillips Code is a brevity code (shorthand) compiled and expanded in 1879 by Walter P. Phillips (then of the Associated Press) for the rapid transmission of telegraph messages, including press reports.
It was compiled in 1879 by Walter P. Phillips, who explained that he was in large part putting down the collective experience of generations of telegraph operators. In the introduction to the 1907 edition of his book, "The Phillips Code: A Thoroughly Tested Method of Shorthand Arranged for Telegraphic Purposes. And Contemplating the Rapid Transmission of Press Reports; Also Intended to be Used as an Easily Acquired Method for General Newspaper and Court Reporting," Phillips wrote, "Research suggests that at one time, commercial telegraphs and railroads had numerical codes that contained at least 100 groupings. Few survived beyond the turn of the century. The compilation in this book represents the consensus of many whose duties brought them into close contact with this subject."[1]
His code defined hundreds of abbreviations and initialisms for commonly used words that news authors and copy desk staff would commonly use. There were subcodes for commodities and stocks called the Market Code, a Baseball Supplement, and single-letter codes for Option Months. The last official edition was published in 1925, but there was also a Market supplement last published in 1909 that was separate.
The code consists of a dictionary of common words or phrases and their associated abbreviations. Extremely common terms are represented by a single letter (C: See; Y: Year); those less frequently used gain successively longer abbreviations (Ab: About; Abb: Abbreviate; Abty: Ability; Acmpd: Accompanied).
Later, The Evans Basic English Code[2] expanded the 1,760 abbreviations in the Phillips Code to 3,848 abbreviations.
Using the Phillips Code, this ten-word telegraphic transmission:
ABBG LG WORDS CAN SAVE XB AMTS MON AVOG FAPIB
expands to this:
Abbreviating long words can save exorbitant amounts of money, avoiding filing a petition in bankruptcy.
In 1910, an article explaining the basic structure and purpose of the Phillips Code appeared in various US newspapers and magazines.[3] One example given is:
T tri o HKT ft mu o SW on Ms roof garden, nw in pg, etc.>which the article translates as:
The trial of Harry K. Thaw for the murder of Stanford White on Madison Square Roof Garden, now in progress, etc.Notable codes
The terms POTUS and SCOTUS originated in telegraph code, and are included in the Phillips code.[4] [5] [6] SCOTUS appeared in the very first edition of 1879[7] and POTUS was in use by 1895, and was officially included in the 1923 edition. These abbreviations entered common parlance when news gathering services, in particular, the Associated Press, adopted the terminology.
Telegraph operators would often interleave Phillips Code with numeric wire signals that had been developed during the American Civil War era, such as the 92 Code. These codes were used by railroad telegraphers to indicate logistics instructions and they proved to be useful when describing an article's priority or confirming its transmission and receipt. This meta-data would occasionally appear in print when typesetters included the codes in newspapers,[8] especially the code for "No more—the end", abbreviated as "- 30 -" on a typewriter.
Excerpts of the codes
Example abbreviations of the Phillips Code!Code!Expansion Hag Haggle Hz Hazard Igo In consequence of Kf Confer Kft Conflict Kpt Compete Oac On account of Ot Owing to Pcu Preclude Pkg Packing Pkj Package Pmnt Prominent Px Price Pxl Political Rept Repeat Rlav Relative Rpv Representative Sac Senate Committee Scf Sacrifice Sovy Sovereignty Spn Suspicion Thu The house Wam Ways and means _ _ _ _ Paragraph mark Co County Dr Doctor Dx Dash Ea Each Ed Editor Eu Europe Fm From Gb Great Britain Gj Grand Jury Hc Habeas corpus Hf Half Hi High Kg King Ld London Lp Liverpool Lx Pounds sterling Mm Mid-meridian (midnight) Mo Month Mr Mister Oc O'clock Qm Quartermaster Ry Railway Sa Senate Ss Steamship Td Treasury Department Xm Extreme Za Sea Xg Legislate Xb Exorbitant ITC In this connection IQO In consequence of IAB Introduced a bill IAR Introduced a resolution HVNB Have not been Hur House of Representatives GX Great excitement GOH Guest of honor IWR It was reported IXJ It is alleged KAH Knots an hour CIC Commander In Chief UMPS Umpires Editions
- 1879: The Phillips Telegraphic Code for the Rapid Transmission by Telegraph, published by Gibson Brothers Printers
- 1909 Market Supplement
- 1918 edition (implied by an article in the September 1923 edition of the Commercial Telegraphers' Journal, Volume 21[9])
- April 1, 1923, edited by E. E. Bruckner and published by Telegraph & Telephone Age.[10]
- 1925
See also
Notes and References
- Book: Phillips, Walter P. . 1975 . The Phillips Code . Union, NJ . National Telegraph Office.
- Book: Evans, John . 1947 . The Evans Basic English Code . Chicago, IL . John & Clarence Evans.
- News: June 28, 1910. IXX 5 POTUS WI: How News Comes in to 'The Sun' . Indianapolis Sun. 2. In the Sun
's version of the article, the text tri is given as trio and Ms as Msq—evidently typographical errors. - Web site: President of the United States. World Wide Words (copyright Michael Quinion) . 2009-01-26.
- News: On Language; POTUS and FLOTUS. Safire. William. 2009-01-25. The New York Times Magazine . October 12, 1997 . Section 6, p. 28. . N.B.: Mistakenly claims POTUS first appeared in the later 1925 edition..
- Web site: Entry from July 30, 2011 SCOTUS (Supreme Court Of The United States).
- Book: Phillips, Walter. The Phillips Telegraphic Code for the Rapid Transmission by Telegraph. Gibson Brothers, Printers. 1879. Washington, D.C..
- Web site: So Why Not 29? . American Journalism Review . October–November 2007 . 2009-01-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20101212101705/http://ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4408. 2010-12-12. dead.
- Web site: September 1923 edition of the Commercial Telegraphers' Journal, Volume 21. 1922.
- Web site: Morse Telegraph Club, Inc. Sampling of the Phillips Code. 2012-04-17. 2006-09-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20060921034449/http://www.morsetelegraphclub.org/files/phillips.pdf. dead.