Happy Thought for 5 September 2025

Have a Happy Thought: 

At some point in your life, you probably made up a code with some friends. Maybe it was just a few words that you attached a special meaning to, or maybe it was an entire language (and no, pig-Latin doesn’t count, because all the adults already knew it).

Sometimes, though, people come up with codes to communicate more clearly (think the NATO phonetic alphabet to help make sure words are spelled correctly)… but end up just making everything more difficult.

This is a case in point: a cypher code created in the late 19^th century to – apparently – make it easier to send telegrams about new discoveries in Astronomy. My guess is that either very few people used this… or the people that did use this spent as much of their time decoding messages from colleagues as actually doing astronomy.

Here's the first couple of sentences in this explainer about this “cipher-code”…

This concept was pretty complex, but I’m guessing if you really took the time, it would have made it possible to send a lot of dense information in a very short telegram. The explainer then goes on to explain exactly what information goes into each word of the telegram stands for, etc.

This whole process let this message:

The variability of BD + i°, 3408 was discovered by Sawyer, at Cambridge, February 17 (local date). The epoch of minimum is July 17, i5 h 45™ G. M. T., and the period isc* 2o h . The variation of mag. is from 6.0 to 6.8. The variable is of the Algol type.

Be compressed into this telegram:

Direct Sawyer at Cambridge on Don baboon Bakiptik Dapafras Divine Lonitous Bafomous Facile Fafafras Dressy

Given the cost to send a telegram could be as much as $0.57 per word in 1910… a reduction from 50 words to 15 words would save you the better part of a thousand dollars (in today’s money)!

Of course, modern communication methods make this all unnecessary… unless you want to write some post-modern, coded poetry to your friends.

Take this sappy love-poem, worthy of Sappho or Emily Dickenson (ahem…)

Parrot. Bushel Me Seeing You. Deacon, Drover, Deface Lordly. Helmet! Lancet, Linden, Lining. Marble. Love Ledger. Lictor. Mirror, Market. Menace, Mental! Herald.

Translate it yourself using this table, which is just a small portion of the full table in the link below, or scroll down for the decoded version.

deacon	Not a comet
debate	Possibly a nebula
deface	The comet was looked for, but not found.
burden	The physical appearance of the object is as follows:
differ	Was discovered by __ (at __ , on ___ ).
drover	a shower of meteors is now in progress
falcon	will appear in the northern hemisphere
fallow	will appear in the southern hemisphere
flagon	the spectrum is peculiar
funnel	the color of the object is very blue
hammer	the colour of the object is very red
herald	the brightness is decreasing
lictor	(the object) was looked for, but not found
limber	the object has been seen
linden	the object has not been seen
lordly	on account of clouds
market	your signals are not satisfactory
marble	was exchange of signals satisfactory? Answer immediately
mirror	we are not sure
orphan	please do not forward the information to ___
dreamy	the period is long
parrot	zodiacal light
ledger	it is still uncertain
bushel	a comet was discovered by __ at__ on__
helmet	The brightness is increasing!
lancet	On several nights
lining	the object has not been seen here since discovery
menace	Answer by letter
mental	Answer by telegraph

 

Or, in poetry form…

Zodiacal Light

A comet was discovered by (Me) at (Seeing You)

Not a comet! A shower of meteors is now in progress

The brightness is increasing!

The period is long, the object has not been seen.

The object has not been seen here since discovery. Possibly [your love] is variable

Was exchange of signals satisfactory? Answer immediately.

Love is still uncertain

(Your love) was looked for, but not found.

I am not sure. Your signals are not satisfactory

Answer by letter, Answer by telegraph

The brightness is decreasing

Read more, or use the tables to write your own sappy poetry, here: https://archive.org/details/jstor-40667579/page/n1/mode/2up