The History of Morse Code

The origins of Morse code came after Samuel B. Morse missed the death of his wife due to the lag in communication and had begun to work on a device that would change communication as we know it. In 1836, with the help of Alfred Vail and physicist Joseph Henry, his dream soon came to fruition. But for Morse, a problem soon emerged. What to broadcast on his new invention? Morse's machine ran on pulses of electric current and was unable to send voice messages. But Morse soon realized that he could transmit a code based on these currents and the blank time in between them. Soon, Morse set to work on creating a code for his new machine based on numerals to be then translated by the operators. However, Morse's partner in the project, Alfred Vail, soon stepped in and together the two created a code consisting of several dots and dashes representing each letter in the alphabet. On May 24, 1844, Morse sent the first message in Morse code, What hath God wrought? Originally, Morse and Vail's plan had been to print the codes onto a paper which was to be taken and translated by the operators. However, soon those who used Morse's system discovered they could listen to the raw signal that was being received and make a better translation from this raw signal. This discovery eventually became a standard among telegraphs. Despite being limited to land, Morse's code and telegraph ended up playing an important role in history while still in its infant state, some of which included ending the Pony Express, helping the North win the Civil War, and allowing Nevada to enter the Union when its constitution was sent to Washington by Morse code. By the 1890s, the telegraph had expanded with communication possible between continents with undersea cables and soon, with the help of Mr. Marconi and his wonderful machine, wireless communication between ships and land and eventually air was soon possible. Unfortunately for Samuel Morse, it was not his code that was now circumnavigating the globe. It was international Morse code, created in 1848 by Frederick Clemens Goerke after he noticed disadvantages with the code created by Morse. What Goerke had done was simplify the code, in the process changing about half of Morse's original code. Soon, after a few more changes, this revised code was adopted by the international community as standard, sentencing Morse's original to an obscure secondary code known as American Morse code. International Morse code, eventually in the 1930s, became required on all airplanes and had become a military necessity. Rhythm is indeed the key to good sending. If your code is to mean anything to others in the radio net, then you've got to send rhythmically. However, by this point, Morse code was beginning to near the end of its life, thanks to advancements in the telephone and radio. However, the code continued to persist until 1999, when the code was replaced as the international maritime communication standard with global maritime distress system. The final nail in the coffin came on July 12, 1999, when the last commercial transmittance of Morse code was sent out in the United States, with the very first words that were sent by Morse in 1844, What hath God wrought. This triggered the downfall of Morse code in the world, and it was on July 14, 2013, that the very last telegraph in the world was sent out in India, after becoming too costly. Today, Morse code has been replaced with text messages, cell phones, and social networking. Although it may be gone, it still lives on in its very replacements, as well in several museums and institutions around the world.