318 



the study of each promotes progress in the 

 other two; consequently, all three should 



Popular Science Monthly 



mi i i i iiii i i i 



milium *] 



POUR SI6NA15 



FIG. 1 

 Letters divided into four classes of one, 

 two, three and four signals, dots and dashes 



be carried along together. The first two 

 can be studied easily without assistance; 

 but practice in sound reading requires 

 either a companion student or a skilled 

 telegrapher with whom to practice sending 

 and receiving messages, or else an auto- 

 matic sending machine. Probably the most 

 interesting, and certainly one of the most 

 effective, ways to learn the code is to 

 practice it with another student of about 

 equal ability. Thus there is the incentive 

 of competition, and, from the very first 

 work, the satisfaction of actually com- 

 municating with another person through 

 the vehicle of the Morse 

 code. The only difficulty N A 



in pursuing this two-student ffT l H 1 1 HBB 

 method lies in the danger of 

 falling into improper habits 

 of sending (e. g., incorrect 

 spacing); but this can be 

 corrected by getting the occasional criti- 

 cisms of a skilled operator. 



be done. The only way to get this rapidity 

 of translation from written letters to 

 Morse letters is by continued practice. 



In Fig. i is reproduced the most im- 

 portant part of the code, i. e., the symbols 

 which represent the letters of the English 

 alphabet and the period. With these 

 twenty-seven characters in mind, any 

 message can be transmitted. Numerals 

 and punctuation marks other than the 

 period may be spelled out by name, so 

 that for the first work it is only necessary 

 to memorize these. It will be noted that 

 the letter chart of Fig. i is different from 

 that usually used for showing the Morse 

 code, in that the dots and dashes are plotted 

 on square-section ruling. This shows at 

 once the time allowance which should be 

 made for each dot, space and dash, since 

 each small square represents the time of a 

 "dot-element." This dot-element is ab6ut 

 one-twentieth of a second long in moder- 

 ately fast sending, and is the length of 

 time the current is turned on to form a dot. 

 It is equal to the length of time the current 

 is allowed to remain turned off to form a 

 space between dots and dashes within 

 the same letter. It is one-third of the 

 time the current is turned on to form 

 a* dash. 



Subdividing the Alphabet 



In memorizing the code it is best to take 

 up the letters in groups. Several modes of 

 division are practicable, but the best 

 seems to be that illustrated in Fig. 2. 

 Here the characters are divided into four 

 classes, according to whether they are 

 formed from one, two, three or four signals 



t l T 



H i r w m i 



Memorizing the Code 



The first thing, then, is to memorize the 

 code itself. Without the ability to call to 

 mind instantaneously the dot-and-dash 

 symbol corresponding to each letter it is 

 impossible to operate effectively. One 

 must be able to recall the Morse equivalent 

 of any character without any mental effort 

 — the process must be automatic or sub- 

 conscious before satisfactory sending can 



FIG.3 

 A time layout of normal spacings, but for the sake of clearness 

 the space between words and letters should be slightly exaggerated 



(dots or dashes). The simplest characters 

 are E and T, which comprise a single dot 

 and single dash respectively. These are 

 very easy to remember, so that one may 

 proceed at on^e to the two-signal letters 

 I, M, A and N. It will be noted that the 

 left hand part ot the chart is devoted to 

 the letters in each group which begin with 

 a dot, while the right hand part shows 

 those commenci.ig with a dash. Wherever 

 feasible to do so, letters which are the 

 reverse of each other are arranged side 

 by side, — for instance, A is dot-dash, and 



