Morse code and telegraph. History of creation and principle of operation

MORSE CODE

MORSE CODE

(Morse code) - a system of symbols for letters and numbers using combinations of dots and dashes.

MORSE CODE

I. Signs assigned to flags and letters

(for telegraphic communications)

Samoilov K. I. Marine Dictionary. - M.-L.: State Naval Publishing House of the NKVMF of the USSR, 1941

See what "MORSE Code" is in other dictionaries:

Morse code, dot dash Dictionary of Russian synonyms. Morse code Morse code (colloquial) Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language. Z. E. Alexandrova. 2011… Synonym dictionary

- (Morse code), a series of signals used to send telegraphic messages either by wire or by radiotelegraph. Morse code consists of dots and dashes created by interruptions in direct electrical current or radio signals. Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary

ABC, and, w. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Morse code- A telegraph code in which letters and numbers are represented as a combination of short (“dots”) and long (“dashes”) signals. Used in radiotelegraph and amateur radio communications (Table M 4). [L.M. Nevdyaev... ... Technical Translator's Guide

This term has other meanings, see ABC. The radio operator transmits a signal using Morse code... Wikipedia

Morse code- a method of encoding letters of the alphabet for transmitting them over a telegraph line. Encoding is done using long and short signals (“dashes” and “dots”), as well as pauses separating letters. The alphabet was created by the American artist S. Morse.... ... The fate of eponyms. Dictionary-reference book

Morse code- a telegraph code in which each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a combination of signals of short (dot) and large (dash) duration. It is used when working on Morse telegraph apparatus and in optical signaling systems... A brief dictionary of operational-tactical and general military terms

Morse code- A system of symbols for transmitting letters and numbers in telegraphy. Named after the American inventor S. Morse (1791 1872) ... Dictionary of many expressions

- ... Wikipedia

MORSE CASE, Morse code- A set of special telegraph signals transmitted in the form of combinations of dots and dashes. The international code contains letters of the Latin alphabet. Elementary Morse code signals (dots, dashes) and the spaces between them must be of a certain length: dash... ... Marine encyclopedic reference book

Books

• Fundamentals of classical cryptology. Secrets of ciphers and codes, Mikhail Adamenko. The book brought to the attention of readers is devoted to issues related to the history of the appearance and development of ciphers and codes, as well as the basics of cryptography, cryptanalysis and cryptology. Special attention…

Samuel Morse did not have any special technical education. He was a highly successful artist and the founder and president of the National Academy of Drawing in New York. Returning from a trip to Europe on a ship, Morse saw tricks using electromagnetic induction, which were used to entertain bored audiences. A wire under electrical voltage was brought to the compass, the needle of which began to spin wildly.

It was then that Morse came up with the idea of ​​transmitting certain signals through wires. The artist immediately sketched a diagram of the prototype of the telegraph. The device consisted of a lever on a spring, to the end of which a pencil was attached. When the current was applied, the pencil lowered and left a line on the moving paper tape, and when the current was turned off, the pencil rose, and a gap appeared in the line.

Invention of the telegraph

Morse managed to bring the idea to life only three years later - due to the lack of technical education. The first device was able to receive and record a signal over a 500-meter long wire. Then this discovery did not cause much interest, since it had no commercial benefit.

Industrialist Steve Weil saw the potential of Morse's invention. He financed the artist's further research and assigned his son Alfred as his assistant. As a result, the device was improved - it received the signal more accurately, and the length of the wire increased many times. Such a telegraph could already be used, and in 1843 the US Congress decided to build the first telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington. A year later, the first telegram was sent over this line with the words “Wonderful are your deeds, Lord!”

Finalization of the alphabet

Naturally, the device could not display letters - only lines of a certain length. But this was quite enough. Various combinations of lines and dots represented alphabetic characters and numbers. Historians cannot say for sure whether this code was the invention of Morse or his partner Vail.

Initially, Morse code consisted of three signals of different durations. The unit of time was taken to be a point. The dash sign consisted of three dots. The pause between letters in a word is three dots, between words - seven dots. This abundance of signs created confusion and complicated the process of receiving telegrams. Therefore, Morse's competitors gradually refined the code. Simple combinations of letters or numbers have been developed for the most popular phrases and letters.

Telegraph and radiotelegraph initially used Morse code or, as it is also called, “Morse code”. To transmit Russian letters, codes of similar Latin ones were used.

How is Morse code used now?

Nowadays, as a rule, more modern means of communication are used. Morse code is sometimes used in the navy and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. It is very popular among radio amateurs.

