Morse code began in the late 1830s as the signalling system for Samuel Morse's electric telegraph, took its familiar alphabet from his partner Alfred Vail, was simplified in Germany in 1848 and became the International Morse code in 1865. It carried the world's news by wire and cable, went to sea with radio, and is still in use today.
Here is that story in order.
The 1830s: many telegraphs at once
Morse was not the only person trying to send messages by electricity. In Britain, William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone took out a patent in June 1837 and demonstrated their telegraph on the London and Birmingham Railway, the first commercial telegraph. In Germany, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber had built one in 1833, and Carl August von Steinheil another in 1837. The American physicist Joseph Henry's work on electromagnets and the relay made long telegraph lines possible.
What made Morse's system win in America was its simplicity. One wire, one key, and a code made of short and long signals.
1838: the first public demonstration
On 11 January 1838, at the Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey, Morse and Vail gave the first public demonstration of their telegraph. The message was "A patient waiter is no loser."
Morse's first idea had been to send numbers and look each word up in a code book. The alphabet code, where each letter has its own pattern of dots and dashes, was developed by Vail, who in 1840 extended it to letters and other characters. Vail also estimated which letters English uses most by counting the type in a Morristown newspaper's type cases, and gave the commonest letters the shortest codes. That is why E is a single dot, ., and T a single dash, -. We look at that design in is Morse code binary?, and at who deserves the credit in who invented Morse code.
1844: What hath God wrought
In 1843 Congress gave Morse $30,000 to build an experimental 38 mile line between Washington and Baltimore. On 24 May 1844 the line was officially opened with the words "What hath God wrought", sent from the Supreme Court chamber in the Capitol to Mount Clare Station in Baltimore. The phrase, from the Book of Numbers, was chosen by Annie Ellsworth, the daughter of the Patent Commissioner who had championed the invention.
Within a few years telegraph lines were spreading across America, carrying news, prices and railway orders.
1848 to 1865: one code for the world
The American code, now called American or Railroad Morse, used several lengths of dash and gaps inside some letters. Friedrich Gerke simplified it in Germany in 1848, and his version was adopted in Germany and Austria in 1851. In 1865 an international conference adopted a code based mostly on Gerke's, which became the International Morse code. With small additions, it is the code the International Telecommunication Union still defines today, and the one every tool on this site uses. The differences are explained in International vs American Morse code.
1858 and 1866: across the Atlantic
The first transatlantic telegraph cable carried its first messages on 16 August 1858, including Queen Victoria's congratulations to President James Buchanan. The signal was weak and very slow, and after three weeks the cable was destroyed when excessive voltage was applied to it in an attempt to speed it up.
A second cable, laid in 1865 from the giant steamship Great Eastern, broke partway across. In July 1866 a third cable was laid successfully and went into service on 27 July. The 1865 cable was then recovered and spliced, and from that summer Europe and North America were in steady contact. The slogan of the day was "two weeks to two minutes": news that had crossed by ship now crossed by wire.
The radio age
Radio carried Morse code off the wires and out to sea. Ships could now call for help, first with CQD from 1904 and then with SOS, adopted in Berlin in 1906 and in force from 1908. The Titanic's operators sent both in April 1912. The story is in what does SOS stand for. For most of the twentieth century, radio operators at sea, in aircraft and in armies worked in Morse.
Retirement, and survival
Voice radio, teleprinters and then satellites slowly took over. The French Navy stopped using Morse on 31 January 1997. Morse was replaced for distress at sea by the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System in 1999, and the last commercial Morse message in the United States was sent on 12 July 1999, signing off with the words of 1844, "What hath God wrought".
Yet Morse never quite left. Aircraft beacons still identify themselves in it, radio amateurs still use it every day, and it has found new life as a way for people with disabilities to type. Is Morse code still used today? has the details.
Hear it for yourself
The first public message is easy to play: type "A patient waiter is no loser" into the translator and press Play. It sounds the same today as it would have, more or less, in that ironworks in 1838.