Chapter 271: Chappe’s "Telegraph"

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.

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.