Morse codes of one version or another have been in use for more than 160 years — longer than any other [[electrical]] message encoding system. What is today called "Morse code today" is different from what was originally actually developed by Vail and Morse. The Modern International Morse code, or ''continental code'', was created by [[Friedrich Clemens Gerke]] in 1848 and initially used for telegraphy between [[Hamburg]] and [[Cuxhaven]] in Germany. Gerke changed nearly half of the alphabet and all of the [[Numerical digit|numerals]], providing the foundation for the modern form of the code. After some minor changes to the letters and a complete revision of the numerals, International Morse Code was standardized by the International Telegraphy Congress in 1865 in Paris, and later became the standard adopted by the [[International Telecommunication Union]] (ITU). Morse and Vail's final code specification, however, was only really used for land-line telegraphy in the United States and Canada, with the International code used everywhere else, including all ships at sea and sailing in North American waters. Morse's version became known as ''[[American Morse code]]'' or ''railroad code'', and is now almost never used, with the possible exception of historical re-enactments.
