Optical Telegraph. The rise of the electric telegraph is frequently identified as marking a revolutionary shift in the history of communications. Information could, for the first time, travel faster than the fastest horse-borne rider or ship, covering considerable distance nearly instantaneously. Early experiments with telegraphy, however, predated electricity. The French in particular constructed an elaborate and efficient telegraph system before the advent of electricity. In the late eighteenth century Claude Chappe developed a new system of long-distance communication, an optical telegraph that used T-shaped transmission posts that were located at the top of steeples, towers, or hills. By placing the regulateurs, the horizontal boards that topped the "T", and the indicateurs, the smaller boards fastened at each of the regulateurs, in different positions, the operators of these transmission posts could relay encoded information at surprising speed. In 1794, under the direction of the Ministry...