Telegraph code book, 'Lieber's Five Letter American Telegraph Code' by B Franklin Lieber, published by The Lieber Code Company Limited, New York, United States, 1915. Number 22711 hand-stamped on front fly-leaf

Telegraph code book, 'Lieber's Five Letter American Telegraph Code' by B Franklin Lieber, published by The Lieber Code Company Limited, New York, United States, 1915. Number 22711 hand-stamped on front fly-leaf.

In the early twentieth century, sending telegraphs was a costly business, and messages were not secure against being read by anyone. For this reason, a number of publishers devised codes that could be used to make telegrams cheaper and less easily read. Many businesses used these code systems, usually indicating on their headed notepaper which codes they used.