Clackspunk: A Renaissance Information Revolution

[Hendryk]

Could we have an information revolution in Renaissance Europe with an optical telegraph system?

Any particular reason, BTW, why you've suggested a heliograph rather than, say, the Chappe semaphore? The latter doesn't require any technological breakthrough, it's just wood, rope and bits of metal; in theory, any iron age civilization could come up with the concept.

BTW, I've found on this site an illustration of Lord Murray's shutter telegraph system, which is probably where Pratchett got his idea.

 

[Analytical Engine]

Any particular reason, BTW, why you've suggested a heliograph rather than, say, the Chappe semaphore? The latter doesn't require any technological breakthrough, it's just wood, rope and bits of metal; in theory, any iron age civilization could come up with the concept.

In fact, both the Greeks and Romans used a form of semaphore system...

 

[Hendryk]

In fact, both the Greeks and Romans used a form of semaphore system...

Exactly. No quantum leap is required, just elaborating on something that's already around.

And it seems that Chappe, after experimenting with a shutter system, found the semaphore one more efficient.

Since I've already quoted Victor Hugo today, I feel like doing Alexandre Dumas the favor as well:

I've often seen those black shining arms rising from the top of a hill or at the end of a road, and it has never been without emotion for me, for I've always thought of those strange signs cleaving the air for three hundred leagues to carry thoughts of one man sitting at his desk to another man sitting at his desk at the other end of the line. It has always made me think of genii, sylphs or gnomes; in short, of occult powers, and that amuses me. Then one day I learned that the operator of each telegraph is only some poor devil employed for twelve hundred francs a year, constantly occupied in watching another telegraph four or five leagues away. I then became curious to see that living chrysalis at close quarters and watch the comedy he plays for the other chrysalis by pulling on his strings.

--The Count of Monte-Cristo

 

[rewster]

And it seems that Chappe, after experimenting with a shutter system, found the semaphore one more efficient.

It is confusing though, because wikipedia says Sweden's shutter system was twice as fast as the dangly-armed one of Chappe. It seems as though you can see the angles easier (and therefore from farther away) than the shutters, and it has probably got to be cheaper simply due to fewer moving parts, and fewer and farther towers, but opening and closing shutters must just be easier to do, effort-wise.

 

[rcduggan]

Petrarch and Girolamo Savanarola get in a series of at first stimulating discussions through semaphore delivered messages that later devolve into childish name calling and the Renaissance semaphore equivalents of killfiles, AIM blocking, email filters and firewalls are developed by Leonardo Da Vinci after their semaphore flamewar ignites religious and political tensions in the city-states. Extra points if you figure a way to give Machiavelli a blog-equivalent!

I know you are being sarcastic (hopefully) or trying to be funny, but I can't see Savonarola being open to new technology. I mean, this was the guy who orchestrated the Bonfire of the Vanities...

On-topic. This is a very cool idea. What effects would this have on military and tactics, the ability to communicate almost instantly in the 16th century?

Something I thought of: adding in the POD of Charles the Bold and his Ordonnance army being victorious over the Swiss - coupled with this optical telegraphy - could lead to medieval combined-arms armies with instantaneous communication...

 

[Mark E.]

Whether it is light flashes, drum taps or horn blasts, encoded communication requires one principle: encoding the alphabet into dots, dashes or something of the like. Samuel Morse did not come up with a practical system that improved on semaphore until the 19th century OTL, but there is no technical reason it could not have happened well before the Renaissance, as in ancient Greece or Rome.

But then again, the telegraph provided the technical need.