Morse code is the most accessible and easiest way to communicate. The signal can be received over long distances and in conditions of strong radio interference, messages can be encoded manually, and recording and playback occurs using the simplest devices. Thus, Morse code will not fail in an emergency if more complex equipment fails.

On average, a radio operator can transmit from 60 to 100 characters per minute. The record speed is 260-310 characters per minute. The whole difficulty of learning Morse code is that it is not enough to simply remember the combination of dots and dashes for each letter.

In order to seriously study the telegraph, you need to memorize not the number of dots and dashes in a letter, but the “tunes” that are produced when the entire letter sounds. For example, the chant "Fi-li-mon-chik" means that the letter F has been transmitted.

SOS signal

SOS (SOS) is an international distress signal in radiotelegraph (using Morse code) communication. The signal is a sequence of "three dots - three dashes - three dots", transmitted without any letter spacing.

Thus, this nine-character group represents a single Morse code character. Phrases that are often associated with this signal, such as SaveOurShip (save our ship), SaveOurSouls, SaveOurSpirits (save our souls), SwimOrSink (swim or sink), StopOtherSignals (stop other signals) also appeared after the signal came into use in international practice. Russian sailors used the mnemonic “Save From Death”.

The alphabetic recording of a distress signal in official or educational documents on radiotelegraphy and maritime affairs has the form SOS (with a line at the top), which means that the signal is transmitted without letter spacing.

First use

There is a common misconception that the first SOS signal in history was sent from the Titanic in distress on April 15, 1912 at 00:45. In fact, this case was at least the eighth in a row.

The first known use of the SOS signal was on August 11, 1909, when the American steamship Arapaoe lost steam and drifted en route from New York to Jacksonville. The signal was received by the United Wireless Telegraph Company station on Hatteras Island in North Carolina and forwarded to the shipping company's offices.

In art

In the 1930s, Julius Fucik and Bogumila Silova wrote the fairy tale “Letters from the Radio Operator’s Box.” The characters of the fairy tale - three letters: Slava, Olga and Sashenka - wander around the world in search of help for those who are shipwrecked. In 1966, based on the fairy tale, a cartoon was shot at the Kyiv Popular Science Film Studio.

To speed up radio communication, abbreviations, special “Q-codes” and numerous slang expressions are widely used. For examples of encrypted messages in Morse language, see our illustration.

Morse code before the First World War was called "Morse". It is a special way of encoding alphabetic letters, punctuation marks, numbers and other characters arranged in a specific sequence. Long signals indicate dashes, short signals indicate dots. Conventionally, the duration of the sound of one point is taken as a time unit. The longitude of a dash is equal to three dots. A pause between characters of one character is one dot, three dots are a pause between characters in a word, 7 dots symbolize the gap between words. In post-Soviet countries, specialists use Morse code in Russian.

Who invented the codes?

Two engineers - A. Weil and D. Henry - spoke about a European development - a remote copper coil that is capable of transmitting the generated electrical impulses. Morse asked them to develop this idea, and in 1837 the first telegraph apparatus was born. The device could receive and transmit messages. Weil later proposed an encryption system using dashes and dots. Thus, Morse was not directly involved in the creation of the alphabet and the telegraph.

According to the official version, Samuel Morse was fascinated by the miracle of that time, namely, obtaining a spark from magnets. Unraveling the phenomenon, he suggested that with the help of such sparks, encrypted messages could be transmitted through wires. Morse became very interested in this idea, although he did not have the slightest idea about the basic principles of electricity. During the voyage, Samuel developed several ideas and sketched out some drawings of his idea. For another three years, in his brother’s attic, he unsuccessfully tried to build a device that could transmit signals. With all his problems in understanding electricity, he simply had no time to study it, because his wife suddenly died, and he was left with three small children.

Telegraph

Until the mid-19th century, information exchange between long distances occurred exclusively through mail. People could only learn news about events and incidents weeks or months later. The appearance of the device gave impetus to the victory over distance and time. The work of the telegraph has proven in practice that messages can be transmitted using electric current.

The first properly working telegraphs were made in 1837. Two versions of the device appeared at the same time. The first was produced by the Englishman W. Cook. The device distinguished received signals by oscillations of the needle. It was very difficult: the telegraph operator had to be extremely careful. The second version of the telegraph, the author of which was S. Morse, turned out to be simpler and gained popularity in the future. It was a self-recording device with a movable ribbon of paper. On one side, the electrical circuit was closed with a special device - a telegraph key, and on the other side - with a receiving circuit; the accepted symbols were drawn in pencil.

