Morse Code: A Technology Endangered

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Morse Code: A Technology Endangered

Introduction

Technology has made immense progress since its initiation. The advancements in the area of science and technology have greatly benefited the human race. People in every age and era have taken advantage of these advancements in technology and invented various means to bring ease and convenience in their life.

Communication has been an important need of every person in every era. Not only humans but animals feel the need for communication. The only difference is that an animal communicates in a different manner than humans. They have their own language which humans cannot understand. Humans have their own distinct language, which is formed of words that can be used to form complete sentences, However, humans have also mastered the art of secret communication or communication with the help of the coding language.

There are a number of ways of communication that have been invented by humans to communicate with other people. Some of them were manual and some involved the usage of technology. One of such ways of communication or coding language is Morse Code.

Discussion

The following discussion section will look into the details that what Morse Code actually is, how and why it was invented. This section will also shed light on the facts that why this code or language was actually invented or why and how it was used at that time. The discussion section will also look into the details that how Morse Code has revolutionized our lives, what are the harms and benefits of this kind of code and what are its future implications.

What is Morse Code

Morse Code is a way of communication between two places with the use of a medium and without the use of any language. The code does not make use of any kind of words, numbers or punctuations (Bush). It is, in fact, a way of transmitting or sending the text information from one source to another in the form of a series of dots and dashes, also known as dots or dashs.

The following diagram shows how the Morse Code is represented in different regions of the world.

History of Morse Code

Morse Code was invented by Samuel B. Morse, the same person who invented the Telegraph. The code was created in 1830 by Morse and his partner Alfred Lewis Vail. In the very beginning, the system only consisted of numbers. However, Vail further added some letters and punctuation to it. As soon as the telegraph operators in Europe started using this system or code, the strongly felt the need for a change (Mossoff). The operators demanded improvements as the current system was not able to deal with many diacritic characters used in other languages. It led to the invention of International Morse Code in 1851, and it has remained same since then.

Why was Morse Code Created?

The story behind the creation of the Morse Code is a bit sad. It did not start due to a happy or exciting event but the after-effects or the advancements of that incident proved to be happy and advantageous for the whole world. Morse was a portrait painter by profession. He set up an art studio in 1815 and immediately married the love of his life, Lucretia Walker. In 1825, Lucretia fell seriously ill and lost her life to this illness after giving birth to the couple’s third child. Morse was away on a painting commission at that time and got the news of his wife’s illness very late (Mossoff). Until the time he got the news of her death it was already very late and the burial process had already been done before his arrival. This left a great scar on Morse’s Heart and he decided to make the messaging process much faster and efficient. This led to the invention of the Morse Code.

Benefits of Morse Code

One of the main and most prominent benefits of the Morse Code was it’s ability to send messages over very long distances. Morse Code was used to send messages over hundreds and thousands of miles by the users. One of the other biggest advantages of this code was that it consumed amazingly less power and the message could be sent to the other end in extremely low power consumption. Signals could be sent over longer distances in much less power and cost as compared to a voice message (Mullaney). Moreover, the signals of the Morse Code require much less bandwidth as compared to the signals of the voice communication. One added benefit in this respect is that the Morse Code is a perfect platform for sending messages in a high noise low signal environment as it is extremely easy to filter out the noise in the message.

Harms of Morse Code

Although the messaging code is extremely efficient and fast there are certain harms involved to it too. One of the biggest disadvantages attached to this code is its complexity; the code is not easy to learn and most of the time it is reserved for radio programmers to send and receive messages (Trainor). Moreover sending and receiving messages over radio frequencies in Morse Code may be time-consuming in some cases as the coding and decoding of messages may take time. One of another disadvantages of this technique of messaging is that it can be interrupted very easily and the signal may be lost. The same happened during the World wars as the other party could easily interfere during the message and decipher the secrets of the other side (Zarreli).

Usage of Morse Code

It has already been established that a Morse Code consists of two components; “dots” and “dash”. A dot is sent when a key, most probably a switch, closes a circuit. It turns the radio transmitter on for some time. On the other hand, a dash is sent when the circuit is closed for a longer period of time. In the case of a sound, a longer beep can be heard in the case of a dash while a shorter beep is heard in the case of a dot.

