Smoke signals, drum telegraphs, and the marathon runner are all
examples of man’s effort to conquer the tyranny of distance.
However, the first truly successful solution to the problem of
rapidly transmitting language across space was the Frenchman
Claude Chappe’s optical telegraph. Chappe's chain of stone
towers, topped by 10-ft. poles and 14-ft. pivoting cross
members, and spaced as far apart as the eye could see, was first
demonstrated to the public in March of 1791 on the Champs
Elysees. Chappe created a language of 9,999 words, each
represented by a different position of the swinging arms. When
operated by well-trained optical telegraphers, the system was
extraordinarily quick. Messages could be transmitted up to 150
miles in two minutes. Eventually the French military saw the
value of Chappe’s invention, and lines of his towers were built
out from Paris to Dunkirk and Strasbourg. Within a decade, a
network of optical telegraph lines crisscrossed the nation. When
Napoleon seized power in 1799, he used th