Since 1838, the first telegraph line, the length of which was 20 km, began to operate. Several decades later, transmission lines in England alone reached a length of 25,000 km 2. Already in 1866, a telegraph line connected the continents of the globe: the cable was laid along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Encrypted messages

Morse code became an integral part of the telegraph's operation. The cipher got its name from the name of its creator. The letters here are combinations of long and short signals. All codes are made up of the simplest code elements. The code base is the number of values ​​that an elementary message acquires during transmission. Thus, codes are divided into binary (binary), ternary and uniform (5-element, 6-element, etc.).

Morse code is an uneven telegraph code where characters are marked by combinations of sending currents of varying durations. This method became the first digital transmission of information. Initially, radiotelegraphs used this alphabet, but later Bordeaux and ASCII codes began to be used, since they are more automated. Russian Morse code is similar to Latin letters, over the years this correspondence passed into MTK-2, later into KOI-7, then into KOI-8. There are only minor differences: the letter Q is “sch”, and KOI and MTK are “I”.

Advantages of the ABC

1. High immunity to interference during listening reception.
2. Possibility of manual coding.
3. The ability to record and play back signals using the simplest devices.

Disadvantages of the ABC

1. Very low speed.
2. Uneconomical: to transmit one sign, on average you need to make about 10 elementary messages.
3. The machine is not suitable for printing letters.

Education

To decipher messages, Morse code is not always memorized; learning involves memorizing mnemonic verbal forms, or, as they are also called, chants. Each sign in the alphabet corresponds to a specific tune. In turn, these verbal forms may differ from each other. Depending on the school or country of use, some signs may be modified or simplified. Morse code in Russian is also different. Syllables of chants containing the vowels “a”, “o” and “s” are indicated by one dash, the rest - by a dot.

SOS

At sea, the method of transmitting encrypted messages came later. In 1865, the principle of the alphabet was taken as a basis in the semaphore alphabet. During the day, people communicated what they needed using flags, and at night, by flashing a flashlight. After the invention of radio in 1905, some alphabet codes began to be heard on the airwaves.

Soon people came up with the well-known SOS rescue signal. Although initially it was not a distress signal. The first signal, proposed in 1904, consisted of 2 letters CQ and stood for “come quickly.” Later they added the letter D, and it became “come quickly, danger.” And only in 1908 such a signal was replaced by the SOS that has survived to this day. The translated message was not “save our souls,” as is commonly believed, and not “save our ship.” This signal has no decoding. The International Radiotelephone Convention chose these letters as the simplest and easiest to remember: “… --- …”.

Today Morse code is used mainly by radio amateurs. It was almost completely replaced by direct-printing telegraph machines. Echoes of application can be found in the most remote corners of the globe, for example at the North Pole or far in the depths of the ocean. There is a special program on the Internet called Morse Code, with which you can convert information into encrypted form.

Morse code was developed in 1844 by Samuel F. B. Morse. More than 160 years have passed, and this type of message transmission is still used, especially by novice radio amateurs. Morse code can be transmitted quickly by telegraph and is also very convenient for transmitting a distress signal (SOS signal) using a radio, mirror or flashlight. Even people with limited communication abilities can use this method. But learning Morse code is not so easy - you have to try just as hard as when learning any new language.

Steps

Listen carefully to slow recordings of Morse code. You are essentially listening to long and short signals (lines and dots, respectively). Long signals sound 3 times longer than short ones. Each letter is separated from the others by a short pause, and the words from each other are longer (also 3 times).

• You can search for or buy recordings in Morse code, or use a shortwave transmitter and try to listen to them live. There are educational computer programs that are usually not expensive or even free. They are more effective for training than notes, since they can be used to translate any text into Morse code, which will prevent you from memorizing one text and will help you choose the learning method that is right for you. Never count long and short signals - learn how each letter sounds. If you use the Farnsworth app, you can set the pause between letters to sound slower than the speed of the letter itself. Choose a letter speed slightly higher than what you are aiming for, and never slow it down—only shorten the pause between letters. Morse code is learned in this way - at a speed of 15-25 words per minute or more. The following methods are good when you are learning Morse code without expecting to use more than five words per minute, they will force you to discard the wrong ways of learning code and start again.

