[ih] Internet-history Digest, Vol 48, Issue 13

[odlyzko at umn.edu]

Yes, indeed.

One minor point that might be worth recalling: The word
"telegraph" was coined by Claude Chappe, as was the word
"semaphore."

Andrew



On Tue, 28 Nov 2023, Bill Ricker wrote:

> 
> 
> On Tue, Nov 28, 2023 at 11:10 AM Craig Partridge via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>       On Tue, Nov 28, 2023 at 9:05 AM Andrew Odlyzko via Internet-history <
>
>        And one detail we uncovered was that
>       the French telegraph system played a critical role in the plot of the Count
>       of Monte Cristo, in which the count arranges for a message to be altered or
>       inserted (I don't recall which) in transit, which causes the Baron
>       Danglars, a banker, to panic.  Classic man-in-the-middle attack :-)
> 
> 
> Art imitates life. The Chappe/Napoleonic optical-telegraphe/Semaphore national network had the first (wireless) case
> of wire-fraud, despite the network supposedly being government use only.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_telegraph#Prevalence
> 
> (Note that it is this optical telegraph that the wine label Vieux  Télégraphe Châteauneuf du Pape commemorates.
> Alas the label has only an icon caricature of the old tower as ruined.)
> image.png
> 
> Historically, the English hilltop bonfire network was much earlier, but it had a bandwidth of 1 bit per night --
> Invasion or not?
> 
> Chappe's was a major step forward in bandwidth vs either bonfires or person-sized semaphore flags (greater size =
> greater distance per relay when read by telescope instead of hand-held binoculars ).
> 
> --
> Bill Ricker
> bill.n1vux at gmail.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/n1vux 
> 
>