The Birth of Dots and Dashes

In 1832, while returning from Europe, Samuel Morse conceived the idea of the electric telegraph after observing experiments with electromagnets. However, the true breakthrough in the 'Morse Code' came from his assistant, Alfred Vail, who developed the system based on the frequency of letters in the English language (assigning the shortest codes to the most common letters). The first official message sent in 1844, 'What hath God wrought', marked the beginning of the telecommunications era.

Source: Smithsonian Institution, 'The Electromagnetic Telegraph', 2023.