Friedrich Clemens Gerke

Friedrich Clemens Gerke (22 January 1801 – 21 May 1888) was a German writer, journalist, musician and pioneer of telegraphy who revised the Morse code in 1848.

Via Twielenfleth (Lower Saxony) and the Isle of Heligoland in the German Bight, they went to Canada in 1820, and Gerke served as a musician in the Rifle Battalion, 60th Regiment.

This optical telegraph line served as a ship reporting system between Cuxhaven at the Elbe estuary and the some 120 km further upstream port of Hamburg.

By request of the Hamburg Senator Carl Möhring, the Americans William and Charles Robinson demonstrated their electrical Morse telegraph.

Recognizing the great advantages of the new technology, Gerke defected to the Elektro-Magnetische Telegraph Companie which started its regular service on 15 July 1848 between Hamburg and Cuxhaven.

Gerke perceived the disadvantages of the American Morse code and changed nearly half of it into its present form, the International Telegraph Alphabet.