Dashing Fellow

Today is the birthday of Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse Code.  In the age of the telegraph, he was able to take all the letters and numbers and turn them into dots and dashes (or dits and dahs).

Here's the chart:

Receiving the information from a telegrapher, the dashes take three times longer that the dots.  Also there's a wait between letters and a longer wait between words.

The most commonly used letters are generally the shortest in duration.  E is simply one dot.  I is two.  A is a dot and a dash.  S is three dots.  O seems a bit long at three dashes, but it does make for the famous SOS--dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot.

I doubt too many people know this stuff any more, but to former generations many knew it the same way a blind person might know braille.