Gheorghe Andrei Radulescu YO4AUP

Intr-adevar, numele lui Morse este indisolubil legat de telegraf si de sistemul de transmitere al datelor cu acest aparat. O foarte frumoasa biografie ilustrata a lui Samuel Finley Breese Morse se poate citi aici http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/morse.html. (imaginea din 1810 in care apare familia lui samuel f b morse poate fi vazuta in alte referinte in oglinda. Nu stiu care este imaginea corecta, cu mama in dreapta sau in stinga mesei) La sfirsitul acestei biografii gasiti alte 26 referiri bibliografice asupra biografiei lui Samuel Finley Breese Morse.

Pina la virsta de 46 de ani (in 1837) a pictat dar de aici inainte isi dedica urmatorii 35 de ani de viata perfectionarii telegrafului inventat de el. Mai tirziu, Albert Einstein la rindul lui, pentru a defini telegrafia fara fir (radioul) porneste de la telegraful lui Morse. (Albert Einstein - biografie aici: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Einstein.html)

"Telegraful cu fir este asemenea unei pisici foarte lungi- o calci pe coada in New York si ea miauna in Los Angeles. Tot asa functioneaza si telegraful fara fir numai ca nu exista pisica." Acesta este radioul. Este simplu, fara pisica, si il folosim toti.

Telegraful lui Morse se compunea dintr-un manipulator, o baterie si un electromagnet. Ideea lui Morse si totodata subiectul patentului cerut de el in 1844 este utilizarea electromagnetului la receptie. Apasarea manipulatorului inchide circuitul electric si electromagnetul atrage armatura mobila care apasa tocul pe banda de hirtie care se deplaseaza cu viteza constanta si pe hirtie ramine scrisa o linie. Lungimea liniei scrise pe hirtie este determinata de timpul cit manipulatorul este tinut apasat. Simplu. Mai raminea de inventat "Codul Morse." Majoritatea perfectionarilor telegrafului lui Morse precum si codul de transmitere al cuvintelor au fost gindite si facute de asociatii lui Morse, dintre care ii mentionam pe Alfred Vail si pe tinarul lui asistent,William Baxter. Un site interesant despre telegrafie si istoria ei se gaseste la aceasta adresa http://www.telegraph-office.com/tel_off.html

Tot aici se poate citi un articol scris in 1877, cind s-a pus prima data intrebarea: cine a inventat codul morse? http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/vail.html In 1837, cind Morse a inceput demersurile pentru obtinerea brevetului pentru telegraful sau, ideea sa asupra codarii prevedea un dictionar care sa faca conversia de la numere la cuvinte sau propozitii. Iata ce scrie Samuel Morse asociatului sau Vail la 24 Octombrie 1837:

The dictionary is at last done. You cannot conceive how much labor there has been, but it is accomplished, and we can now talk or write anything by numbers...

Munca de codare si de decodare era insa coplesitoare. Imediat dupa aceasta, la 13 noiembrie acelasi an, Morse ii scrie din nou lui Alfred Vail urmatoarele:

You will be gratified and agreeably surprised when I inform you that the result now is, that, with a little addition of wire to the coil of the small magnet which I bad all along used, the power was as great apparently through ten as through three miles. The result has surprised us; and yet there is no mistake, and, I conceive, settles the whole matter.

Alfred Vail impreuna cu tinarul sau asistent William Baxter se implica intens in perfectionarea telegrafului. Iata cum descrie W Baxter mai tirziu, in 1888, la 16 ani de la disparitia lui Morse, acea perioada in care telegraful a inceput sa scrie puncte si linii si in care lui Alfred Vail i s-a cristalizat ideea ca procesul de codare trebuie sa converteasca literele si cifrele intr-o succesiune de linii si puncte:

