American Morse Code vs International Morse code

Morse code is a well-known method of communication that encodes text messages into signals. There are two major versions of morse code, one is known as American Morse code and other is international morse code. They both have the same purpose of transmitting information through signals but the structure, history and usage is quite different. Let’s get into the details of American Morse Code vs International Morse code.

American Morse Code

This method was developed in 1840’s by Samuel Morse. The first message transmitted was “What hath God wrought?”. This method was specifically designed for early telegraph systems used in United States and therefore named as American Morse Code also widely known as the original Morse Code.

American morse code has more complex system of codes using dots and dashes. It is due to the inclusion of variety of signals. American morse, due to its complexity brings more errors and difficulty when transmitting. Due to it’s complexity, American morse code was well suited for early telegraphs which had less ambiguities. With the advancement of telegraph, however, the American morse code and its uses became limited.

In modern world, as the technology has advanced, the use of both the American and International morse code has vanished. However, American Morse code is still very lesser known then the International morse code.

International Morse Code

This method was developed bit later than the American morse code in 1848. It was introduced by Clemens Gerke who modified the original morse code in order to make it more efficient and reliable. In 1865 this method was officially adopted by ITU (International Telegraph Union) and stated that it was better than the American Morse Code. It can be translated through Morse Code

As compared to the American morse code, international morse code which is also known as Continental Morse Code is less complex and standardises the length of the signals. It also simplifies the encoding and decoding process which can be done by Morse Code translator making it easy to transmit. For example, although the structure of “S” in both cases is same as … International morse code has consistent timing as compared to American Morse code. Due to its simplicity, It was adopted worldwide especially in military communications. It was easy to learn and teach and therefore were accurately transmitted. Since then It is set as a standard whereas American morse code is persevered as historical artefacts by historians.

Difference in structure

Dash length: In American morse code some dashes are short while ither are long whereas in International morse code all dashes are of standard length. For example, in American “L” is encoded as .-.. And the last dash is longer than the initial. In International morse code “L” is represented in the same way .-.. but the length of all the dashes is uniform.
Spaces between the characters: American morse code uses spaces between the characters with short pauses such as “O” is represented by . .. and you can see how the last two are spaced from first dot. Whereas in International there is no space between the characters.
Number of elements: There are more characters in American morse code signals than in International.
Special characters: To create new meanings, American morse code combines unique characters whereas in international morse code standardise for easy learning.