INSIDE THE BRITISH LIBRARY PHILATELIC COLLECTIONS Communication revolution

Long-distance communication has been used for thousands of years, particularly by the military. Ancient civilisations used fire and smoke from beacons, drums, flags, mirrors reflecting the sun, or even shouting from one sentinel to another. All of these methods used some kind of code to impart the message. They led to the modern naval semaphore system based on flags which was developed at the end of the eighteenth century, and used, for example, at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Semaphore telegraphs

At about the same time, a French engineer, Claude Chappe, addressed the pressing need for France to procure better communications. It was the time of the French Revolution, and the country was being threatened by enemies on all sides.

Chappe came up with a system using large mechanical arms which could be articulated into patterns similar to those used in flag semaphore. By 1794 he had constructed a line of fifteen