Tales of Ancient E-Mail

[Stan Barr]

Hi,

Charles Fox said:
> At 05:30 AM 11/8/2006, you wrote:
> 
> >I wonder if there were any electrically-operated semaphore stations 
> >around which pre-date wired telegraphy? Most countries had networks 
> >of optical semaphores which could of course route a message (the 
> >original idea seems to have cropped up in the 1600's) - but to my 
> >knowledge they were all manual and only operable in daylight, 
> >despite electricity being available long before the last ones closed 
> >(mid 1800's I think). However it seems strange if the transition was 
> >made straight to wired telegraphy with no intermediate system using 
> >electric light.
> >
> >cheers
> >
> >Jules
> 
>          Didn't the Indians use smoke signals?  Also, I believe I 
> have read that in the middle ages in Europe they used bonfires to signal.

The Romans used flaming torches and simple water-clocks, but they're
not electrical.  I think electric light sgnalling had to wait for the
light bulb, first working examples 1860 or so, but carbon arc lamps
were somewhat earlier, I think.

-- 
Cheers,
Stan Barr  stanb at dial.pipex.com

The future was never like this!