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FW: Telegram codebook & Renault archivist?



Due to e-mail problems, this may not have made it to the Archives Listserv.

Sharon Lee Butcher
Reference Librarian
AEDC Technical Library
100 Kindel Drive, Suite C212
Arnold AFB, TN  37389-3212
Phone:  931-454-4430
Fax:  931-454-5421
e-mail:  sharon.butcher@arnold.af.mil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Butcher Sharon L Contr AEDC/ACS
> Sent: Friday, August 18, 2000 10:28 AM
> To:   'ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU'
> Subject:      FW: Telegram codebook & Renault archivist?
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Butcher Sharon L Contr AEDC/ACS
> Sent: Friday, August 18, 2000 10:10 AM
> To:   'Archives & Archivists'
> Subject:      RE: Telegram codebook & Renault archivist?
>
> Such a 'logging and lumbering' code was used by a British 'observer' near
> Bergen, Norway,
>  in WWII, to report the whereabouts of the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen
> which the
> Germans had hidden away in fiords. When asked by the telegraph staff
> (certain to have German sympathizers) the gist of the message, the
> observer
> indicated he worked for a lumbering company and that the message contained
> info on type of lumber, linear feet, etc., etc., which his contact back in
> the UK needed to know. It seemed a sufficient explanation, no one in the
> telegraph office well versed with logging lingo. The message was anxiously
> awaited and intercepted by the British, and for all practical purposes, it
> appeared to be a
> lumber matter. With this intelligence, the British were able to begin the
> search for the Bismarck. And, as they say, the rest is history.
> [Butcher.Sharon]
>
>   I was
> instrumental in the restoration of the original laboratory notebooks of
> Dr.
> Charles CrossGoodrich, founder of the BFGoodrich company. It did start out
> basically as a chemical company, primarily in the rubber industry. When
> the
> auto appeared on the scene, the company realized the potential market for
> tires and are most well known for tires (although they no longer make
> them,
> they license out the name). Goodrich, a medical doctor in the Civil War,
> turned to chemistry after the war, and his original lab notebooks are all
> written in code.
>
> Sharon Lee Butcher
> Reference Librarian
> AEDC Technical Library
> 100 Kindel Drive, Suite C212
> Arnold AFB, TN  37389-3212
> Phone:  931-454-4430
> Fax:  931-454-5421
> e-mail:  sharon.butcher@arnold.af.mil
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:       Richard G. King Jr. [SMTP:kingr@U.ARIZONA.EDU]
> > Sent:       Friday, August 18, 2000 9:43 AM
> > To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
> > Subject:    Re: Telegram codebook & Renault archivist?
> >
> >
> > Michael Tarabulski wrote: I'm working on a project that involves some
> > diaries from 1925.  Mentioned in the diaries is a telegram code book. As
> I
> > understand it, in those pay-by-the-word days, this codebook helped you
> > save money on telegrams.  You'd say, "porkchops and applesauce,
> > Sweetheart,"  and that would mean a whole lot more.  I have never seen
> > such a book...me, a former railroad telegrapher.  Anybody
> > know where to find one?
> > Michael,
> > Don't know where to find one offhand but I used to own one.  I believe
> > they were of two sorts, commercially available ones and ones developed
> by
> > individual businesses with there own codes.  The one I had (I believe)
> > listed single word codes e.g., "peanuts" and the text equivalent e.g,
> "Buy
> > all the machine gun bullets you can".  I believe these were called
> > commercial telegraph codes.  Of course since
> > everybody could buy and therefore understand what you were sending many
> > companies developed their own codes.  If that's the case you would have
> a
> > hard time deciphering coded entries or telegrams without the original,
> > proprietary key.  Dick King << File: Card for Richard G. King Jr. >>

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