Marconi claimed that his success came from improving the apparatus used by earlier experiments (coherer, de-coherer, induction coil, etc.) and discovering the aerial-to-earth system. He had found that the longer he made the arms of the aerial, the further he could transmit radio signals. By further experiment he had discovered that if he raised one arm of the aerial high into the air and buried the other arm in the ground (earthed it) he could transmit for miles instead of yards.

Preece arranged for the Post Office to back Marconi’s experiments. In 1897 Marconi made successful transmissions from Lavernock Point on the coast of Glamorganshire to Flat Holm Island, a distance of eight miles. In 1898 Marconi transmitted from specially set up stations at Alum Bay, Isle of Wight and Poole Bay nearby. (Poole Bay continued to operate until 1926.) The signals were received by ships also fitted with special equipment, and the transmissions covered a distance of eighteen miles. It was during this time that Marconi discovered that radio communication was easier over water than land. Shortly after he discovered that it was easier at night than during the day.

In the following year, 1899, the British and United States Navies began fitting Marconi system radios in their ships, and as a result, were able to keep in touch over a distance of nearly 100 miles. In the same year the English Channel was spanned by radio and the East Goodwin Lightship was able to radio for help when it was rammed by the freighter R. F. Matthews. By 1901, Marconi had improved his system sufficiently to be able to transmit from Poldhu to St. John’s using an aerial taken to a great height first by a balloon and then by a box kite.

It was during this time that Marconi had the benefit of the technical advice given by Ambrose Fleming. This was fortunate since although radio transmissions of Morse Code could be effectively made across the world, they were suitable only for the passing on of messages, not general broadcasting. The time was ripe for another important step.

Hello fellow author’s  as we are continually writing all sorts of story’s and things that intrest each other i  come acrose all types of anagrams i thought you might be interested in some of the following i thought they were very good hope you all enjoy.

Astronomer ………………. moon starer

Presbyterian………………. best in prayer

The morse code ………….. here comes dots

Dormitory …………………….. dirty room

Slot machines ………………… cash lost in me

Election results ………………….. lies lets recount

Snooze alarm …………………. alas no more z’s

A decimal point ……………… im a dot in place

The earth quakes ……………..that queer shake

Eleven plus two …………….. twelve plus one

The eyes ……………………………… they see

George bush ……………he bugs gore

Animosity …………………is no amity

Desperation ……………… a rope ends it

Mother in law ………….. woman hitler

And last but not least star of the hit tv show, how to look good naked

Gok wan …………….. go wank

In 1843 he managed to persuade a skeptical Congress to fund a project to construct a telegraph line from Washington DC to Baltimore. In May !844, Morse sent the first official telegram over the line. Over the next few years several private companies under Morse’s patent were set up all over the north east of the US. In 1851 one of these companies was called the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, it would later become known as Western Union. In 1861, as Western Union the first transcontinental line across the United States was completed. Five years later and the first line was established across the Atlantic, by the end of that century telegraph systems were in use in Africa, Australia and Asia.

Telegram companies charged by the word, and because the word ‘stop’ was free it became the norm for ending a sentence as any punctuation marks had to be paid for. Singing telegrams were introduced in 1933. Telegrams also became dreaded during times of conflict as these were in many countries used as a way of informing the next of kin of any one from the military having been killed in action.

As the 20th century progressed telegraph messages were gradually replaced by cheaper long distance telephone calls, then faxes and eventually email. Samuel Morse the creator of the telegraph and the communications code that bears his name died a wealthy and famous man in New York City on the 2nd of April 1872 aged 80.

Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy in 1874, to an Italian father and Irish mother. He studied physics and during his studies became interested in the transmission of radio waves. He began to conduct experiments in 1894 while still in Bologna and he first succeeded in sending a radio signal over a distance of 1.5 miles. Disillusioned at receiving little encouragement for his findings in Italy he moved to England in 1896. He formed a wireless telegraph company and was soon sending messages over a greater distance than 10 miles. In 1899 he succeeded in sending a message across the English Channel to France. In the same year he equipped two US ships to report to New York newspapers on the progress of the America’s Cup yacht race. The success of that venture caused a widespread interest in both Marconi and his wireless company.

His greatest achievement was accomplished when in 1901 he received word that his message had arrived in Canada. He continued to learn more about the laws of radio waves and the role of atmospheric conditions during radio transmissions. His would be a leading role in discoveries and innovations for the next three decades.

In 1909 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with the German radio innovator Ferdinand Braun. After he successfully sent radio transmissions from points as far apart as England to Australia, Marconi began to experiment with shorter but more powerful radio waves. He died in 1937 and on the day of his funeral the British Broadcasting Corporation had all its stations stay silent for two minutes in tribute to the contributions of Marconi and his innovation to the development of radio.

