Hog-Morse was telegraphers' jargon for the tendency of inexperienced

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

operators to make errors when sending or receiving in

Morse code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...

. The term was current in the United States during the period when

American Morse code American Morse Code — also known as Railroad Morse — is the latter-day name for the original version of the Morse Code, developed in the mid-1840s by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail for their electric telegraph. The "American" qualifier was add ...

was still in use. It is so called after one example (here given in International Morse but most likely originating in American Morse): : () becomes : (), with just one subtle error in timing.

Examples

The now-defunct American Morse ("railroad code") is different from the

International Morse Code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...

currently in use for

radio telegraphy Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is the transmission of text messages by radio waves, analogous to electrical telegraphy using cables. Before about 1910, the term ''wireless telegraphy'' was also used for other experimental technologies fo ...

. With American Morse it was far more difficult to avoid timing errors, because there were more symbol timings than there are in International Morse and some were difficult to distinguish because of their closeness; International Code has only two symbols, dots () and dashes (), but the American code had three lengths of dash and two lengths of spaces between dots. For example, the dashes used for "L" () and "T" () in American Morse are distinct. Also, in International Morse the space between symbols within a character is always the same, but American Morse has two different spaces. For example, the letters "S" (), "C" (), and "R" () all consist of three dots, but with slightly different timing between the dots in each case. A frequently quoted, but possibly apocryphal, story from the historical period concerns the similarity of () and () in the American code. A company in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

received a request for quotation for a load of (rough sawn wood intended for the manufacture of barrels), but the telegraph operator had sent : () instead of : () thus sending an order for . The company replied reminding the customer that slavery had been abolished. Another American Morse example given in the literature is becoming . One commentator has called this the 19th century

autocorrect Autocorrection, also known as text replacement, replace-as-you-type, text expander or simply autocorrect, is an automatic data validation function commonly found in word processors and text editing interfaces for smartphones and tablet computer ...

Examples

References

Further reading