China's Telegraph Code: Thousands of Characters by Number You cannot tap an alphabet that does not exist. This guide explains the four-digit codebooks that carried Chinese characters down the wires for a century. Quick facts First codebook Viguier, 1871 Digits per character four Index by radical + strokes Dates and money figures layer Errors checked by context The dictionary was the interface: look up the character, send four digits; at the far end, look up the digits and brush the character back onto the form. Slow, exact and entirely workable - proof that Morse needs no alphabet to cross a language. Free tool and guides: Morse Code Works Morse Code Works - free Morse code tools and guides. Reference chart