Just for fun, here is something I wrote a while back on cable codes. Hope it is of interest.
With the popularity of the book and movie The DaVinci Code, plus the ability and legality of NSA codebreaking and snooping, the idea of codes and ciphers is very much in the public consciousness. But there is also a code connection with guns.
People looking over old gun catalogs often encounter pictures or descriptions accompanied by a string of seemingly random letters. Most think they are some sort of factory or dealer stock number. In fact, they are codes.
In the late 1880's and right through the last part of the 20th century, much international commerce was done by exchange of cablegrams. Rates, as for telegrams, were set on the basis of the number of words, usually counting both the address and the text, but charges were much higher than for domestic telegrams. So, quite obviously, the shorter a cablegram was, the less it cost to send. In order to say the most with the fewest words, commercial cable codes came into use. There were printed code books, and different businesses invented their own codes. These were not limited to guns or even to what we might call "hard" commodities. A Hollywood agent might, for example, cable an overseas movie distributor the name of a movie and advise "EPWCY" if the picture is a charming love story, or "EPWOK" if it is a mystery drama.
In 1920, the catalog of A. Aldazabal of Eibar, Spain, told customers that if they wanted the AAA brand 7.65mm pistol to cable "SUBJO." "SOFOK" would bring the 6.35mm version. The German Adolf Frank Export Company (ALFA) would send a Browning Model 1900 in 7.65mm on receipt of a cable saying "JIEFFESIE" or the Colt M1903 7.65mm hammerless for "POTOX." If the 9mm (.380 ACP) version of the Colt was wanted, "POTIMI" would be get it sent on its way.
There were similar code names for guns and ammunition in catalogs by Savage, Winchester, and almost every company that did any significant overseas business.
Nor were codes and shortcuts limited to text. Companies used short hand cable addresses, almost like the e-mail addresses of today. The cable company would either send the message along (some larger companies had their own cable connections) or would know the full address. Never mind that a cablegram might be addressed to "COLT NEW YORK", it would make its way to Hartford in jig time.
Probably the most famous cable address in firearms history was derived from an old Latin saying, "Si vis pacis, para bellum", if you want peace, prepare [for] war. The Deutsche Waffen und Munitions Company (DWM) thought the idea appropriate for an arms company and adopted the cable address "PARABELLUM BERLIN." They also adopted the term as a trademark for their products, including their new pistol, which they called the "Parabellum Pistol", choosing to ignore the designer, one Georg Luger.
Jim
