What Is Morse Code?

Episode 61: What Is Morse Code? – features James Wades, President of the Morse Telegraph Club and Advisor on Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, exploring the language of dots and dashes. Episode Summary: This episode features a conversation with James, an expert in telegraphy and historical communication infrastructure. Listen as James breaks down what Morse code really is, how telegraphy shows up in early commercial and hidden industrial systems, why efficiency and rhythm patterns matter, how the technology evolved into the internet, and what separates American Morse code from International Morse code. In this episode we discuss: 00:36 – Introducing James Wades 01:30 – How James Wades became interested in Morse code 01:57 – Distinguishing American Morse code from International Morse code 02:57 – The common myth of telegraph obsolescence and overlapping infrastructure technologies 03:36 – The ubiquity and scale of early telegraphy infrastructure 05:12 – The evolution of the technology, commercial advantages, and automatic switching 09:36 – How automatic telegraph routing and switching evolved into the Internet 11:24 – Public interactions with the telegraph and its invisible commercial industry users 15:54 – Walter P. Phillips and the development of Phillips code shorthand 17:05 – Using Phillips Code for rapid baseball play-by-play and news reporting 21:23 – How Morse code characters are structured as rhythm patterns rather than manual translations 24:54 – Efficiency in telegraphy through the disciplined elimination of unnecessary language 28:48 – The economics of word-based charging systems 30:19 – Understanding telegraphy as a holistic, practiced art form 33:36 – Historical myths surrounding telegraph efficiency and the concept of the Victorian Internet 36:36 – The distinct design elements and historical adoption of American and International Morse codes 42:54 – Resources for learning more: The Morse Telegraph Club and the Long Island CW Club 45:54 – Conclusion Resources: ⁠The Morse Telegraph Club ⁠Long Island CW Club This episode includes the track 'RSPN' by Blank & Kytt. The song is used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. You can find more of Blank & Kytt's music ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here.⁠