[ETS/PARC List] [QCWA] Re: History of Morse Code]
Drew Moore
drumor at optonline.net
Tue Aug 26 15:13:35 EDT 2008
Here is a very good (and short) history of Morse Code (CW). It was
distributed on the QCWA reflector.
73 --... ...--
Marvin
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TELEGRAPH
This is interesting and I learned a couple of things from
this. Note the ( ) sections where he graphically represents the
"dots & dashes" and pay attention to the "spaces" between the
characters; they are important to those of us who "copy the code".
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872) was born in Charleston,
Massachusetts. He was talented as an artist in his youth. He
studied art, mathematics and science at Yale College. He considered
electrical and chemical studies "instructive and amusing." He
graduated from Yale College in 1810 and decided to devote himself
to the study of art and he went to London in 1811 to study art
there. By 1815 he had become recognized as an artist of
considerable talent in England and returned to the United States.
By 1825 he was also quite well known as a successful artist in this
country.
In 1825 he returned to Europe for further study and stayed
three years. On his return trip to the United States in 1832,
during dinner conversations with a fellow passenger on the SS
Sully, he became interested in science again upon learning what he
considered to be a very astounding fact: that electrical impulses
(on and off conditions) apparently traveled instantaneously (as far
as then could be determined) over any known length of wire. From
that time on Morse could think of nothing else but how to put that
phenomenon to use as a means of communication. He completely
abandoned his career in art, except for teaching, (to gain his
living) in favor of developing the "telegraph" -- a means of
"writing" at a distance.
He arrived home from his 1832 voyage aboard the SS Sully
without funds. His brothers, Sidney and Richard gave him a room on
the top floor of a building they owned. There he lived and
developed his ideas about how to build the telegraph. He took a job
at the, then new, University of New York teaching art. It was a
poor-paying job and he spent all the money he could get his hands
on to work on his invention. One of his fellow professors, Leonard
D. Gale, became interested and helped him.
In those days one could not buy insulated magnet wire as we
have today. He and any help he could get had to wrap the bare wire
with cotton thread for insulation, by hand, of course! They had a
crude working model by 1837, but investors found it interesting,
even amusing but wouldn't invest in it. This may have been due to
the "code" system that he proposed using -- more on that later. One
person watching the demonstration of this first, crude model was a
young student, Alfred Vail. His father and brother were owners of
an iron and brass works in Speedwell, New Jersey. Vail offered to
manufacture a sturdier, more practical set of "instruments" for the
telegraph. He thereby became a partner with Morse with a quarter
interest in the invention. The story has been told that not only
did Vail contribute to the success of the hardware, but that he had
a hand in developing the two versions of the "Morse code" as well.
In 1838 Morse tried to get Congress interested in funding a
trial run of the telegraph but Congress refused funding for it. He
then went to Europe in 1840 and got no help there from either
France or England. Back in the U.S. he made an attempt to
demonstrate his invention publicly in 1842. He had a specially made
waterproofed cable laid under water from the Battery in lower
Manhattan to Governor's Island, just off the southern tip of
Manhattan. The newspapers carried an announcement of the
demonstration and there was a crowd of on-lookers present and all
was ready to go, when a ship dropped anchor right over the cable
and broke it before the demonstration could get underway. The crowd
went away angry, saying it was all a hoax.
Finally at the end of its session in 1843, Congress passed a
bill appropriating $30,000 to test the telegraph. A wire was strung
from the Capitol Building in Washington to the City of Baltimore,
Maryland. On May 24, 1844, Morse sent the now famous message: "WHAT
HATH GOD WROUGHT" [.-- .... .- - .... .- - .... --.
. . -.. .-- . .. . . ..- --. .... -] over that wire.
After that, Morse and his telegraph quickly became famous
throughout North America and Europe.
Morse's original concept was not based upon the idea that
anyone could learn to read the code by ear. His machine was
designed to make marks on a moving paper tape in response to opens
and closures of the circuit made on the sending end of the line.
