WEBVTT - How Does Morse Code Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum here. Samuel F. B. Morse was a successful

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<v Speaker 1>businessman and a presidential portrait artist. But above all else,

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<v Speaker 1>he's remembered for his eponymous Morse Code, an elegant system

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<v Speaker 1>that revolutionized communications back in the eighteen hundreds. Even in

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<v Speaker 1>the heyday of Silicon Valley and social media, there's still

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<v Speaker 1>a place for this well worn code. Just ask the

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<v Speaker 1>US Navy. It's one of the languages that cryptologic technicians

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<v Speaker 1>learn while training at the Center for Information Dominance, as

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<v Speaker 1>a forerunner to email, text messages, and other near instant

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<v Speaker 1>messaging media. Oh, we think Morse Code deserves a tip

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<v Speaker 1>of the hat, so today let's tell the story. Parts

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<v Speaker 1>of Samuel Morse's backstory read like a tragic Hollywood screenplay.

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<v Speaker 1>He was born in Massachusetts on April twenty seventh of

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<v Speaker 1>seventeen ninety one. National painter Morse found himself working on

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<v Speaker 1>a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette in eighteen twenty five.

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<v Speaker 1>The job had taken him to Washington, d C. Where

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<v Speaker 1>he received a devastating letter. According to the Dispatch, his

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<v Speaker 1>young wife had died back at their home in New Haven, Connecticut. Worse,

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<v Speaker 1>by the time Morse got this message, it was too

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<v Speaker 1>late for him to return in time for her funeral.

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<v Speaker 1>She was laid to rest without him. Such was the

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<v Speaker 1>pace of most long distance communications in those days. But

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<v Speaker 1>Morse was one of the entrepreneurs leading the way into

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<v Speaker 1>the future. He was one of the developers of the

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<v Speaker 1>first telegraphs built in the eighteen thirties. To call any

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<v Speaker 1>loan scientist or inventor the father of this technical breakthrough

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<v Speaker 1>would be misleading. Morse was just one of the visionaries

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<v Speaker 1>behind the telegraph's early development. Despite his limited scientific background,

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<v Speaker 1>Morse had a real passion for electricity. In eighteen thirty seven,

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<v Speaker 1>he showcased a prototypical telegraph that he had built at

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<v Speaker 1>a public demonstration. Like all telegraphs, his sent out pulses

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<v Speaker 1>of electric current via wire. The pulses would make their

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<v Speaker 1>way into a receiver. But this is where Samuel Morse's

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<v Speaker 1>famous code came into play. A Morse's telegraph couldn't transmit

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<v Speaker 1>voices or written characters, yet by capitalizing on those electric pulses,

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<v Speaker 1>he devised a new way to send simply coded messages.

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<v Speaker 1>He did have a brilliant partner by the name of

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<v Speaker 1>Alfred Vail, who helped him refine and expand the system.

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<v Speaker 1>Under the code, every letter in the English language, along

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<v Speaker 1>with most punctuation marks, and each digit from zero through nine,

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<v Speaker 1>was given a unique corresponding set of short and long pulses.

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<v Speaker 1>Long pulses came to be known as dashes, while the

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<v Speaker 1>short ones are called dots. In this early iteration of

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<v Speaker 1>the code, some dashes lasted longer than others, and the

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<v Speaker 1>spaces between pulses varied widely depending on the context. Morse

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<v Speaker 1>soon got the chance to show off his electric cipher.

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<v Speaker 1>In eighteen forty three, Congress gave him a thirty thousand

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<v Speaker 1>dollars grant to build an experimental long distance telegraph between Washington,

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<v Speaker 1>d c. And Baltimore, Maryland. The moment of truth came

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<v Speaker 1>on May twenty fourth of eighteen forty four. Sitting in

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<v Speaker 1>the US Capitol's Supreme Court Chamber, Morse sent a coded

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<v Speaker 1>message along to Vail, who was waiting in Baltimore at

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<v Speaker 1>the other end of the line. A Morse had his

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<v Speaker 1>message ready. At the suggestion of a friend's daughter, he

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<v Speaker 1>transmitted a quote from the Biblical Book of Numbers. What

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<v Speaker 1>hath God wrought a little intense but perhaps appropriately so

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<v Speaker 1>A long distance telegraph lines spread like wildfire over the

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<v Speaker 1>next few decades, so did Samuel Morse's code. During the

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<v Speaker 1>Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln used it to keep abreast

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<v Speaker 1>of battlefield developments, and when Western Union completed the first

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<v Speaker 1>transcontinental telegraph line in eighteen sixty one, A Lincoln received

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<v Speaker 1>its first message, a dispatch sent all the way from

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<v Speaker 1>San Francisco to DC. But meanwhile, as Morse Code took

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<v Speaker 1>hold in other countries, of problems emerged. To address these,

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<v Speaker 1>a German telegraph inspector simplified the system in eighteen forty eight.

