In a novel, a wealthy man (The count of Monte Cristo, I think) set up a communications system using flags by day and (maybe) lanterns at night to communicate over hundreds of miles. The signaling stations were about 20 miles apart (I think) and a code (suggestive of Morse Code or naval flags) was used. This took place prior to the invention of the telephone (?? about 1870-1880) and the telegraph (?? about 1840-1850). Prior to the 19th century, the fastest alternative method of communication was via a horse back rider or a horse drawn vehicle. Did anybody (for Instance Rothschild) use such a system for communication of financial and other news over distances of 100 miles or more? Note that horse based communications would take about 4-5 days to communicate over a distance of 100 miles, while a signaling system using visual communication between human beings could do it in at most 1-3 hours.
Semaphore (communication) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This system uses hand-held flags. It is still accepted for emergency communication in daylight or, using lighted wands instead of flags, at night. ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore_(communication) History Although passing mention of this idea had been made at many points in history, it was apparently the English scientist Robert Hooke who first gave a vivid and comprehensive outline of visual telegraphy to the Royal Society in a submission dated 1684; in it he outlined many practical details, but his system was never put into practice. Over a hundred years later a French engineer, Claude Chappe and his brothers took up the challenge again and succeeded to cover France with a network of 556 stations stretching a total distance of 4,800 kilometres. It was used for military and national communications until the 1850s.
The beacon is older than written language but the information content tends to be rather restricted, e.g. "we have been invaded". However, it is understood that the ancient Chinese as well as Native Americans employed systems of smoke signals. During the 19th century colonisation of Africa, although Europeans had an enormous advantage in weaponry, the native population often had the superior system of communication through "the language of the drums".
The Romans used quite an elegant system of two sets of five poles, some of which would be raised sequentially to spell out some fairly descriptive messages....that kind of thing could be used between two forts maybe 500m apart, although I am not sure if they ever employed it on a larger scale than that.
Strong, healthy humans, on foot, carrying modest packs, can travel a hundred miles in five days, when their goal is locomotion rather than sightseeing. The Pony Express system, changing mounts every fifteen miles and riders every five horses, covered 1,900 miles in ten days.
www.thedailyreview.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2276& dept_id=465724&newsid=16873631&PAG=461&rfi=9 Apparently, the Persians. I didn't know that. Thanks for the tip.
i remembered watching a program about persepolis and how it communicated with other parts of the empire i just couldnt remember whether it was persian or greek. cheers for that
France actually utilised a fully operational semaphore message transmission system from the late 18th Century onwards, I believe, which long predated the electronic telegraph. Britian had a similar, but less widespread, system. There are places with names like "Telegraph Hill" to this day, commemorating where the stations (which had to be high up, of course, to be seen from great distances) had previously stood. The messages were transmitted by placing the arms in a particular configuration to indicate that a message was to be sent. Then the receiving station, when it spotted it, would put a similar sign up to indicate that they were ready to receive. The messages thenceforth were read using telescopes. The system was of course subject to the vagaries of fog and other weather, and of course it could not operate at night time! Source The Victorian Internet by Tom Grandage.
