text: The Black Chamber, officially the Cable and Telegraph Section and also known as the Cipher Bureau, was the first peacetime cryptanalytic organization in the United States, operating from 1917 to 1929. It was a forerunner of the National Security Agency (NSA).
  History
  Prior to World War I, the only prior codes and cypher organizations maintained by the U.S. government had been some intermittent and consistently abandoned attempts by the United States Armed Forces, such as the U.S. Army's Military Intelligence (MI-8).