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<v Speaker 1>Among other changes, he did away with the extra long

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<v Speaker 1>dashes and revised many of the individual number and letter codes.

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<v Speaker 1>After some additional tweaks were made, this new edition was

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<v Speaker 1>dubbed International Morse Code. Meanwhile, the original version was retroactively

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<v Speaker 1>labeled American Morse Code. Outside of Civil War reenactments, the

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<v Speaker 1>latter is all but distinct Today. In the International code,

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<v Speaker 1>a dashes pulse is three times longer than that of

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<v Speaker 1>a dot. Each letter in the English alphabet is coded

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<v Speaker 1>with a combination of one to four dashes and dots.

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<v Speaker 1>Each numeral zero through nine is coded with a combination

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<v Speaker 1>of five dashes and dots. If your deal with a

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<v Speaker 1>letter that features multiple dots, band or dashes, there should

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<v Speaker 1>be a pause equivalent to the length of one dot

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<v Speaker 1>in between those components. The pauses that separate entire letters

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<v Speaker 1>are longer equal to a dash or three dots, and

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<v Speaker 1>individual words should be divided by even longer pauses, measuring

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<v Speaker 1>seven dots long. Perhaps the most iconic Morse code phrase

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<v Speaker 1>is SOS, a universally recognized distress signal. SOS was first

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<v Speaker 1>adopted as such by German telegraphers in the year nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>oh five. But why did they pick this particular letter combo.

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<v Speaker 1>It's because in international Morse code, S is three dots

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<v Speaker 1>and O is three dashes and dot dot dot dash

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<v Speaker 1>dash dash dot dot dot is an easy sequence to remember,

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<v Speaker 1>even when you're in grave peril. However, although Morse code

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<v Speaker 1>was explicitly designed for the telegraph, people have used it

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<v Speaker 1>in lots of other ways. With the dawn of radio

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<v Speaker 1>telegraph machines in the eighteen ninety, coded messages could travel

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<v Speaker 1>via radio waves, and it can be used visually too.

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<v Speaker 1>Beginning in eighteen sixty seven, ships began using onboard blinker

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<v Speaker 1>lights to flash more signals at each other. Then there's

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<v Speaker 1>the case of Jeremiah Denton, Junior, an American Navy pilot

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<v Speaker 1>and future senator. He was captured during the Vietnam War.

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<v Speaker 1>In a forced appearance on North Vietnamese television, Denton was

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<v Speaker 1>coerced into saying that his captors were treating him well

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<v Speaker 1>behind enemy lines, but his eyes told a different story.

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<v Speaker 1>By blinking. In sequence, he used Morse Code to spell

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<v Speaker 1>out the word torture. Later in the twentieth century, the

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<v Speaker 1>code was largely phased out. The US Coast Guard hasn't

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<v Speaker 1>used it in an official capacity since nineteen ninety five,

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<v Speaker 1>and modern ships are far more reliant on satellite communication systems. However,

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<v Speaker 1>the US Navy, as mentioned above, is still training its

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<v Speaker 1>intelligence specialists in the code. Another group that's showing it

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<v Speaker 1>some love is the International Morse Code Preservation Society, a

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<v Speaker 1>coalition of amateur radio operators with thousands of members around

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<v Speaker 1>the globe. So while the golden age of dots and

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<v Speaker 1>dashes may be over, Morse's code is still hanging in there.

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<v Speaker 1>No discressed signal is required Today's episode is based on

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<v Speaker 1>the article how Morse Code Works and Still Lives On

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<v Speaker 1>in the Digital Age on how stiff works dot Com,

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<v Speaker 1>written by Mark Mancini. Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in

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<v Speaker 1>partnership with how stiff Works dot Com and is produced

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<v Speaker 1>by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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