Morse Code

The United States and Canada did not adopt the International Morse Code for sending telegraphy messages when other countries did in the 1850s; instead, they continued to use the original Morse Code system. International Morse Code consists of combinations of dots and dashes representing the letters of the alphabet and numerals. The duration of one dash equals that of three dots. Today, International Morse Code is no longer used commercially or by the military, because radiotelegraphy has been replaced by digital communications via satellite.