Since the dawn of civilization, the need to communicate has driven technology and innovation. Human beings are naturally programmed to exchange messages and thoughts with each other and when this can't be done face to face, the human desire to find other ways is very strong indeed. Morse Code was the first widely used electronic form of communication and completely revolutionized the way in which we send messages over long distances.
The very first communications systems were very basic and often involved handwritten messages being delivered by hand. Although these forms of sending messages were quickened with the use of horses, they were still deemed far too slow, particularly as the world was experiencing fast growth in population and technologies. Messages were still taking several days to arrive at distant locations and that simply wasn't fast enough.
Nowhere in the world was the need for fast and accurate communication more apparent than in the relatively new nation of the United States of America. The landmass was so vast, many messages could take weeks to arrive at the door of the recipient. Research started in the early 1800s in both Great Britain and America to discover ways to send messages electronically. The discovery of electromagnetism by Hans Christian Oersted in 1820 would quicken research considerably.
A British team of researchers called William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone began government funded research in England. An American team set about their own research project. Samuel Morse enlisted the help of leading American scientists, Alfred Vail and Leonard Gale to research a similar project to that of the British.
The British research aimed to develop a telegraph system, whereby a panel of letters were pointed to by five magnetic needles, which were powered by electric currents. The successful experiments quickly led to the new system being used widely throughout the British railway network. The American system was far more simple and cheap, but allowed for very quick expansion of the network.
The American telegraph was operated by an operator, pushing a switch intermittently and completing an electric circuit. This sent an electronic signal along copper wire to a receiver at the end of the line. The system was so popular because it was relatively cheap. All that was required was wire, telegraph poles, a switch and a receiver. The system soon spread across the United States.
Although the main breakthrough had already been made, Morse and his team had to figure out a way of converting the electrical signals to text. He developed a system that would convert pulses to letters, numbers and punctuation. Short marks or dots and long marks or dashes were combined to create codes that represented symbols of the Latin alphabet. All that was required initially was a key to decipher the code once it arrived.
so confident was the American government in this new technology, Congress approved the funding of the first long distance network, between Washington DC and Baltimore. Western Union was the first private company to lay wire across the whole of the continent of America, connecting towns and cities over distances of up to three thousand miles. By the end of the 19th century, most Americans had access to the system close by.
Over the following years, the code would be adapted across the world to make communications faster and more efficient. As a result, international communications became difficult, as many countries' systems were slightly different. This had potentially dangerous implications when countries worked together on military operations. A standard of international Morse Code was agreed on in 1865 and still exists today. American Morse Code gradually disappeared as technology moved on.
The very first communications systems were very basic and often involved handwritten messages being delivered by hand. Although these forms of sending messages were quickened with the use of horses, they were still deemed far too slow, particularly as the world was experiencing fast growth in population and technologies. Messages were still taking several days to arrive at distant locations and that simply wasn't fast enough.
Nowhere in the world was the need for fast and accurate communication more apparent than in the relatively new nation of the United States of America. The landmass was so vast, many messages could take weeks to arrive at the door of the recipient. Research started in the early 1800s in both Great Britain and America to discover ways to send messages electronically. The discovery of electromagnetism by Hans Christian Oersted in 1820 would quicken research considerably.
A British team of researchers called William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone began government funded research in England. An American team set about their own research project. Samuel Morse enlisted the help of leading American scientists, Alfred Vail and Leonard Gale to research a similar project to that of the British.
The British research aimed to develop a telegraph system, whereby a panel of letters were pointed to by five magnetic needles, which were powered by electric currents. The successful experiments quickly led to the new system being used widely throughout the British railway network. The American system was far more simple and cheap, but allowed for very quick expansion of the network.
The American telegraph was operated by an operator, pushing a switch intermittently and completing an electric circuit. This sent an electronic signal along copper wire to a receiver at the end of the line. The system was so popular because it was relatively cheap. All that was required was wire, telegraph poles, a switch and a receiver. The system soon spread across the United States.
Although the main breakthrough had already been made, Morse and his team had to figure out a way of converting the electrical signals to text. He developed a system that would convert pulses to letters, numbers and punctuation. Short marks or dots and long marks or dashes were combined to create codes that represented symbols of the Latin alphabet. All that was required initially was a key to decipher the code once it arrived.
so confident was the American government in this new technology, Congress approved the funding of the first long distance network, between Washington DC and Baltimore. Western Union was the first private company to lay wire across the whole of the continent of America, connecting towns and cities over distances of up to three thousand miles. By the end of the 19th century, most Americans had access to the system close by.
Over the following years, the code would be adapted across the world to make communications faster and more efficient. As a result, international communications became difficult, as many countries' systems were slightly different. This had potentially dangerous implications when countries worked together on military operations. A standard of international Morse Code was agreed on in 1865 and still exists today. American Morse Code gradually disappeared as technology moved on.
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