Morse numbers are actually a five unit code: 1 = .---- 2 = ..--- 3 = ...-- 4 = ....- 5 = ..... 6 = -.... 7 = --... 8 = ---.. 9 = ----. 0 = ----- Regards ? Rod Smallwood ? ? -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell Sent: 28 November 2010 19:11 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: First binary encoding of the alphabet? I think that iether hte letters are not encoded in order, or some are missed out, then. If 'a' = 0 and 'b' = 1, then A=00000 = 0 (OK), H = 00111 = 7 (again, OK if the letters are encoded in order), but Z = 10111 = 23 I doubt it. Since a telegraph line has 2 states (on/off, mark/space, etc) you could claim that Morse code is a binary code with '.' being equivalent to the bit pattern '10' and '-' being '1110'. So for example 'S' = ... = 101010, 'P' = .--. = 101110111010 and so on. I don't know where the idea of binary encoding for various things originated. I do have an old book on electrical wiring (about 90 years old) that suggests putting 15 lights in a 5*2 matrix on the ceiling of a large hall and then wiring them to 4 swtichse (cntorllingg 1, 2, 4, 8 lamps respectively) so you get 16 levels of illumination (from all off to all on), the lights being arranged to get a fairly evcen distribution of light in all cases (for exampole, the '1' switch controls the lamp in the very centre). Incidnetally, the idea of assigning a 5 bit code to eack letter is commonly used to look for hidden messages in religious texts, the works of Shakespear, and so on. Basically, you pick a 5 bit encoding, then decide on how to split up the letters in the original manuscript into 0's and 1's (this may depend on how they are written, or whatever), and see if you van get a readable message. Since you hxve so much choice in encoding, etc, it's hard _not_ to find soemthing, but... -tony