Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party in Another World

Chapter 271: Chappe’s "Telegraph"

“Mr. Burns, Betty, I need you to refine a feasible plan for this.”

In the lord’s office, Paul was speaking enthusiastically to a painting on the wall. The room was also occupied by Guy Burns, Betty Dias, Ladi Sertia, and others.

The painting on the wall depicted a stone tower, resembling a watchtower used for alert purposes. However, what was strange was the peculiar device erected at the top of the tower.

It was a wooden frame, from which two curved ‘arms’ extended.

Guy Burns asked with keen interest, “What is this new invention of yours?”

“Oh! This is a remarkable thing, or rather, a remarkable system.”

“I call it the ‘Express Report Station’ or the ‘Swinging Arm Signal System’, used for transmitting urgent messages.”

“Lord Count, if I’m not mistaken, you intend to use the two ‘arms’ on that wooden frame to form different shapes, thereby conveying different messages.”

“Aha! Burns, you truly understand me! Yes, the inspiration for this invention comes from beacon fires. But as you know, the amount of information that can be transmitted by beacon fires is very limited. So, I thought of semaphore, and with some improvements, it turned into this. You see, each shape represents a letter or a number, and by combining them, you can form a complete sentence or a message.”

Paul, without a hint of hesitation, described his ‘invention’: “We will build such an Express Report Station at certain intervals, referred to as ‘Base Stations’, manned by specialized personnel waiting to receive signals from other stations. Starting from the first station, the information is passed on like a relay baton, station by station, until it reaches the final destination.”

“In the past, due to the limited visual range of human eyes, constructing such a system seemed impractical. However, with the advent of telescopes, it becomes entirely feasible. We only need to establish a few stations to transmit information over long distances.”

Burns admired, “This is truly an incredible invention.”

Was this Paul’s invention? Of course not. The real inventor of this ‘Optical Telegraph’ was the Frenchman, Claude Chappe.

In 1791, in northern France, Claude Chappe and his brothers designed a long-distance optical telegraph system. They successfully transmitted a sentence over a distance of 16 kilometers in just 4 minutes, much faster than the post horses and ships used at that time.

This was a completely manual system. The signal operators in the towers manipulated the signaling arms according to specific rules. Each time the arms formed a shape, it signified that a signal had been sent. As different signal stations played this sequential game, the message was transmitted.

Compared to a real telegraph, the efficiency of message transmission was quite ‘touching’. A skilled operator could output a maximum of three signals per minute. It was recorded that an average complete message consisted of 36 signals, meaning that even with the best operators, the system could only transmit 0.083 messages per minute. If faced with windy or rainy weather, or if the operators were in a bad mood, whether the message would be sent out or not was a matter of fate.

Yet, this frustrating signaling system was efficient enough to outperform the human couriers of the same era.

It developed into an industry, serving the government and businesses during peacetime. By 1840, France had built a 5000-kilometer communication network with 356 base stations. Across Europe, there were thousands of such ‘telegraph’ towers, forming what could be considered the first-generation information highway.

In Alexandre Dumas’s novel “The Count of Monte Cristo”, the Count manipulates the stock market by bribing the telegraph operator to send false information, causing Danglars to suffer a loss in his speculative venture. The Count then withdrew all his money from Danglars’ bank, leading to Danglars’ eventual bankruptcy.

Paul was relieved that the language system of this world was similar to Latin script, consisting of alphabets. If it had been like cuneiform script, it would have been much more complicated.

“Burns, I need you to design a mechanism that allows the signal operators to easily manipulate the arms into different shapes.”

Burns stood up and bowed to Paul, “I am honored to be a part of your great invention.”

“Ha ha, it’s our great invention.”

Paul corrected him with a smile, then turned to Betty, the head of education, “As for you, master of linguistics, I need you to design a coding system – what shape represents which letter or number. Ladi, you’re also a scholar with extensive knowledge. I hope you can assist her.”

Ladi nodded and replied, “Yes, Lord Grayman!”

Betty, however, pursed her lips and remained silent. With her demeanor, this silence added a different charm to her.

Paul was puzzled by her reaction; he didn’t recall offending her recently.

But business was priority. He continued with his instructions, “There are other important aspects, like how to determine the start and end of a message, and how to verify its completeness. Another aspect is ‘congestion control’. To give an analogy, when carriages from different directions arrive at a crossroads, how do we ensure they all pass smoothly?”

“Additionally, we’ll call the standard code ‘plaintext’, which can be used for transmitting non-sensitive, non-confidential information. But for sensitive information, we’ll need a second layer of encoding, or encryption. I don’t want enemy spies to easily decipher our confidential messages by simply lurking around our stations.”

Seeing that the headmistress still didn’t react, Paul said in confusion:

“Er… Betty, Burns will primarily focus on designing the operating mechanism, and his main focus is still on the development of new spinning machines. So, I want you to take charge of the overall construction of the system. How long do you think it will take to build a line from Port Fran to Lakeheart Town and then to Butuya?”

Betty, or rather, Eileen, finally moved her eyebrows, thought for a moment, and answered, “This requires experimentation, Lord Count. We need to determine the optimal distance between two ‘Base Stations’ through experiments first, then decide on the number of stations, choose the routes, estimate the costs… and also, training the personnel will take time.”

“I’ll talk to Manager Ford right away and make the construction of the Express Report Station system our top priority expense!”

After the recent salt miner uprising, Paul felt that the current speed of message transmission was too slow. Once the Swinging Arm Signal System was completed, Lakeheart Town would be able to perceive the movements within the territory in a relatively timely manner, and the orders from the lord’s manor could be rapidly conveyed to the local authorities.

The means of information transmission is crucial to a government’s effective control over its territories.

“I am eager to have the entire system spanning Alda, Baylding, and the northern part of Emden completed within six months.”

Eileen raised her eyebrows and said, “I will work towards this goal, but, Lord Count, this is under the condition that the officials at the Administration Council don’t treat me, a female head, as insignificant. If everyone ignores me, nothing will get done.”

Ha! Paul realized why the head of education was sulking. It was because she wasn’t informed about the emergency meeting held after the riot.