Little known Fact
January 11th is Learn your name in Morse Code Day. In honor of this inconsequential fact I have dedicated today’s blog post to all things Morse Code.
History
The Morse system was first used in 1844. It was designed to make indentations on a paper tape when electric currents were received. Morse’s original telegraph receiver used a mechanical clockwork to move a paper tape. When an electrical current was received, an electromagnet engaged an armature that pushed a stylus onto the moving paper tape, making an indentation on the tape. When the current was interrupted, a spring retracted the stylus and that portion of the moving tape remained unmarked. Morse code was developed so that operators could translate the indentations marked on the paper tape into text messages. In his earliest code, Morse had planned to transmit only numerals and to use a codebook to look up each word according to the number which had been sent. However, the code was soon expanded to include letters. The frequency of letters in English was calculated and the letters most commonly used were assigned the shorter sequences of dots and dashes.
Now it’s your turn!
Bonus points if you write your name in Morse Code in the comments section below!!!
