The times., 1899-08-28
Long Distance Communication Be-
tween The Arcients.
Signal Flames Biazed on HiIItops
Throughout the Land to Herald the
mera of Strada, an Italian Jes-
nit, and His Magnetic Needles.
rrom the London Evening stanaard.l


from the two Greek words tele and graphic,
and meaning, literally, to write from a
distance-was used, more or less inaccu-
rately in connection with all modes of
communication from afar off long before
the era which gave it so startlingly liter
al an Interpretation as applied TO the
electric telegraph, which, in its perfected
form, by means of the little bewitched
needle which duly registers the mystic
dots and dashes on paper, enables an oper-
ator thousands of miles away to write
his message in veritable black and white.
The most primitive form of telegraphy is
undoubtedly that which, 300 years ago,
carried the news Of the approach of the
Spanish armada from Eddystone to Ber-
wick Bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay"
until, within the space of a few hours,
the whole nation had read the message
which fiared from every hilltop, and was
reflected on every tower and steeple in
the land, and stood modified and ready
for action with as little delay as though
the electric needle had been at work.
From the earliest times this mode of sig
mailing, or telegraphy, was commonly used
to carry a warning of danger, when a
whole nation was ON the alert in the ex-
pectation of an onslaught from the enemy.
! Thus, in the books of the Prophet Jere-
miah, we find the children of Benjamin
warned to flee from Jerusalem, Ito blow
sign of fire in Beth Haccerem, for evil
appeareth in the north Among the
haunts of the red man, upon the hilltops,
are TO be seen mounds of peculiar shape,
said to be the remains of the beacon fires
which warned the tribesmen of the ap-
proaeh of the enemy.
The utility of the beacon fire as a means
of telegraphy was obviously restricted, since
it could only convey one message, previous
! ly agreed upon, without any means of va
I Ration. In the rude days, when civilization
| was in its infancy, when warfare was the
! only art pursued by the people-war the
! only cause of a political crisis, and war
alike the hope ond the menace of the ma
tion-it is conceivable that the single COL
umn of fire faring up from the hilltop
| served its purpose as satisfactorily. ac-
/ cording TO the exigencies of the age, as
| the more varied, if less brilliant, columns
! indicated by Reuter- or DalZiel. With the
march of civilization, however, the neces-
! sity for some means of communication
/ swifter than the royal mail and more ex-
plicit than the beacon fire. began to be
felt, and the inventive faculties of scien-
/ tific men were taxed TO the uttermost in
| this direction. i''@tofa'3'
Many were the dreams INDUCED in by
| scientists who in their search after the
truths since revealed by modern science
hovered on the very borderland of actual
! discovery. CnlUerdS, WHICH nave SlHC6
been recognized as having a substantial
existence or which appear by no means
wild, or even improbable, in the light
of modern discovery, were freely put
forth by the old-time philosophers. OF
| these, one of the most curious and sugges-
tive is the idea propounded by the learn
ed Italian Jesuit Strada, in poem-one
of the 'Prolusiones Academicae"
published at Rome in the year 1917. In this
| ryrk hp ha nf
a species of loadstone. or magnet, of so
| powerful nature that if two needles were
placed in contact with it and then balanced
on separate pivots, If the one were turned
In a particular direction the other would
sympathetically follow its movement no
matter what distance interyened between
the two. Thus, If two fac simiIe dals were
made containing the letters of the alpha
bet, with little prearrangement as TO
the hour for correspondence between the
parties possessing the magnets, n.sssageI
could be sent from any distance in the
simplest manner possible, by merely point
ing the needle 10 the required letter On the
dial, thus forming any word in the Lam
guage, each movement being initiated by
the magnetized needle on the other ma
chine. Here we have a system of wire
less telegraphy containing at least some of
the elements of the modern eectro-mag
netic telegraphy, although at that period
electro magnetism was thing undreamed
Of. In spite of its purely chimerical ma
ture, the Jesuit's suggestion was taken up
SO seriously that scientists of the period
found it necessary to refute the claims OF
loadstone telegraphy in their treatises, and
Stradas dream came to be regarded as a
vulgar error, based upon the magic virtues
of the magnet.
But, setting aside the unfulflled dreams
of Old World philosophers, it is a fact not
generally known that at the end of the
last century, exactly hundred years pre-
yious to the invention Of the eliminating
triumph In the telegraphic art there was
introduced and put into practical opera
tion all over Europe a system OF visual
telegraphy by means of which a message
could be conveyed over a distance OF AIS
miles in ten or twelve minutes. This
aerial telegraph was called the semaphore,
and was an arrangement almost primitive
in its simplicity. series OF signal tow
ers were built upon high ground at a dis
tance of five or six miles On the top OF
these erections tall upright pole was
. fixed, at the summit of which was a NOV
able wooden arm, turning on a pivot and
worked by pulleys, by means of which il
{ could be made to show every perceptible
; diameter of the circle in which it moved
: To each of It's extremities, in turn, was
fastened q movable crossbar, worked il
| the same manner, by tnlS means u NdSi
variety of figures could be formed, each
of which answered to a word, phrase, OF
: | letter Of the alphabet, according TO the
| code used. Thus, any message could be
A transmitted to the next station, where II
I was carefully noted by means OF tele-
q scope, and Immediately reproduced cn the
n signals and SO passed on from station tc
station until it reached it's destination.
The semaphore was first introduced IN
France by a Frenchman named Chappe
who is said to have invented it when boy
as method of communicating with hi:
:, brother, who was at school at a seminary
= half league distant from that at whiel
" ne was studying. 1t was taken up by th'
!, Government in the year 1894 and an aer.a
: telegraph constructed between Paris an.
d Lille, message being transmitted from
: the one place to the other in the space o
IS two minutes. The semaphore adopted II
% England in the same year was somewha
e different in its mechanism. 1t consisted
! of a square frame placed on the top o
a a building containing six plates or panels
,e each moving on a horizontal axis, place.
:. above one another in two rows BY ma
n nipulating these plates so as to show eithe
" the fiat surface or the edge OF the plat
1 only. a variety of combinations could b
70 obtained, and a code of signals sufhelen
J., to convey any message provided.
J The difficulties and disadvantages con
ii nected with this primitive method OF tel
egraphy were so numerous that it seem
scarcely credible that it should have eve
been put into practical operation. The la
bor and expense involved, TO begin witt
on were enormous. Ii required 220 station:
| such recurring six operators to keep th