The earliest Morse codes were dots and dashes representing numbers. Numbers correspond to words, and you need to search a code table to know the number of each word. Dots, strokes, and pauses can be struck with a key.n Although Morse invented the telegraph, he lacked the technical expertise to do so. He signed an agreement with Elfield Vale to help him build more practical equipment. Elfield Weil devised a scheme whereby each character and punctuation could be sent independently of each other by means of dots