What was used before telegraph. what was morse code called?

The semifore code with flags. The Navy used flags. The French had an elaborate system on hills that used the sun and mirrors and also a contrapshin that a man strapped into and would raise and lower large flags of some stiff material into different positions and follow the motions of his arms. The mirror code of flashes and the semifore code were different. The Morse code was set up by morse who figured that trying to count too many short or long pulses would be difficult. He counted the occurance of each letter in normal printed use (like from a newspaper) and then contrived a system that used the smallest number of characters for the most frequently used letters. For example E (1 short), I (2 short) S (3 short) . T (1 long) M( 2 long ) O (3 long). Taking advantage of a short count of characters and the long and short pulses, he was able to compose a code which could be sent with a maximum of 6 characters for all the alphabet, numbers and puncuation.  more