IWM - Enigma and the Codebreakers

Morse Code and Telegraphy

The invention of MORSE CODE in 1838 by the American, Samuel Morse, created an entirely new way of sending messages quickly over long distances.

Morse is not actually a code but an ELECTRO-MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH SYSTEM which used signals of 'dots' and 'dashes' to represent letters of the alphabet. If a message in Morse was to be kept secret, it had to be put into code before it was sent.

Look at the morse alphabet. See how each letter is shown in dots and dashes. Morse code was sent using a TAPPER.

A dot means one short tap.

A dash means a long tap.

Listen to a Morse message...

By the end of the First World War, armies and navies sent many of their important orders by telegraph or wireless using Morse. British and German code-breakers tried to intercept and decode each other's messages.

TELEGRAPHY is a method of sending messages by electrical impulses through a wire. To work it needs:

a transmitter

a conducter - the wire

a receiver

electricity - eg. a battery

Morse code and telephones are examples of telegraphy in action.

WIRELESS transmission means that messages are sent by RADIO WAVES through the air. To work in both directions it needs:

two tranceivers

two aerials

Both these methods of communication were used during the First and Second World Wars.