Happy Birthday Samuel Morse!

Google logo in Morse Code

 

Google posted their logo today in Morse Code in celebration of the birthday of the man who invented the code, Samuel Morse.

I once tried to learn Morse Code. Back in the day before the Internet, the only way to communicate with strangers from around the world was through amateur (“ham”) radio. This not only required an expensive radio (“rig”) and large antenna, but also a specialized license – and obtaining such license required learning Morse code. I had crammed on all other aspects of the license and had started studying the code using a course on audio cassette (which, by the way, as I like to remind my co-patriots in training, was the original form of “podcasting – but I digress …) I was expecting my daughter, Johna, at the time and somehow thought that I would be able to finish learning the code and completing the test while on maternity leave. That would have been late 1986.

Yes, Johna was my first (and only) child and I had no idea what I was in for. No, I never did complete the ham radio test. In fact, by time I got around to seriously thinking about it again, Robert and I had moved on to dial-up computer bulletin board systems and started our own BBS on our home computer. Next thing you know, I was moderating newsgroups on AOL in exchange for online minutes, and my burning desire to communicate with far flung strangers was fulfilled through a typewriter keyboard rather than the “straight key” used in keying a long dash (dah) or short dot (dit).

So, with thanks to Google for their unabashed willingness to play with their logo, I appreciated this little walk down memory lane and reminder once again of just how far we have come in so short a time. I was pleased when I saw the logo today and the fact that I immediately recognized it for Morse code — aided by the fact that “SOS” (ditditdit dahdahdah ditditdit) — is one of the first things one learns in Morse code, and “Google” happens to have two dahdahdahs right smack in the middle of the word!