1. Find a copy of Morse code (like the one shown at the end of the page). You can use a basic table like the one shown on the right (click to enlarge) or you can use a more complex version that includes punctuation marks, abbreviations, expressions, and codes. Match what you hear with the letters of the alphabet. What word did you get? Were you right? Some people find it easier to learn Morse code by writing down dots and lines and then comparing them to a table as shown in the picture; others believe that this method only slows down the learning process. Do what pleases you best. If you choose a method that does not involve transcribing the recorded dots and lines, you can use a pronunciation table that contains the Morse code sounds the way you hear them.

   Pronounce it. Practice translating simple words and sentences into Morse code. At first you can write down the word, then sound it out, but over time you should try to pronounce the word right away. Here, for example, is the English word “cat”. Write it down: -.-. .- - then voice the word (you can use the buttons on your mobile phone or voice it - this is the method that will most likely help you master Morse code faster). To pronounce Morse code, you must remember that dit is pronounced with a short "i" and a voiceless "t." Dah is a short sound. In English, the word “cat” is pronounced “dah-dee-dah-dee dee-dah dah.” Once you get the hang of it, choose a children's book and try to translate the text into Morse code, without writing down the letters. Record yourself and play back the recording afterwards to check how well you did.

   • Don't forget about pauses. Each letter should be separated by pauses equal in length to the sound of a dash (i.e., three times longer than the sound of a dot). Each word must be surrounded by pauses, the length of the pauses is about 7 lengths of the sound of a period. The better you practice your pause placement, the easier it will be to understand your code.

2. Start by memorizing the simplest letters. If we talk about the English alphabet, then the letter T is denoted as “-”, and the letter E is written as “.”. The letter M is written as “- -”, and I is written as “”. .”. Gradually move on to letters that require 3-4 dots or dashes in a row to write. Then start learning combinations of dots and lines, from simple to complex. Leave the most difficult combinations to learn last. Fortunately, these include the most rarely used letters (in English these are Q, Y, X, and V), so once you understand the structure of letters in Morse code, then focus on the most commonly used letters at the beginning. Note that in English, the letters E and T have the shortest form, while the letters K, Z, Q, and X have the long form.

   Create associations. For example, “p” - “pi-laa-poo-et, pi-laa-noo-et.” Considering that there is more than one alphabet in the world, and you are reading this article in Russian, then you are most likely interested in associations suitable for symbols of the Russian alphabet. For this reason, we do not provide options for the Latin alphabet in this paragraph. Instead, we encourage you to study the article, paying particular attention to the mnemonic form of each letter. There are mnemonic codes for remembering Morse code that were invented many years ago; you can buy them or find them online.

3. Enjoy learning. Want to get your friends to study? Teach them to blink in Morse code. And if, say, a friend takes you on an unsuccessful blind date, then you can blink “SOS” to him! Use Morse code to encrypt your secret notes, or keep a diary, or even tell dirty jokes without anyone but you and your friends getting it! Send someone a postcard with text in Morse code. Confess your love in Morse code (it’s very romantic). In general, have fun, do what you like using Morse code - and you will learn it much faster.

   • Download a Morse code app on your smartphone or download a tutorial - it can be very helpful!
   • Practice! When you have some free time, ask a friend or family member to sit with you and listen to you translate the text into Morse code. Give them the table and ask them to decipher your messages. Not only will this help you and your assistant understand the code better, but it will also help you identify errors or bad habits that are preventing you from passing the code correctly, and correct them to prevent mislearning.
   • To indicate that you made a mistake in passing the previous word, transmit 8 points. This will let the recipient of the signal know that the last word can be crossed out.
   • Do not give up! Learning Morse code will not be easy; it's as difficult as learning any new language. There are unusual letters, abbreviations, grammatical styles and many other aspects that need to be learned. Don't get discouraged if you make mistakes, just keep practicing until you get it perfect.
   • Listen very carefully. When you first start learning, listen to Morse code messages at a slow speed until you get used to it.
   • Learning Morse Code Can Be Easy, if you use the right tools. Print and laminate the chart below and put it in your wallet. You will remember the code faster, since the sign will be at your fingertips all the time. Read the table from top to bottom. White is a dot, colored is a dash. Start with the Latin letters E and T, which are dots and dashes. As you go down, read each line. So V is “. . . -”. Good luck.
   • You should not rely on the image, for you cannot train your ears with the help of sight. Don't learn using methods that slow you down, or you'll have to relearn when you need to learn to work faster. Your goal is to instantly recognize letters and then entire words, rather than counting dots and dashes. Computer programs like Koch and Farnesworth will help you with this.