Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. Samuel F. B. Morse was a successful businessman and a presidential portrait artist. But above all else, he's remembered for his eponymous Morse Code, an elegant system that revolutionized communications back in the eighteen hundreds. Even in the heyday of Silicon Valley and social media, there's still a place for this well worn code. Just ask the US Navy. It's one of the languages that cryptologic technicians learn while training at the Center for Information Dominance, as a forerunner to email, text messages, and other near instant messaging media. Oh, we think Morse Code deserves a tip of the hat, so today let's tell the story. Parts of Samuel Morse's backstory read like a tragic Hollywood screenplay. He was born in Massachusetts on April twenty seventh of seventeen ninety one. National painter Morse found himself working on a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette in eighteen twenty five. The job had taken him to Washington, d C. Where he received a devastating letter. According to the Dispatch, his young wife had died back at their home in New Haven, Connecticut. Worse, by the time Morse got this message, it was too late for him to return in time for her funeral. She was laid to rest without him. Such was the pace of most long distance communications in those days. But Morse was one of the entrepreneurs leading the way into the future. He was one of the developers of the first telegraphs built in the eighteen thirties. To call any loan scientist or inventor the father of this technical breakthrough would be misleading. Morse was just one of the visionaries behind the telegraph's early development. Despite his limited scientific background, Morse had a real passion for electricity. In eighteen thirty seven, he showcased a prototypical telegraph that he had built at a public demonstration. Like all telegraphs, his sent out pulses of electric current via wire. The pulses would make their way into a receiver. But this is where Samuel Morse's famous code came into play. A Morse's telegraph couldn't transmit voices or written characters, yet by capitalizing on those electric pulses, he devised a new way to send simply coded messages. He did have a brilliant partner by the name of Alfred Vail, who helped him refine and expand the system. Under the code, every letter in the English language, along with most punctuation marks, and each digit from zero through nine, was given a unique corresponding set of short and long pulses. Long pulses came to be known as dashes, while the short ones are called dots. In this early iteration of the code, some dashes lasted longer than others, and the spaces between pulses varied widely depending on the context. Morse soon got the chance to show off his electric cipher. In eighteen forty three, Congress gave him a thirty thousand dollars grant to build an experimental long distance telegraph between Washington, d c. And Baltimore, Maryland. The moment of truth came on May twenty fourth of eighteen forty four. Sitting in the US Capitol's Supreme Court Chamber, Morse sent a coded message along to Vail, who was waiting in Baltimore at the other end of the line. A Morse had his message ready. At the suggestion of a friend's daughter, he transmitted a quote from the Biblical Book of Numbers. What hath God wrought a little intense but perhaps appropriately so A long distance telegraph lines spread like wildfire over the next few decades, so did Samuel Morse's code. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln used it to keep abreast of battlefield developments, and when Western Union completed the first transcontinental telegraph line in eighteen sixty one, A Lincoln received its first message, a dispatch sent all the way from San Francisco to DC. But meanwhile, as Morse Code took hold in other countries, of problems emerged. To address these, a German telegraph inspector simplified the system in eighteen forty eight. Among other changes, he did away with the extra long dashes and revised many of the individual number and letter codes. After some additional tweaks were made, this new edition was dubbed International Morse Code. Meanwhile, the original version was retroactively labeled American Morse Code. Outside of Civil War reenactments, the latter is all but distinct Today. In the International code, a dashes pulse is three times longer than that of a dot. Each letter in the English alphabet is coded with a combination of one to four dashes and dots. Each numeral zero through nine is coded with a combination of five dashes and dots. If your deal with a letter that features multiple dots, band or dashes, there should be a pause equivalent to the length of one dot in between those components. The pauses that separate entire letters are longer equal to a dash or three dots, and individual words should be divided by even longer pauses, measuring seven dots long. Perhaps the most iconic Morse code phrase is SOS, a universally recognized distress signal. SOS was first adopted as such by German telegraphers in the year nineteen oh five. But why did they pick this particular letter combo. It's because in international Morse code, S is three dots and O is three dashes and dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot is an easy sequence to remember, even when you're in grave peril. However, although Morse code was explicitly designed for the telegraph, people have used it in lots of other ways. With the dawn of radio telegraph machines in the eighteen ninety, coded messages could travel via radio waves, and it can be used visually too. Beginning in eighteen sixty seven, ships began using onboard blinker lights to flash more signals at each other. Then there's the case of Jeremiah Denton, Junior, an American Navy pilot and future senator. He was captured during the Vietnam War. In a forced appearance on North Vietnamese television, Denton was coerced into saying that his captors were treating him well behind enemy lines, but his eyes told a different story. By blinking. In sequence, he used Morse Code to spell out the word torture. Later in the twentieth century, the code was largely phased out. The US Coast Guard hasn't used it in an official capacity since nineteen ninety five, and modern ships are far more reliant on satellite communication systems. However, the US Navy, as mentioned above, is still training its intelligence specialists in the code. Another group that's showing it some love is the International Morse Code Preservation Society, a coalition of amateur radio operators with thousands of members around the globe. So while the golden age of dots and dashes may be over, Morse's code is still hanging in there. No discressed signal is required Today's episode is based on the article how Morse Code Works and Still Lives On in the Digital Age on how stiff works dot Com, written by Mark Mancini. Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stiff Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. Samuel F. B. Morse was a successful businessman and a presidential portrait artist. But above all else, he's remembered for his eponymous Morse Code, an elegant system that revolutionized communications back in the eighteen hundreds. Even in the heyday of Silicon Valley and social media, there's still a place for this well worn code. Just ask the US Navy. It's one of the languages that cryptologic technicians learn while training at the Center for Information Dominance, as a forerunner to email, text messages, and other near instant messaging media. Oh, we think Morse Code deserves a tip of the hat, so today let's tell the story. Parts of Samuel Morse's backstory read like a tragic Hollywood screenplay. He was born in Massachusetts on April twenty seventh of seventeen ninety one. National painter Morse found himself working on a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette in eighteen twenty five. The job had taken him to Washington, d C. Where he received a devastating letter. According to the Dispatch, his young wife had died back at their home in New Haven, Connecticut. Worse, by the time Morse got this message, it was too late for him to return in time for her funeral. She was laid to rest without him. Such was the pace of most long distance communications in those days. But Morse was one of the entrepreneurs leading the way into the future. He was one of the developers of the first telegraphs built in the eighteen thirties. To call any loan scientist or inventor the father of this technical breakthrough would be misleading. Morse was just one of the visionaries behind the telegraph's early development. Despite his limited scientific background, Morse had a real passion for electricity. In eighteen thirty seven, he showcased a prototypical telegraph that he had built at a public demonstration. Like all telegraphs, his sent out pulses of electric current via wire. The pulses would make their way into a receiver. But this is where Samuel Morse's famous code came into play. A Morse's telegraph couldn't transmit voices or written characters, yet by capitalizing on those electric pulses, he devised a new way to send simply coded messages. He did have a brilliant partner by the name of Alfred Vail, who helped him refine and expand the system. Under the code, every letter in the English language, along with most punctuation marks, and each digit from zero through nine, was given a unique corresponding set of short and long pulses. Long pulses came to be known as dashes, while the short ones are called dots. In this early iteration of the code, some dashes lasted longer than others, and the spaces between pulses varied widely depending on the context. Morse soon got the chance to show off his electric cipher. In eighteen forty three, Congress gave him a thirty thousand dollars grant to build an experimental long distance telegraph between Washington, d c. And Baltimore, Maryland. The moment of truth came on May twenty fourth of eighteen forty four. Sitting in the US Capitol's Supreme Court Chamber, Morse sent a coded message along to Vail, who was waiting in Baltimore at the other end of the line. A Morse had his message ready. At the suggestion of a friend's daughter, he transmitted a quote from the Biblical Book of Numbers. What hath God wrought a little intense but perhaps appropriately so A long distance telegraph lines spread like wildfire over the next few decades, so did Samuel Morse's code. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln used it to keep abreast of battlefield developments, and when Western Union completed the first transcontinental telegraph line in eighteen sixty one, A Lincoln received its first message, a dispatch sent all the way from San Francisco to DC. But meanwhile, as Morse Code took hold in other countries, of problems emerged. To address these, a German telegraph inspector simplified the system in eighteen forty eight. Among other changes, he did away with the extra long dashes and revised many of the individual number and letter codes. After some additional tweaks were made, this new edition was dubbed International Morse Code. Meanwhile, the original version was retroactively labeled American Morse Code. Outside of Civil War reenactments, the latter is all but distinct Today. In the International code, a dashes pulse is three times longer than that of a dot. Each letter in the English alphabet is coded with a combination of one to four dashes and dots. Each numeral zero through nine is coded with a combination of five dashes and dots. If your deal with a letter that features multiple dots, band or dashes, there should be a pause equivalent to the length of one dot in between those components. The pauses that separate entire letters are longer equal to a dash or three dots, and individual words should be divided by even longer pauses, measuring seven dots long. Perhaps the most iconic Morse code phrase is SOS, a universally recognized distress signal. SOS was first adopted as such by German telegraphers in the year nineteen oh five. But why did they pick this particular letter combo. It's because in international Morse code, S is three dots and O is three dashes and dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot is an easy sequence to remember, even when you're in grave peril. However, although Morse code was explicitly designed for the telegraph, people have used it in lots of other ways. With the dawn of radio telegraph machines in the eighteen ninety, coded messages could travel via radio waves, and it can be used visually too. Beginning in eighteen sixty seven, ships began using onboard blinker lights to flash more signals at each other. Then there's the case of Jeremiah Denton, Junior, an American Navy pilot and future senator. He was captured during the Vietnam War. In a forced appearance on North Vietnamese television, Denton was coerced into saying that his captors were treating him well behind enemy lines, but his eyes told a different story. By blinking. In sequence, he used Morse Code to spell out the word torture. Later in the twentieth century, the code was largely phased out. The US Coast Guard hasn't used it in an official capacity since nineteen ninety five, and modern ships are far more reliant on satellite communication systems. However, the US Navy, as mentioned above, is still training its intelligence specialists in the code. Another group that's showing it some love is the International Morse Code Preservation Society, a coalition of amateur radio operators with thousands of members around the globe. So while the golden age of dots and dashes may be over, Morse's code is still hanging in there. No discressed signal is required Today's episode is based on the article how Morse Code Works and Still Lives On in the Digital Age on how stiff works dot Com, written by Mark Mancini. Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stiff Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.