 Humans have always communicated with each other. After the electricity had been invented, it was possible for the Morse and others that work on the telegraph. The speed of the telegraph was to drop Pony Express, pigeons and smoke signals, for now, there was keen masts along the railway tracks and at every railway station, could receive or send messages.

Prize in 1856 for sending messages was approx. 40 cents for 15 words.

In the late 19th century came the wireless telegraph (radio wave) which we can thank for Guglielmo Marconi. Until then, ships had only been able to communicate closely on land or close to other ships. The wireless telegraph also used Morse code to send messages.

Probably the most famous Morse signal is enough SOS (… — …) as the Titanic when it sent aid into an iceberg and as everyone knows and does help. Today when we speak over the radio or telephone use is also May Day comes from the French “M’aidez” and does help me. Another interesting thing about Morse code is that you can also use sound, light or flags to send signals.

 
You can compare the telegraph to today’s email to the email computer also communicate with signs, it is obviously much faster than Morse code, but the principle of communicating the same speed is the same. But the difference between e-mail and the telegraph is that everyone can send an e-mail if we have learned to read and write and have a computer available. To use the telegraph, you should be trained to send and understand the codes and it was only such military and postal services were trained. Millions of people have up to several computers at home and sends e-mails every day. It is also cheaper.

But the Internet (and thus e-mails) would not exist if no electricity and the telegraph was invented and further developed by various scientists

Semaphore

This is a code used normally for people who are seeking help visually. The signaler holds two flags and shapes/moves them in various ways to represent each letter of the alphabet. This code would take quite a long time to remember, but would be quite helpful if you were stranded on an island, for example.

Morse Code

One of the most common non-word number code, this famous code was invented by Samuel Morse. It is written/sounded by a series of dots (taps) and dashes (taps with pauses). One of the most well-known messages this is used for is the SOS signal (… – - – …, dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot). Some people believe this stands for Save Our Souls. This code is sent over radio and can also be helpful to send messages quickly.

Ground to Air

‘Normal’ people can use this code easily. It is done by placing rocks in a shape, signalling to people on aircraft in the sky of what they need. One example of a sign is a square/rectangle, which represents ‘Need Map.’ Although this code would be very helpful if you knew how to use it, it is often not used by that many people.

Ensign Flagging

There are many flags which can be used for signaling from vessel to vessel. There are 26 flags (twenty-six) and each are used for different purposes. Each flag looks different and is assigned a letter. One certain flag stands for O, which is ‘Man Overboard’. Quick signalling can save many lives and/or steer ships away from danger.

Please take time to browse my other articles:
 - The Truth about Natural Disasters – Volcanoes
 - An Alliteration for Every Letter of the Alphabet
 - Fun Card Games – Big Two

Some wise person once told me that you should never stop learning come what may. You will never know when you will need it. I am in a process of learning at least one new skill in a month. In that process, I am documenting it and sharing it with you guy so that you can also benefit from it.

In my last article I showed you how to do speed squaring using Vedic mathematics. Today I will show you how to exercise your brain by introducing it to mnemonics. I saw a site today which teaches the basics of Morse code. Thought I will share it with you. I will also share with you some of the cool sites which I found useful while learning Morse code. There will be lots of Technical books available in the market but as always, the websites I have mentioned in this article provides you the ultimate learning resources.

Basics

The first website you should check out before you go to any other page is obviously the Wiki page for which the link is given here.

This website will provide you all the basics for learning and interpreting Morse code. The picture given in the website is a code listening tool. Print it on your printer. Place your pencil where it says START and listen to Morse code

HEAR slow morse code and try to interpret the words after going through the basics. The audio speed is slow enough for the beginners to follow the chart below.

Intermediate

This is a cool flash tool provided Boy s Life. It will provide you with a calculator like interface to type in various Morse codes. It is really a fun way to understand and learn the different codes.

If you are looking for a quick way or a Morse code translator, here is a good one. If you give your sentence in English, it will translate it to the equivalent Morse code. But if you are looking to convert Morse code to English then this is the site for you.

Proficient

Until 1991, a demonstration of the ability to send and receive Morse code at 5 words per minute (WPM) was required to receive an amateur radio license for use in the United States from the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC test is the test which anyone studying Morse code should take. So, when you become an expert, you will be able to interpret this.

Side Note

The human brain is the most complex thing in the galaxy. The evolution it went through is immense. That is your most underestimated part of your body. You cannot even imagine the things you can do with it. The only way is to keep it in shape is to exercise it often and keep it sharp because if you don’t, it will become weaker and weaker day by day.

There were many earlier cables laid across shorter distances, such as the cable that was laid across the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the estuary for the Great Lakes. Some of the methods that were used in these short distance cable layings were used in the transatlantic laying. For example, a normal ship could not carry the thousands of pounds needed to hold the cable, so special ships with reinforced hulls were constructed in order to hold the cables. In the case of the Atlantic Ocean, two ships had to be used because of the greater distance (historymag.com).