These marks he called "dots." According to his early plans (the
1837 model, no doubt) these dots would represent the numerals 0
through 9. [Note that this is similar to the system used in many
municipal fire-alarm box setups used to this day] Messages,
according to this concept, would then be composed of 5- or 6-digit
numerals to identify words taken from a dictionary where each word
in the language would be identified by a number. The receiving
operator would read the numbers off the tape and look up their
meanings in a copy of that dictionary. Vail, it is said, was the
one who dissuaded Morse from that idea in favor of a code where
each letter would be represented by a unique combination of "dots"
and "dashes" -- the latter just a longer mark on the tape. It is
quite possible also that it was Vail and not Morse who designed
that code which now bears Morse's name. The first version of the
code was like that of our International Morse code as used today,
but without numerals or punctuation. It is not clear how that
version was exported to Europe: perhaps in Morse's unsuccessful
"sales" trip to France and England in 1840. But it is certain that
when the telegraph began to be used in Europe, that was the version
that they used from the very beginning and it became known as the
Continental Morse Code. The numerals and punctuation were
apparently added there, also.
Before the 1844 successful demonstration a different version
of the Morse Code was developed, possibly by Vail, but that is not
certain. In this newer version the letters were represented by
combinations of dots, dashes and spaces. This version was somewhat
faster than the original version. It is the one that Morse used in
his 1844 demonstration message. That version was used on all
telegraph lines in the United States and later in Central and South
America and it became known as the American Morse Code. At this
point I would like to dispel a common notion among radio folks:
that there is some reason that the American Morse, the landline
code, can only be used on a sounder and the Continental Morse (now
the International Morse Code) can only be used with on-and-off
tones. This is not the case, either code can be used for either
mode.
As I stated before, Morse had no idea that operators could
learn to read (and make copy) of these dot-and-dash signals by ear.
It was only after the tape machines had been in use for some time
that it was found that the operators were writing the messages by
sound rather than reading the marks off the tape, reading the
clicks of the receiving apparatus by ear! Soon a device called a
sounder became the receiving device of choice in place of the
moving tape machines that Morse and his associates had labored so
long to perfect.
To the untrained ear the telegraph sounder makes only a series
of oddly spaced clicks and clacks, however, the skilled operator
can easily distinguish between the "down-click" and the "up-clack"
and thereby sense the length of the bit to determine whether it be
a dot or a dash (or a long dash).
In the telegraph's heyday a skilled operator could make copy
on a "mill" (typewriter) at 40 WPM or better, right through the
noise those old mechanical typewriters made themselves. In
addition, by using Phillip's Code (a set of abbreviations developed
for that purpose) actual speeds up to well over 55 WPM were
commonly achieved. When using the Phillip's Code the receiving
operator would "fill" the text, that is he would spell out the
words in full that came over the wire in abbreviated form. This
mode was used by the various news-wire services in sending "press."
(news items) The public-correspondence telegraph companies, such as
Western Union and Postal Telegraph, however, spelled everything out
in full in the texts of messages, including numerals and
punctuation, a practice continued to this day in amateur-radio
message handling.
When "wireless" came along some 60 years after the invention
of the landline version, American Morse was used in the United
States at first and the Continental Morse was used in Europe.
Wireless signals (radio, of course) were generated almost
exclusively by some form of spark-gap generator and those spark
signals greatly resembled natural noise, especially atmospheric
static (QRN). It was found that the American version of the code
with its spaces within some letters was more difficult to copy in
the presence of atmospherics. Actually, I believe there was a lot
more to it than that, but none-the-less it was decided that the
Continental version of the code did a better job on wireless than
the American (land-line) version and so almost all wireless was
carried on via the Continental Morse code. This happened well
before the advent of continuous-wave type signals generated by
vacuum tubes, that later were used in the first successful amateur
trans-atlantic QSOs in the early 20's. It has been the only aurally
copied code used for manual radio telegraphy since that time,
except for a few American-Morse buffs who use that code regularly
on 80 meter CW. Yes, it's legal for U.S. amateur use, provided the
station ID (callsign) is sent in International Morse, that being
the name by which the Continental Code has been called since
sometime in the early 30's.
