[CW] Interesting Podcast about Samuel F. B. Morse and Morse Code

Wed Aug 4 13:35:16 EDT 2021

Hi Dave et al.

I listened to the podcast, and here is the review I posted:

"I don't think she was saying "Morris." I just think she has a bit of a
lisp.

However, she certainly is fun to listen to, even if she repeats many
myths;  chief among them, that the death of Morse's wife fueled the
invention of the telegraph.  That tragic event certainly informed him of
the utility of high-speed long-distance communication, but Morse was fueled
primarily by a need for Glory - ego - ala Steve Jobs - and was constantly,
from youth on, looking for a vehicle, any vehicle, that would carry him to
that praise. After his failure to make a big splash in art, he saw the
advantage in being an inventor (it was the age of invention - he was
surrounded by emerging technology at every turn), and tried his hand at
several others (which failed) BEFORE re-visiting the telegraph much later
in life."

= = = = = =

For those who care about such things here's a very brief version of
the "more correct" story.

Morse's was NOT the first commercially viable telegraph - that was the
Needle Telegraph of Cooke and Wheatstone in England, which was deployed on
a British railway line. Sorry America: no Gold Medal for that one. You'll
have to settle for Silver.

Morse was the inventor (conceiver) of the RECORDING telegraph - the writing
down of the "dots and lines" (as Morse and Vail called them). I cannot
explicitly attribute any other specific innovation to Morse. With that
single exception, every other important part of the "Electromagnetic
Recording Telegraph" was invented by others. And as you probably know,
while that recording ability was important, within a few years "copy by
ear" and manual transcription directly into English supplanted the recorder
except where a paper transcript was important for documentation.

Morse not only did not invent (or more correctly: discover) "copy by ear,"
he initially forbade its use on Morse lines. The recorder (register) was
the only arguably unique aspect of Morse's invention, to reduce its central
importance would have been to vitiate the entire patent. Thus it was only
when telegraphers used "copy by ear" in spite of his objections, and the
technique proved itself in use, that Morse retroactively added it to his
original patent.

Note that at the same time Morse added copying by sound to the patent,
Morse wanted to include ANY use of electromagnetism to transfer
intelligence. This, fortunately, was struck down by the Supreme court in a
landmark decision - had it not done so, Morse's patent could arguably have
included the telephone!

Most people don't realize Morse had a partner, Alfred Vail. Every
historical account I've read (perhaps dozens) emphasize that Vail brought
money and mechanical skills to the table. In 1845, Vail wrote a book about
the telegraph, in which he describes the complex solutions attempted on the
way to the final design that sent "What Hath God Wrought" in 1844. He
summarizes the advantage of the Morse system as SIMPLICITY (and he
capitalized it :-).

But it was Vail who brought that simplicity. Morse never did anything
"simply." His work and his art were invariably over-contrived and complex.
This is true of his pre-telegraph inventions (a fire engine pump and a
marble statue-carving machine - really!), his art (the grand "historical"
paintings and sculptures Morse dreamed of making were both contrived and
not particularly original in concept or execution), and his original
telegraph design with its "look-up dictionary" that converted numbers to
words (copying the French semaphore telegraph which he learned of while in
France). His thirst for power and fame - ala Steve Jobs - is what Morse
really brought to the table. He was in it for the glory, which he
grudgingly shared only with God.

It is crucial to realize that Morse and many other inventors
expended huge amounts of time and money trying to ELIMINATE the need for
telegraphers. We were considered a problem, not the solution. Thus the
podcast, like everything else ever written on the subject, fails to
recognize the single most important component that made Morse's system
work; us. Our brains made Morse's system "smart" - while the others were
not. Our ability to read down to the noise, and "imagine the rest" like
Thomas Edison, a brilliant telegrapher himself put it, is why the Morse
telegraph survived. Vail's inventions, in effect the whole of the user
interface, integrated us into the system, and WE enabled the Morse
telegraph to function at the network edge, where conditions, tools,
techniques, and technology were dominant limiting factors. In this context,
more complex systems proved unreliable, and thus even if faster "in the
lab" they were slower on the street.

Thus, since Vail arguably invented the code, the key, the register used,
and a perfectly workable CPO (see pg. 42 of Vail's 1845 book), and because
it was he who trained the first operators, I attribute to Vail the
invention of the most important component in the Morse system: us.
TELEGRAPHERS.

Why is this unknown? Primarily because Vail's contract with Morse was a
sucker agreement that effectively prevented him from doing anything with
the telegraph, except under Morse's name.  Thus the glory went to the
eternally self-promoting Morse, and the money went to others. Vail,
broken-hearted, left the telegraph in 1848 and died obscure and poor.

When Vail died, ALL of his papers and devices were given to Morse; so both
Morse and his heirs had ample opportunity to purge the record of anything
that might contradict the story and dim Morse’s glory. I cannot say with
certainty that occurred, but it is plausible.

Without Vail, we probably would know Morse only for his contributions as an
artist. However, but for Morse, we probably never would have heard of Vail
at all.

73 Chris NW6V

On Wed, Aug 4, 2021 at 5:41 AM Bill KA8VIT <ka8vit at ka8vit.com> wrote:

> I thought it full of inaccuracies.
>
> Morse did not invent the telegraph nor send the first telegraph message.
>
> Morse's telegraph was the first commercially viable telegraph.
>
> And, she kept calling it Morris Code.
>
> As I often correct people, it is not Morris code, it Morse code.
>
> Like horse, but with an 'M'.
>
> Ok, back in my hole.
>
> 73 - Bill KA8VIT/W8COD
>
>
> > On 08/03/2021 8:08 PM Jude DaShiell <jdashiel at panix.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > That was an interesting podcast.  I managed to subscribe to it on google
> > podcasts since the url wouldn't work without a login.
>
>
>
> ====================================
> Bill Chaikin, KA8VIT
> Chief Radio Operator
> WW2 Submarine USS COD SS-224 (NECO)
> USS COD Amateur Radio Club - W8COD
>
> ka8vit at ka8vit.com
> http://ka8vit.com
> http://www.usscod.org
> ====================================
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> =30=
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