Cyrus Field, an American businessman, had the idea to build on the shorter cables and create a cable across the entire Atlantic Ocean. In order to do so, he made his own company, the Atlantic Telegraph Company. He then hired Charles Tilston Bright as the chief engineer, who searched for a probable route between England and America. They raised funds for the project by selling shares from the Atlantic Telegraph Company and Cyrus Field, himself, funded about one fourth of the total expense (pbs.org).

The cable that was designed was specially made from copper wires bundled together, covered with several coats of gutta-percha, or a substance like vulcanized rubber, wound with tarred hemp, and finally covered with 126 strands of iron wire. These cables weighed a ton per mile, but were still flexible enough to move with the water and withstand underwater pressures of several tons (atlantic.com). Interestingly enough, it was the British Government that helped the most, even though Field was from America. They gave Field 1,400 pounds (English currency) a year and gave him ships on which to store and lay the cable. However, America was much less helpful, with aid from Congress just barely passing by a single vote, and some hostility even after the money was authorized. In the end however, two ships were used to lay the cable, the English HMS Agamemnon and the American USS Niagara.

The first attempt to lay a cable was in 1857 and was a complete failure. On the very first day of the laying, the cable snapped while being laid, was grappled, and spliced back together. But the misfortune didn’t stop there, as it later snapped over what is known the “telegraph plateau,” a 2 mile deep section of the ocean. Earlier they were able to grapple the cable as it was only a few thousand feet down, but being over ten thousand feet deep, they had to abandon the project.

A year later in 1958, the two ships tried again, this time going in opposite directions from the middle of the ocean. The two ships met, spliced the cables, the turned around and went back to their respective shores, releasing thousands of pounds of cable as they went. Again, the cable broke several times, and was re-spliced together repeatedly. Eventually they had to abandon the project when they could not retrieve the cable.

Finally, on the third of attempt, the cable was successfully laid and secured to land line cables. On August 16, 1858, Queen Victoria sent a telegram to President Buchanan through the line, congratulating him on the success, who in turn sent his own message thanking her, and wishing that the cable would “prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty, and law throughout the world.” The next morning there was celebrating in both England and America, and the transatlantic cable was the talk of the countries for months.

In September of 1958, the insulation dissolved to a point where the cable stopped working. However Field was not dissuaded because he now knew that it could be accomplished. With the experience gained in the first attempts, they made a new cable that was wound with steel instead of iron and was saturated in preservative. The new cable weighed over twice what the first cable had weighed.

After one failed attempt, the connection was established, and a transatlantic cable was in existence once more. Later that year the cable that was lost in a previous attempt was found, reattached, and connected to Newfoundland. In the space of two months two cables had been put into operation (pbs.org).

Early on messages were sent via Morse Code, and even then only being able to transmit about eight words a minute. However this was a great improvement over messages that might have taken several weeks traveling by boat across the ocean now took only an hour or less. Because only a single message can be sent over a cable at a time, the cables were very expensive and used only by governments and big businesses. It was a big shock for people when messages would arrive before the time they were sent (due to time zones). Slowly over time the speed was increased and the number of cables grew. By the end of the nineteenth century there were dozens of cables stretched across the Atlantic, not only connecting to America and England but also France, Germany, and Spain.

Having this increase in communication began the “communication revolution”, which built on the telegraph. This also began the connecting of the world. Whereas at one time news of events could take place in one side of the world and the news would takes weeks or months to travel to the other side of the world, now it could be known in a matter of hours or days. With the extra information the average person began to learn more about the world outside of his own state, and a country a thousand miles away was no longer something that would just be read about in books, but something that was real and alive. In fact, the transatlantic cable showed that communication was possible over long distances and gave people the idea for cellphones and satellites. In the words of President Buchanan, “It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle.”

And to think, as stated above it used to take days or even months to send a message from one person to another via pony express.

Samuel F B Morse created “Morse Code” by using the basic elements of the dot (dit) and the dash (dah) being the dot the minimal duration element, with the dash equal to three times the duration of the dot. Electrically, current flowed with both dots and dashes. The time between each element of the same character was one dot. The amount of time between each character was three dots; and the time between words was equal to seven dots! During these idle time intervals, the telegraph line was open (no current flow)

Unfortunately, Morse code suffered from a couple of drawbacks. For starters skilled telegraph operators were required, and the work of these operators was grueling (well what do you expect, can you imagine tapping on a single key all day). Also, because the code had varying numbers of elements between characters, it was very difficult to automate. But at least it still beat the pony express.

All in all it really just shows how once upon a time it took days, months or probably years if the message was sent from the other side of the world to reach its destination. So just imagine if the pony express had to still exist today…..

Data communications as we know it will forever keep changing as inventors will keep finding ways to improve the way we all communicate today. Who knows what they will come up with next.