The telegraph manual: a complete history and description of the semaphoric, electric and magnetic telegraphs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, ancient and modern.

ENGLISH INTERNATIONAL TARIFF. 789
RULES AND REGULATIONS-THE HAGUE RANGE.
The A ustro-Germanic Telegraph Union, including Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Wirtemberg, Holland, Hanover, Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
and Baden.
1. A single dispatch, including the names and addresses of both sender
and receiver, is to contain from one to twenty words. Half the price
of a single dispatch is to be charged for every additional ten words or
fraction of ten words.
2. Words must not exceed seven syllables; the overplus is to be counted
as one word.
Compound words not coupled by hyphens are to count as one word.
Words coupled by hyphens are counted separately.
Words or letters, followed or preceded by an apostrophe, count as one
word.
Hyphens, apostrophes, and other stops, are not reckoned.
Syllables, such as " Van," " Van-der,"7 " de,' - le,"' lu " s,'"St.,"
and the like, which precede proper names or words, are counted as separate
words.
Commas and parentheses are not reckoned. Words underlined count
as two words. Marks indicating a new line count as words.
Signs or marks which cannot be telegraphed are spelt as words, and
counted as such.
Example: ( ) " " -- &c.
That is, instructions must be given at the end of message, explaining
which words are to be so marked; and these instructions must be counted
and charged as part of the dispatch.
3. A single letter counts as one word.
Words, such as' "Winemerchant,"' Regentstreet,f " Postoffice," "Linendraper,"' "Onepenny.7"' Threepence," &c., up to a Elevenpence," if
written in one word, are counted as one; but if separated by hyphens, or
separately written, they count as two words.
1 1 1
NOTE. -" Telegraphenantwort,"'-Bestmoglichst," "Damppfschiffschlepfahrtsgesellschaft," and the like, are to be counted as one word.
4. In private messages every separate group of five figures or less, count
as one word; if a group of figures contain more than five, it reckons as
two words up to 10 figures, and so on.
Compound numbers, written in figures, count in the same manner, the
stroke or sign which divides them reckoning as a figure-thus: 1- is one
word, and 1J two words. 20s., 25s., 30s. 6d., 40s. 6d., 45s. 6d., and the
like, count as one word.
Decimal points and signs of division count as figures.
5. Numbers, when written together in letters. as twenty-four, thirtysix, &c., are to be counted as syllables, and to be charged at the rate of
seven syllables per word; the overplus, if any, to be counted as one word;
but if written separately, as twenty four, thirty six, they must be charged
as two or more words. This rule is also applicable to compound numbers, as one eighth, three sixteenths.
6. In secret (government cipher) dispatches, the ciphers and letters,
as also the commas and all other signs used in "cipher writing," are
counted together, and the sum divided by "three;" the quotient gives the
number of taxable words, the surplus to be reckoned as one word.