"Alfred was singularly modest and unassuming, while Professor Morse was very much inclined to insist on the superiority of his own plans and methods - if for no other reason; because they were his own. As we all looked upon him with the respect due to a professor, we were at first quite willing to defer submissively to his dicta. It resulted from this, that the first machine which was constructed at Speedwell was substantially a copy of the original model, although constructed of metal, in a more symmetrical and practical form. As we became acquainted with Morse it became evident to us that his mechanical knowledge and skill were limited, and his ideas in matters relating to construction of little value. As the weak points in the apparatus were one after another developed, Alfred began to draw upon the resources of his own wonderful power of invention in substituting practical and commercially valuable mechanical combinations for the more or less impracticable designs of Morse. We found, for example, that the pencil of the recording apparatus frequently required repointing, and that when freshly sharpened it made a different mark from that made by a worn point, which tended to render the record obscure and difficult to decipher. Alfred contrived a fountain pen that made a uniform line. This device, however, was not satisfactory to him, as it threw the ink in all directions when jerked by the sudden action of the magnet, and he spent some time in diligent study in the endeavor to devise a remedy. He was a mechanical draughtsman of surpassing skill, as is fully attested by some of his work still in possession of his family. He brought to me one day, after working for an hour at his drawing table , a sketch of a new marking device, in which a vertical motion was given to the lever instead of the transverse movement which had hitherto been employed. We constructed the new lever, and thus for the first time produced a register capable of making dots, dashes, and spaces. Alfred's brain was at this time working at high pressure, and evolving new ideas every day. He saw in these new characters the elements of an alphabetical code by which language could be telegraphically transmitted in actual words and sentences, and he instantly set himself at work to construct such a code. His general plan was to employ the simplest and shortest combinations to represent the most frequently recurring letters of the English alphabet, and the remainder for the more infrequent ones. For instance, he found upon investigation that the letter e occurs much more frequently than any other letter, and accordingly he assigned to it the shortest symbol, a single dot(.). On the other hand, j, which occurs infrequently, is expressed by dash-dot-dash-dot (-.-.) After going through a computation, in order to ascertain the relative frequency of the occurrence of different letters in the English alphabet, Alfred was seized with sudden inspiration, and visited the office of the Morristown local newspaper, where be found the whole problem worked out for him in the type cases of the compositor. In this statement I have given the true origin of the misnamed "Morse" alphabet the very foundation and corner-stone of a new system, which has, since become the universal telegraphic language of the world."

Aceste pasaje sint extrase din revista Secolul din 1888 "The Century: Illustrated Monthly Magazine", April 1888, by Franklin Pope, titled "The American Inventors of the Telegraph, with special references to the services of Alfred Vail".

Prima transmisie telegrafica cu public a avut loc la 24 May, 1844 si a cuprins numai 4 cuvinte, "What hath God wrought" ( text luat din Biblie, xxiii., 23 - Care a fost lucrarea lui Dumnezeu) Textul, pentru a valida perfectiunea sistemului, a fost ales de Annie G. Ellsworth, fiica lui Henry L. Ellsworth, presedintele oficiului de patente al Statelor Unite la acea data, prezenta si ea in sala Curtii Supreme de Justitie din Capitoliul din Washington unde avea loc demonstratia. Textul a fost inminat lui Samuel Morse care l-a transmis la prima lectura la Baltimore, unde a fost receptionat de Alfred Vail, asistentul si partenerul de afaceri al lui Samuel Morse. Pentru confirmarea receptiei, A. Vail a transmis mesajul inapoi la Washington.

Cum a sunat acest mesaj in receptorul lui Alfred Vail se poate auzi accesind aceasta adresa http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/tel/whgwrot.wav

Istoria nedreapta si de data aceasta a pastrat insa numele lui Samuel Morse atit ca inventator al telegrafului cit si ca autor al alfabetului omonim. De Albert Vail insa nu mai stie aproape nimeni astazi.

Am incercat sa povestesc tinerei generatii care nu mai sustine examen si la telegrafie un mic capitolde istorie.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

P.S. O adresa interesanta despre si pentru iubitorii telegrafiei este http://www.qsl.net/ve6bpr/cwlinks.html

Gheorghe Andrei Radulescu YO4AUP

Articol aparut la 19-4-2006

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