TELEGRAPH. 



moft defined objafts become totaUy obfcured at a (hort 

 diilance. No inib-ument, therefore, defigned for the purpofe 

 can be perfeft. We can only endeavour to diminith thefe 

 irremediable defefts as much as may be. 



The moft barbarous nations employed fignals, which 

 could quickly inform them of the approach of enemies, as 

 appears by the teftimony of feveral ancient authors ; and 

 there is reafon to believe that fome fort of telegraphic com- 

 munication was in ufe among the Greeks. The deftruc- 

 tion of Troy was certainly known in Greece very foon after 

 it took place, and before any perfon could have returned 

 from it. A Greek play begins with a fcene, in which a 

 watchman defcends from the top of a tower in Greece, and 

 gives information that Troy is taken. " I have been look- 

 ing out thefe ten years (fays he) to fee when that would 

 happen, and this night it has been done." 



In addition to the Stenterophonic tube which was known 

 and ufed by Alexander the Great, the Romans had a method, 

 in their walled cities, either of forming a hollow in the 

 mafonry, or of applying tubes to the walls, fo as to confine 

 or augment found, and convey information to any part of 

 their works. In lofty hoafes and warehoufes, it is now a 

 common cuftom to have a pipe, by way of fpeaking trumpet, 

 to give orders from the upper apartments to the lower. Bv 

 tliis mode of confining its volume, found may be carried to a 

 very confiderable diftance ; but beyond a certain extent the 

 found will lofe all articulation, and only convey alarm, with- 

 out giving direflions. 



Every city of the ancients had its watch-towers ; and the 

 caftra ftativa of the Romans had always fome fpot, elevated 

 either by nature or art, from whence fignals were given to 

 the troops cantoned or foraging in the neighbourhood : but 

 it appears that they had not arrived to any greater refine- 

 ments in the telegiaphic art, than that on feeing a certain 

 fignal they were immediately to repair to their appointed 

 rtations. Flags or enfigns, with their various devices, .ire of 

 the earlieft invention, efpecially at fea, where, from the firft 

 idea, which was raoft probably that of a vane, to fliew the 

 direction of the wind, they have been long adopted as the 

 diftinguifliing marks of nations, and are now fo perfefted into 

 a fyftem of fignals, that evexy requifite order and queftion is 

 received and anfwered by the moft diftant (hips of a fleet. 



The mode of fignalling in ufc about half a century ago 

 was very imperfeft. It was a good deal amended and fim- 

 plified by that lamented officer admiral Kempenfelt ; and 

 his fyftem, as it was called, continued in ufe till within thefe 

 twenty-five years. It was fuperfeded in the navy by fir 

 Home Popham's, who firft brought into praftical utility a 

 plan originally, it is believed, fuggefted . by Mr. Richard 

 Gower, of the Eaft India Company's fervice, in his " Prac- 

 tical Seamanfhip," pubhfhed in 1794. This was the fubfti- 

 tution of ten or twelve numbered flags, for a great number 

 of flags. It is furprifing that this eafy fcheme fhould not 

 fooner have been difcovered and adopted. Inftead ot the 

 immenfe " colour cheft" that we and our naval cotempora- 

 ries can recolleft, and the difficulty of finding and hoifting 

 the variety of flags required, it is pleafing to witnefs the 

 facility with which communications can be now made, by 

 means almofl; as eafy of application as the pen. 



The fyjl em now in ufe, originating, as we have ftated, with 

 an officer of the Eaft India Company's fervice, has recently 

 been greatly improved by another of thefe officers. It is not 

 eafy to deicribe the nature of thofe improvements ; nor 

 proper, perhaps, were it otherwife ; for the direftors of the 

 Eaft India Company have deemed it expedient to keep them 

 fecret. The author of them is captain Thomas Lynn. His 

 work was printed in 1 8 14, at the Company's ex'pence, in a 



confiderable quarto volume, under the title of •' Lynn's 

 Improved Syftcm of Telegraphic Communication." It is 

 adopted throughout the extenfive fervice of the Eaft India 

 Company ; and we are glad to fee it noticed in the preface 

 to the volume, that the highly refpcflable court of dircftorc 

 moft hbcrally patronized the work and its author. Wc do 

 not find, notwithftanding the manifeft advantage of the 

 " Improved Syftem," that it has yet been introduced into 

 the royal navy ; although every officer in tliat as well as the 

 Eaft India C jmpany's fervice, who have had opportunities of 

 ti-ying it, are loud in its praifc. It adapts itfelf to every 

 detcription of telegraphic machinery now in ufc ; or, as fur 

 as we can fee, that can be ufed : it requires fewer flags tlian 

 were heretofore neccfl^ary ; and its powers are vaftly greater 

 than the other codes or fyftems. This paragraph, and 

 perhaps this whole page of our dictionary, can be thus com- 

 municated, word for word, or phrafe by phrafe, without dil- 

 ficulty, and with a rapidity unattainable by any fcheme 

 hitlierto publifhed. The numbers, and powers, and meaning 

 of the fignals, may be changed at plcafure : fo that if the 

 work, fall into improper hands, it merely communicates the 

 principle on which the fyftem is founded. 



In applying tliis or a fimilar mode of communicating in- 

 teUigence in land fervice, feveral objeftions prefent ihem- 

 felves : the variety of communications neceffary to be made 

 is fo much greater, that the combination would become too 

 comphcated ; and if the perfon for whom the information is 

 intended, ftiould be in the direftion of the wind, the flag 

 would then prefent a ftraight line only, and at a little diftance 

 would be fcarcely vifible. The Romans were fo well aware 

 of this inconvenience of flags, that many of their ftandards 

 were folid, and the name manipulus denotes the rudeft of 

 their enfigns, which was a trufs of hay fixed on a pole. 



A beacon or bonfire, made of the firft inflammable ma- 

 terials that offeredj being the moft obvious, is perhaps the 

 moft ancient mode of general alarm. By being previoufly 

 concerted, the number of points where the fires appeared 

 may have paiticular intelligence affixed. The fame ob- 

 fervations may be referred to the more modern plan of tlirow- 

 ing up rockets, whofe number, or the places from whence 

 they are thrown, may have affixed fignifications. Many 

 of our hills ftill retain the name of beacon hills, from the 

 fignals which ufed to be made upon them, by means 

 of fire and fmoke, which were the chief things employed 

 during the dark ages, and in the times of the feudal fyftem. 

 The fire was ufed by night, and the fmoke by day. Within a 

 few years, fignals made by thefe means were very common 

 amongft the fmugglers on our coaft. 



The machine of .£neas, who wrote a trcatifc on the duties 

 of a general in the time of Ariftotle, is defcribed by Polybius 

 to have confifted of two earthen veffels, made cxaAly fimilar 

 in all their dimenfions : they were to be filled with water, and 

 each was to have a cock or fpout, which could be opened or 

 ftut at pleafure, and would, when open, difcharge an equal 

 quantity of water from both veflels, fo that each of thcveifels 

 would take precifely the fame period of time to difcharge the 

 whole, or any given proportion, of its contents. A float of 

 cork was to be provided for each veffel to reft upon the fur- 

 face of the water, andfupport a perpendicular ftem or index, 

 which could be divided, and have certain fentenccs written to 

 correfpond with each divifion. The apertures of the fpouts 

 of the two veffels were to be previoufly adjuftcd, and the 

 veffels filled with water to the fame height, fo that their 

 floats and indices would correfpond in pointing out the fame 

 fentences : then, if both cocks were opened at the fame in- 

 ftant, the water would run out from each vcffel, and the floats 

 of both would fubfide together, fo that when either index 



flood 



