Discovering Morse code
For eighty years the news of the world traveled as dot and dash. What is left of that, and what was merely well told.
Morse code is the first digital transmission method used worldwide, eighty years older than the computer. It accompanied wars, saved ships, carried share prices and death notices, and it has not disappeared entirely. These pages tell that story - with sources, because few technical subjects have attracted as many durable legends.
Where the code came from
The history begins with a portrait painter and does not end with him: the version used worldwide today is not by Samuel Morse but by Friedrich Clemens Gerke, who rewrote it in 1848. The timeline sets the dates side by side, from the first demonstration in 1844 to the end of maritime Morse in 1999.
That one night
The sinking of the Titanic produced the best-known radio traffic in history and also the most often misquoted. What was actually sent, in what order, who heard it and who did not is set out under Titanic, with the recorded wordings and a note on where the accounts diverge.
Further documented transmissions are collected under famous messages. What circulates but does not survive checking is gathered under myths - including whether SOS really stands for "Save Our Souls".