Q 01/05

Which inventor, a telegraph operator in his teens, nicknamed his first two children Dot and Dash?

A) Alexander Graham Bell

B) Nikola Tesla

C) Thomas Edison

D) George Westinghouse

Answer · why

C) Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison. Daughter Marion was Dot and Thomas Jr. was Dash, and the telegraph devices he went on to invent earned the money for his first laborato...

Q 02/05

Samuel Morse's telegraph marked dots and dashes on paper tape, but how did operators soon read messages instead?

A) By eye, from needles

B) By ear, from clicks

C) By eye, from lamps

D) By ear, from bells

Answer · why

B) By ear, from clicks

By ear, from clicks. The receiver clicked as it dented the tape, and operators found they could write a message straight down from the sound, so the t...

Q 03/05

In Morse code, what marks the end of one word and the start of the next?

A) A longer pause

B) A double dash

C) A change of pitch

D) A special stop signal

Answer · why

A) A longer pause

A longer pause. Words are split by a silence seven dots long, letters by three and the marks inside a letter by one, so a sender who hurries the gaps ...

Q 04/05

Which letter of the alphabet is a single dit in Morse?

A) E

B) I

C) T

D) A

Answer · why

A) E

E. As the most common letter in English it was given the shortest code of all, so the average message takes fewer taps to send.

Q 05/05

Which Los Angeles landmark has a rooftop beacon that blinks the word 'Hollywood' in Morse code?

A) Griffith Observatory

B) The Capitol Records Tower

C) The Chinese Theatre

D) Los Angeles City Hall

Answer · why

B) The Capitol Records Tower

The Capitol Records Tower. Its spire has blinked the name since the round tower opened in 1956, though in 1992 it switched to tapping out 'Capitol 50'...