THE MORSE CODE

In England in 1837, the physicist Charles Wheatstone took out a patent for a telegraph system where a message could be sent down wires to a distant point using the movement of compass needles to spell out the words. In America in the same year, Samuel Morse produced an experimental telegraph system where an automatic printer recorded the incoming messages on a roll of paper, the “Morse inker”. To enable this to have a practical use he invented a code that used dots and dashes, sending the words using a “Morse key”. The inker was soon replaced by a sounder, a bell or buzzer, at the receiving end of the line. In 1843 the American government advanced money for the setting up of a telegraph service between Baltimore and Washington using Morse code. Back in England Wheatstone’s needle system was used extensively along railway lines to send messages between stations. Simultaneously several rival companies set up telegraph links and soon most towns and villages were wired up, the telegraph poles carrying dozens of wires became a familiar site down the side of the roads. In 1870 the post office took over the whole network and the Morse code tapped out by the Morse key and later high speed automatic machines and tele printers became the universal language of telegraphic communication. By the end of the 19th century, the telephone had been invented, people could speak to each other through the wires, and telephony was replacing telegraphy. Morse code, however, was still used in World War One and beyond for radio communication, you can see the Morse key on the trench transmitter in the bottom of the cabinet at the end of the room.