How Codes Were Used To Hack The Telegram Business
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, welcome to the Rest of Science. I'm Hannah Fry. And I am Michael Stevens, and this is an episode of Field Notes, where Hannah or I bring little treats from our lives to show you what we are mulling over, what we're playing with. And we also answer questions from you guys.
We certainly do. I liked how you sort of stumbled on the and I there, like Hannah, or who else could it be? Someone.
Someone else brings things to these. Oh no, it's me. Okay. Well, you know what? We could. We could just pull someone off the street and be like, what's in your pockets? What have you got? That's gonna be the subject of today's episode. When we run out of stuff, Michael, let's
uh let's put that on the
No, no, no. We're we're never gonna run out. But I like the challenge of having to be like, okay, we found this grandmother on the street. She's got like two used tissues in her pocket. We're gonna somehow talk about tissues and mucus and investigate this and make it a thrilling hour long episode. That actually would be a really Also, how
do you get from trees to pay to tissue pay? You know what? There's actually loads there. There's loads there.
Okay. Speaking of which, here's a little teaser for what's coming up later when we answer your questions. There is a way of measuring tissue and towel softness, like an actual unit of softness and tools that measure how soft a tissue is. Like you can you can put some toilet paper into this machine and it'll be like, oh yeah, okay, that's a that's a three. Ooh, that's a twelve. And um so there's look at this. We let's get the grandma. We're already in. Let's cancel our original plans. There's no grandmas today, but there is something very old that I want to show you. I have um had my eyes on this for a very long time. Look at this, Hannah. It is a code book from the 1900s.
Okay, Michael is holding it up to the camera. It's about the size of a business card, maybe slightly larger, slightly larger format. But it is leather bound and it's actually a little notebook when you turn it around. It looks very pretty. Oh, hello. Let's Diaries. It's got an advert on the back, a notice from Messrs. Castle and Company Limited, the exclusive publishers of the unrivaled Let's Diaries. scenarios and other time saving publications. Is that an advert or is that actually what it is? No.
It's an advert. That's completely just an advert that they pressed into the the the the cover. But this is a book. Yeah, it's about the size of like one of those little tiny detective pads you might see in the movies. And it has in quotes on the front just the word Unicode. It is unrelated to Unicode, the standard used on the internet for for um characters. But it's a code book and it's not a code book for spies. It's not a code book for governments or or secret companies. It's a code book for everyday people. It's a codebook For telegrams.
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It's a UK book and a bookseller on ABooks was offering it for like 40 bucks. It was first published in 1886. This is the 1900s edition.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–5:19
2
What is the Victorian telegram code book and why does it matter?
5:19–14:52
3
How did telegrams work and why were messages charged per word?
14:52–21:27
4
How did the Universal Telegraphic Phrase Book compress common phrases into single words?
21:27–29:57
5
What are some surprising examples of coded telegram messages (e.g., “Melania”, “Amygdala”)?
29:57–51:46
6
What historical anecdotes illustrate the evolution from telegrams to modern instant messaging?
51:46–56:55