Telegraphy. Artwork of telegraphy communication using Morse code. A seated man is reading coded letters from a strip of paper produced by a receiver (centre right). The other man is writing these letters down to form a message. A transmitt- er handset is inset at upper right. Designed by American inventor Samuel Morse in 1838, the Morse Code used a series of 'dots' and 'dashes' to represent letters. These 'dots' and 'dashes' were converted into short and long electrical signals respectively by depressing the lever on the trans- mitter handset. These pulses were sent by wire or radio to a receiver where the signals could be decoded back into writing. Image from 1910.