The dashes represent the alphabets or the letters in a message and the dots represent the numbers or the punctuations in the message. Every dash or dot is followed by pause which means that there has been a space between the two. Space may be longer or the silence may be of more time if there is the end of a sentence involved.

Mediums through which the Morse Code was Used

Morse Code is an extremely interesting way of communication if one knows how to use it. No special skill or knowledge is required for using this code; anyone can use it if they have a little understanding of this code. Moreover, a little practice in this respect can be a topping on the cake. The most interesting fact about this code is that it can be used through any sort of media. Although the most commonly used mediums in this respect are light and sound, the message in Morse Code can be sent using any kind of medium. This gives an added benefit to the users of Morse Code as it adds to ease of use and the convenience of the code. It makes the language more adaptable for use.

Current Status of Morse Code Technology

Although the use of telegraph has been shunned long ago and the last telegraph was sent in 2014, the Morse Code became obsolete even before that. But still the influence of all these technologies can be seen on the technologies of the current times. One of the biggest facts or the inspirations of the Morse Code or telegraph is that it forms the first and foremost basis of the initiations of text messaging.

With the advancements in science and technology there are a number of websites and apps that can be used for using or creating a message in Morse Code. The latest version of the Apple iPhone is also providing an inbuilt application that allows its users to develop and send or receive a message in Morse Code form. It also decodes a message, if received in the form of Morse Code.

How the world would have been without the Morse Code?

The Morse Code or the telegraph formed the basis of the text messaging or electronic messaging. It was the first-ever electronic messaging mechanism used for the transmission of the messages through electronic means. The world would not have been introduced to long-distance messaging especially through the means of electronic current. If it had not been due to Samuel Morse, the world would still have been using the old and obsolete methods of data transmission especially the delivery of messages like horses or messengers. It had not been for the Morse Code or the telegraph, the world would not have been able to see the dawn of the text messaging, SMS, e-mail or even WhatsApp messaging.

Future Implications of Morse Code

Although the use of Morse Code has became an old story or far cry in the current times and the world has even stopped using the technology associated with it. The Telegraph and it’s importance cannot be denied in the history of communication, especially telecommunication. The Morse Code is still used sometimes and can be used by the sailors that have sailed far into the seas in the times of troubles, and in the times of emergency (Cusick) (Trainor). As a matter of fact, the US Navy sees a future in Morse Code. Although not every sailor in the armed forces learns the Morse Code, the recent test conducted by the Navy included a new test called the Flashing Light to Text Converter (FLTC) system. The test included the shooting of text messages by the sailors on the Stout a d the FLTC system converting it into the Morse Code messages. The process was completely monitored by the US Navy headquarters in the USS Monterey, Norfolk, Virginia.

Conclusion

Hence, in a nutshell, it can be concluded, no matter that t

he Morse Code is being used in the current times or not or the Telegraph has some applicability in the current era or not, they have always been there as the founding stones and initiators of the electronic messaging services. Although Samuel Morse invented the Morse Code out of his personal grief in 1830, the invention changed the course of history in a few years. Morse Code gave a new meaning to the communication and the transmission of messages from one place to another became very easy, efficient and fast. Many sailors and individuals in similar professions use techniques of Morse Code to give an alarm or signal in case of an emergency.

Works Cited

Bush, Elizabeth. "Samuel Morse, That's Who!: The Story of the Telegraph and Morse Code by Tracy Nelson Maurer." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 72.10 (2019): 442-443.

Cusick, James. "Coastguards Send Their Last Messages In Morse Code". The Independent, 1997, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/coastguards-send-their-last-messages-in-morse-code-1291195.html.Trainor. Accessed 19 Nov 2019.

MOSSOff, Adam. "7 Morse Telegraph." A History of Intellectual Property in 50 Objects (2019): 65.

Mossoff, Adam. "The Telegraph." A History of Intellectual Property in 50 (2018).

Mullaney, Thomas S. "Semiotic sovereignty: The 1871 Chinese telegraph code in historical perspective." Science and Technology in Modern China, 1880s-1940s. Brill, 2014. 153-183.

Trainor, Sean. "Https://Time.Com". Time, 2016, https://time.com/4307892/samuel-morse-telegraph-history/. Accessed 19 Nov 2019.

Zarreli, Natalie. "The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting As An Espionage Tool". Atlas Obscura, 2017, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/knitting-spies-wwi-wwii.