"Couldn't these dots and dashes be arranged in a simple, methodical way instead of being so hit-and-miss?"

This is the constant complaint of the thousands of would-be telegraphers and radio operators who are studying the International Morse Code. It is the complaint, too, of persons who plan to use the code for signalling, sending messages by heliograph, and operating other communication facilities.

In spite of a deep interest in the subject, many prospective students have become discouraged after one or two futile attempts to memorize the dots and dashes which the International Morse Code uses to represent the various letters in the alphabet.

Before a person can learn how to send and receive messages by telegraph, he must memorize the twenty-six letters in the alphabet in code. The purpose of this chapter is to present a simple yet interesting way to do it.

This is what the alphabet looks like in code:

A. -                                          G- - .
B- . . .                                      H. . . .
C- . - .                                     I. .
D- . .                                        J. - - -
E.                                             K- . -
F. . - .                                      L. — . .

You need only to glance at the assortment of dots and dashes to appreciate the beginner's dismay. There is no uniformity in sequence. There is no pattern. Taken all in all, the code presents a confusing picture, and it is not easy to memorize.

If a good system or memory aid were developed to facilitate memorizing the alphabet in code, the beginner would feel encouraged to go on with his task. A number of methods or aids have been suggested, but none has been found satisfactory in practice, either because they required too great a knowledge of mnemonics or because they included too many exceptions to the rules laid down.

Here is my suggestion for a method by which you can commit the code to memory in fifteen or twenty minutes, Let us proceed step by step:

STEP 1. For each letter of the alphabet we substitute a specific word. Each word begins with the letter of the alphabet it represents. Later on we shall see how easily these words can be transposed into the code. The following words, which we call "cue words" or "cue word combinations," represent the letters:

A ir                                    F iery
B ruise                                G lobe
C hina                                H is essay
D ray                                  I ssue
E sso                                  J ustnow
K odak                              S usie
L ydia                                 T ot
M onk                                U sual
N ote                                 V isual
O n top                              W ith
P arty                                 X-rays
Q-Club                              Y okels
R eno                                 Z ombie

The average student should be able to memorize these words in alphabetical order, as presented, in ten minutes. But he can make his exercise in memory still easier by incorporating the words into this little five-sentence story which uses them consecutively:

A shell burst in the AL·, causing a Bruise to a soldier in China, who was riding in a Dray.

The soldier, Private Essot wrote about the Fiery Globe. His essay is at Issue Just now.

With his Kodak he took pictures of Lydia and a Monk writing a Note On top of a hill.

Then he went to a Party at the Q-Club in Reno, taking Susie and her Tot along as Usual.

At the club, Visual with X-rays were Yokels drinking a Zombie.

Once this odd story is learned, it is easy to remember. So are the cue words, because they appear in alphabetical order and each representative, or cue word, acts as an association for the succeeding cue word. Thus each word brings the next word to mind.

STEP 2. Having learned the cue words, apply the following rules: The first letter of each word is used merely to indicate the letter of the alphabet being coded. For the succeeding letters, substitute a dot (.) for each vowel (a e i 0 u y); and substitute a dash (—) for each consonant. For example:

However, the letters s and o are substituted by a dot or dash only when they appear at the end of a cue word or cue word combination. In all other positions they are disregarded, s and o are easily remembered by thinking of sos. For example:

The s in His does not count because it is not at the end of the cue word combination. The o in Reno counts because it is at the end of the cue word. The entire alphabet is thus transposed as follows:

If you have followed the instructions carefully, you should now know the symbol in the Morse Code for each letter in the alphabet.

For learning numbers in the Morse Code, no memory aid is necessary. They are coded in a clear pattern, as follows:

You will note that the numbers from 1 to 5 start with from 1 to 5 dots, and the numbers from 6 to o start with from 1 to 5 dashes. All are supplemented by the opposite symbol to a total of five. This uniform progression is easy to learn without any aid to memory.

The use of the International Morse Code is not confined to telegraphy. It extends to simpler forms of communication, such as signalling with flags, heliographs, and flash and blinker lights. Our little story of five sentences will give the memory aid needed for all of these.

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