Some of the things we do or say today in ham radio have their
origins in landline telegraphy customs and jargon. Laughter in
American Morse was HO (.... . .) this has led to our rather silly
HI (.... ..) in hamdom, (omitting the internal space of the Morse
letter O). Despite some sources' claim that our rather widely used
OK (or okay) came into use during the presidency of Martin
VanBuren, (1782-1862) as an abbreviation of his nickname,"Old
Kindernook," I strongly dispute that, it was strictly a telegraphic
signal and was not an abbreviation for anything. No, "OK" was
strictly a telegraph prosign, to use the modern designation. The
signal UA (..- .-) was used as a question, much as we use "OK?"
today, and the affirmative answer was OK (. . -.-).
Because of the existence of such number signals as 73 and 88,
one might imagine that there was a whole list of such signals in
general use, but I can find none. Oh, there were number signals
used but in general they were private codes used within certain
systems and none of wide-spread use. The signal 73 (--.. ...-.)
was originated by a veteran telegrapher, James Douglas Reid, who
called it the "symbol of fraternity," not "best regards," as it is
now generally accepted to mean. The signal 88, has no such history
in telegraphy, being strictly of later, ham-radio origin. The
signal 30 (...-. ___) was used on press circuits to indicate "end
of article." This has been carried over into general radio
practice, including ham radio, as the signal SK (...-.-), "end of
work".
The character (. ...) is American Morse for the ampersand (&)
and it is still used today in ham radio, but the space in that one
makes it come out "ES" in the International code. The American
Morse for comma (,) is (.-.-) and we still use that in CW message
handling for the separation between lines in the address. Also
landline Morse for zero is the long dash (___) but our modern
electronic keyers won't make the long dash, so we frequently hear
zero being sent as (-), which comes out T. So general was the
practice in the earlier CW days, of sending the zero as a long
dash, that when the tenth, or zero, call area was initiated by the
FCC after World War 2, they saw fit to mention in the regulations
that the zero in the callsign must be sent (-----) and not (___).
I hope everybody enjoys reading this as much as I have enjoyed
putting it into print.
ADDENDUM
For those not familiar with the American Morse (landline)
Code, here is a tabulation of that system.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
A .- N -. 1 .--. & . ...
B -... O . . 2 ..-.. / ..--
C .. . P ..... 3 ...-. ! ---.
D -.. Q ..-. 4 ....- : -.- . .
E . R . .. 5 --- ; ... ..
F .-. S ... 6 ......
G --. T - 7 --..
H .... U ..- 8 -....
I .. V ...- 9 -..-
J -.-. W .-- 0 very long dash
K -.- X .-.. period ..--..
L long dash Y .. .. comma .-.-
M -- Z ... . ? -..-.
And for those not familiar with the original Continental Morse
Code here is a tabulation of that system. Now called International
Morse.
_________________________________________________________________
A .- N -. 1 .---- & . ...
B -... O --- 2 ..--- / -..-.
C -.-. P .--. 3 ...-- : ---...
D -.. Q --.- 4 ....- ; -.-.-.
E . R .-. 5 ..... Ä .-.-
F ..-. S ... 6 -.... É ..--
G --. T - 7 --... Ö ---.
H .... U ..- 8 ---.. Ñ --.--
I .. V ...- 9 ----. Ü ..--
J .--- V ...- 0 ----- apostrophe
K -.- W .-- period .-.-.- .----.
L .-.. X -..- comma --..--
M -- Y -.-- ? ..--..
Written by
J. Harvey Chase W4TG
Posted on net by
Chas.McCook K4YC
>
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