There are many surprising facts about the development of the Morse telegraph and even Morse code. Often it is easy to overlook the interesting history behind the Morse telegraph system and the people who invented and developed it.
First of all, Morse himself. His name was Samuel Morse and it is surprising to note that he was primarily an artist - a portrait painter and another surprising fact is that he was probably the foremost portrait painter from North America, and he has paintings in the White House.
The idea for a communications system using electricity and some electromechanical elements came to Morse when he was returning from a visit from the US to Europe where he had been wanting to learn more about the European style of art.
The return journey across the Atlantic in those days too around a month and in it he met other passengers and discussed various topics. It was with one passenger to discussed the new science of electricity and magnetism and this sparked some ideas in Morse's mind.
On his return he worked on his now idea, but needed to take on some associates to broaden the expertise available.
One was Alfred Vail and it is surprising to note that it was probably he who invented the Morse key, so should it really be called a Vail key.
The original concept for the Morse telegraph was to use a machine called an inker, marker or register that used a clockwork mechanism to drive a paper tape past an electromagnetically operated pen that would ink the paper tape in line with the dots and dashes of the Morse code message - this could be manually deciphered later.
It is surprising to note that operators became so used to the sound of the clicks and clacks that they did not need the paper tape as the could decipher the code from the sounds. As a result sounders - electromagnets operated by the Morse signals were normally used.
As American Morse telegraphists were normally itinerant and took their own keys with them, these often had a sounder with the key on a wooden base - these were often called Key-on-Base, or KOB assemblies.
For more surprising information about the Morse code, Morse keys and the general topic of the Morse telegraph there are links below:
Samuel Morse: www.electronic...
Development of the Morse telegraph: www.electronic...
History of Morse keys: www.electronic...
Learning Morse code: www.electronic...
Associated website: www.electronic...
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