The dots and dashes of Morse Code

This is Admiral Jeremiah Denton he was an American POW in the Vietnam war; he was forced to participate in a televised interview by his Vietnamese captors. He used this as an opportunity to send a signal to the US office of Naval Intelligence, confirming that POWs were tortured in the North Vietnam. He blinked the his eyes in Morse code spelling out T O R T U R E.

Morse code was developed by the American artist Samuel F.B. Morse, physicist Joseph Henry and Alfred Vail. They developed an electrical telegraph system that used electrical pulses and silences between them to communicate. Combination of pulses and silences were related to corresponding letters.

E is one of the most used letter in the English Language and thus is represented by a simple dot.

Morse code was not only used to send messages through telegraph, but it was also used during war to provide information to one’s base. War planes also used Morse Code to detail locations for enemy ships, bases, and troops and relay them back to headquarters.

It is still widely used by the aviation and aeronautical industry to send radio navigational aids.

There are many fascinating experiences that the history has with Morse code

In the book “Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker’s War” by Leo Marks, the author relates mentions that people got so experienced after a great deal of messages that if someone was sending a message with all the right code words, but the pattern was slightly off, they would flag it as possibly compromised. That is, the spy was caught or dead and the enemy was trying to pass themselves off as the spy.

In WWII, there were intelligence-gatherers who would listen to encrypted Morse code messages, at a loss to decode them, they were still able to differentiate between the distinctive patterns of “fits” provided them ability to track troop motion.

Brands using Morse code.

An Easter egg added by Nokia in their old default tones was that they made use of Morse code too.

There are many more such incidents where Morse code has shaped history. And I’m excited to dive deep into reading about them, and really excited to come back with a more elaborate piece on the same. Maybe I’ll write it in Morse code.

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