Morse code is nearly 190 years old — and still surprising. From secret wartime blinks to modern smartphone keyboards, here are 10 facts that most people have never heard.
Morse code is nearly 190 years old — and still surprising. From secret wartime blinks to modern smartphone keyboards, here are 10 facts that most people have never heard.
"Save Our Souls" and "Save Our Ship" are both myths invented after SOS was already in use. The signal was chosen in 1906 purely because ··· — — — ··· is symmetrical, impossible to confuse, and easy to send even in a panic. It has no official meaning as an abbreviation.
... --- ... (SOS)In 1966, US Navy Commander Jeremiah Denton was filmed by North Vietnamese captors for a propaganda broadcast. While speaking, he blinked T-O-R-T-U-R-E in Morse code with his eyes. Navy intelligence analysts watching the footage decoded it — making it the first US confirmation that American POWs were being tortured.
Morse code was engineered for efficiency. Alfred Vail counted how many of each letter appeared in a printer's type case — the most common letters got the shortest codes. E (·) is the most common letter in English, so it got the simplest possible code. J, Q, X, Y, Z — the rarest letters — got the longest codes.
Google added Morse code input to Gboard (Android keyboard) in 2018. You can switch to Morse input and type using two keys — a short tap for dot and a long press for dash. It was developed specifically as an accessibility feature for people with motor impairments who cannot use a standard keyboard.
The famous opening of Beethoven's Fifth — da da da DUM — is three short notes and one long note: ··· —, which is the letter V in Morse code. The BBC deliberately used this as an interval signal in broadcasts into Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II because V (for Victory) was the Allied morale symbol.
...- (V = Victory)Radio operator Jack Phillips sent SOS and CQD distress signals from RMS Titanic for over two hours as the ship sank on 15 April 1912. His transmissions reached the Carpathia 93 km away, which rescued 705 survivors. Phillips himself did not survive. He is credited with saving every life that was rescued that night.
Every VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range) and NDB (Non-Directional Beacon) navigation aid continuously broadcasts its identifier in Morse code. Pilots are required to decode these signals to confirm they have the correct beacon tuned. There are thousands of active navigation beacons worldwide still sending Morse code 24 hours a day.
Before inventing the telegraph, Samuel F.B. Morse was one of America's most celebrated portrait painters. His painting of the House of Representatives hangs in the Corcoran Gallery. He had no engineering training — the technical work was done primarily by his partner Alfred Vail, who rarely gets credit.
In amateur radio CW operation, HI HI (···· · / ···· ·) is the standard way to laugh over Morse code. When something is funny during a contact, operators tap out HI HI instead of saying "ha ha." It's a century-old tradition that every ham radio operator knows and still uses today.
.... . / .... . (HI HI)In 2005, a 93-year-old former telegraph operator named Gordon Hill challenged a teenage texting champion to a speed contest — sending the same message, one using Morse code and one using a mobile phone keypad. Hill won. The story highlighted that at its peak, expert Morse operators could communicate faster than many modern typing methods.
Bonus fact: The word "PARIS" is used as the standard timing reference for Morse code speed. One word per minute (WPM) is defined as sending the word PARIS once per minute. At 20 WPM, an operator sends PARIS 20 times per minute — or about 3.3 characters per second.
Now that you know the facts — try translating your own message into Morse code and hear it played.
Open Morse Code Translator