Roman Semaphore Lines and Horse Drawn Cars

Optical semaphores really need telescopes to be practical.

Ya, sure balefires can send a 1 bit signal 'we are being invaded', but for anything much more complicated you need telescopes.

So to have a good long-distance semaphore system the Romans really need to have telescopes first? Well they were capable of cutting and grinding really delicate and elaborate pieces of glass but what is needed to move that onto lenses?
 
So to have a good long-distance semaphore system the Romans really need to have telescopes first? Well they were capable of cutting and grinding really delicate and elaborate pieces of glass but what is needed to move that onto lenses?

Part of the problem is getting clear enough glass. Most Roman glass was coloured, and aside from Murano in Venice (who had access to really good sand) it wasnt until early modern times (~1600 or so), that European glass starts getting really clear reliably. Before that it was generally Coke bottle green.
 

mowque

Banned
Also the sheer amount of glass. A single modern skyscraper has more glass then was made in the entire history of the Roman Empire.
 
Part of the problem is getting clear enough glass. Most Roman glass was coloured, and aside from Murano in Venice (who had access to really good sand) it wasnt until early modern times (~1600 or so), that European glass starts getting really clear reliably. Before that it was generally Coke bottle green.

Romans could produce colourless glass - they just liked coloured glass for most of their glassware
 
The general consensus of couriers being more useful in a world pre-telescopes seems to be born out by the historical record. The Hellenistic designs for semaphores existed in a time of vast multi-ethnic empires; if they were truly that superior, they would have been more widely utilized.

It cannot be understated how important it is to be able to transmit the messages during daytime in a society where *everything* happened while the sun was up.
 
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