Is Morse Code a lost language?

The St. George Live Tour season doesn’t officially start until June 1st.
And the school season January through April is over but
on Tuesday the 24th of May a special tour with buses and all was given for
students from the George Washington Academy School.
I was asked to play the role of Brigham Young at his office at the Brigham
Young home.

At 11:02 I arrived there and got into costume dressed and at 11:15
The first group of students came 22 in all, 11 boys and 11 girls with 2 lady
teachers, a little girl and the guide Kaye Wessman
They were a very knowledgeable group.
One girl knew some Morse Code as did two boys and one boy explained it it was made.
That may have been Tyler, but I’m not sure and I’ve forgotten the girl’s name.
After I was done telling them about Brigham and his office, I joined them out under the
mulberry tree for a photo.

Then next group was right on their heels.
28 in all, 12 boys, 16 girls, 4 lady teachers and Guide Winona Stanley.
I told them more that I had the first group.
Shannon, Emily, Hunter and Preston helped me answering questions I asked and
contributing to the story.
One teacher said her grandparents, both grandfather and grandmother, worked for the
railroad and knew Morse Code.
She called it the “lost language”.
Then out for photos with them.
Today I received a forwarded email from a teacher at school thanking the actors and
actresses. There had been 9 of us and then the bus drivers.
“Thank you all for giving us such a wonderful field trip! It was the perfect conclusion to
the Utah history we have been studying in May. It was also an excellent way to sneak
some learning into the last week of school. We greatly appreciate your willingness to
give of your time and supply our students with a great day.”
I just learned that the inventor of the code, Samuel Morse, is a distant cousin of mine.
What of him and the code?
Beginning in 1836, the American artist Samuel F. B. Morse, the American physicist
Joseph Henry, and Alfred Vail  developed an electrical telegraph system.

In 1837, William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone in England began using an electrical
telegraph that also used electromagnets in its receivers. However, in contrast with any
system of making sounds of clicks, their system used pointing needles that rotated above
alphabetical charts to indicate the letters that were being sent. In 1841, Cooke and
Wheatstone built a telegraph that printed the letters from a wheel of typefaces struck
by a hammer.

The English invention never caught on whereas the clicking code did and has been a
vital means of communication for nearly 200 years.
Though it isn’t used as much now as in the past, amateur “ham” radio operators use it.
Among other uses it is always nice to know SOS made by 3 dots, 3 dashes, 3 dots.
That is all That I remember from my boy scout days.

The SOS message could still save
your life.

The military uses Morse Code  even with light signals.
It’s a good thing to know.
Learn more about it at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code
It’s a long and comprehensive article.
It even has play buttons so that you can hear the sound of the signals.
So is Morse Code lost?
No not yet.
So go study the article and get to learning Morse Code.
_…  _._ _ .  .._.  _ _ _  ._.  _. … ._ _

A video telling how good it is:

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