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The Development Of Morse Code And Its Use Today

By Juliette Cruz


Morse Code is one of the most useful signal code methods in the 21st century. This is mainly because it can be readily applied in many communication methods. It is mainly a means of sending messages by relating the sounds to numbers and letters of the alphabet. These text and numbers are coded in plain text using either a flash light, sound radio or a telegraph. Just like most signal codes, it was not intended to be secret as it is not encoded with codes or cipher.

Samuel F. B Morse developed the code in the year 1835. He initially developed the code as a way of sending messages over a long distance through the use of a telegraph. His invention was adopted in military operations where it was used by soldiers to communicate to each other and send messages. They did this through letters made up of sounds of ones and twos.

Later on during the 1840s it slowly started to evolve and the use of flashing light signals and dashes and dots were introduced. It continued to be a preserve for military operations even during the Second World War. However at this time it was being used alongside other different codes that were an improvement of it. The soldiers continued to send important information between each other during their operations.

In the 20th century, it was adopted in most of the high speed communication. Its speed had increased since its introduction and was then measured in words per minute. Most of it was conducted using undersea cables, radio circuits or even telegraph lines. However with the introduction of machinery, it became difficult to adapt it to the machine language, which consists of ASCII characters, due to the length of the characters used in the code.

Initially its main design was that it could only be read and interpreted by humans without the use of any decoding devices. This is the same practice in the current world. Although it is not as common as other methods of long distance communication, some professionals such as pilots and air craft controllers are still familiarizing with it.

Most of the people working in the field of aviation, especially those that are directly involved in flight operations, need a basic understanding of Morse Code. This is mostly in case of emergency situations when there is no other means of communicating. Navigational aids however constantly use it to transmit messages. In emergency situations it can be sent in the form of improvised sources by being keyed on and off.

In the digital technology, the code remains inadequate. None of the digital equipment can use it. The characters used do not have a standard sending length. This is one of the disadvantages that made it unfavorable in many military operations as it can be time consuming in urgent cases.

The messages sent through Morse Code need to be translated and this takes time. There is also no similarity in the number of symbols used for the characters in a message. The code is however still preferred since it can cut across languages and ease communication. This is why it still remains as the popular choice in safety and navigation operations.




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