I have just finished reading a very intriguing book, "The Victorian
Internet" by Tom Standage.  This book traces the history and
development of the telegraph.  The author draws parallels between
the nineteenth century telegraph network and today's Internet, citing
examples of on-line romances, chat rooms, hackers and heavy network
traffic.

In 1791, Frenchman Claude Chappe designed an optical telegraph that
employed "two specially modified clocks.  They had no hour or minute
hands, just a second hand that went twice as fast as usual, completing
two revolutions per minutes, and a clock face with ten instead of the
usual twelve numbers around its edge."

Chappe started sending test messages to his brother a quarter of a mile
away.  Chappe first synchronized his clock with that of his brother
Rene by clanging a metal casserole pan when the hand reached the twelve
o'clock position.  Each time the second hand of the clock passed over
the number he wished to send, Chappe would again clang the casserole
pan.  Rene wrote down the number and then decoded the message based on
the coding system the two had created.

Chappe later devised a quieter optical telegraph (probably at the
request of the townsfolk who had to endure the incessant clanging
noise).  He used a "pivoting wooden panel...painted black on one side
and white on the other.  By flipping it from one color to the other as
the second hand passed over a particular number, Chappe could transmit
that number."

Another type of optical telegraph was designed by George Murray,
a British clergyman and amateur scientist.  His design "consisted of
six wooden shutters, each of which could be opened or closed to give
sixty-four possible combinations."

The author suggests that these early optical telegraphs designed by
Chappe and Murray used a primitive type of binary code, similar in
principle to the binary code used by today's computers because the
panel or shutter was either black or white, open or closed (0 or 1).

Some early telegraphic inventions show similarities to roll recording
or punching machines, and also roll reading machines, i.e., player
pianos.  Prior to devising his magnetic telegraph in 1837, Samuel F. B.
Morse first created a different design:

   "[Morse built] a vastly overcomplicated design that involved feeding
a prepared rack (or "port rule") of toothed pieces of metal, each
representing a letter or number, into the sending apparatus.  As the
rack passed through the machine, the spacing of the teeth caused long
and short pulses of electricity to be transmitted down the wire to the
receiver, switching an electromagnet on and off and deflecting a pencil
as it drew a line on a moving strip of paper.

   "The long and short pulses were transcribed as a zigzag line, whose
wiggles could then be translated from Morse code back into the original
message.  Morse thought that the advantages of this rather convoluted
scheme were that messages could be prepared for transmission in
advance, and that at the receiving end there would be a permanent
[paper] record of all incoming messages."

After enlisting the help of two enthusiastic acquaintances named
Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail, Morse modified his telegraph to a simpler
design.  "They did away with the rack and the toothed metal pieces in
favor of tapping a key by hand.  The zigzag line drawn by the pencil
was replaced by an ink pen that rose and fell to inscribe a line of
dots and dashes.  Morse's number system was also replaced with an
alphabetic code, in which each letter was represented by a combination
of dots and dashes..."  The modified electric telegraph also employed a
type of binary system because the signaling code of what later became
known as Morse Code, meant that the current was either on or off.

Both of Morse's devices demonstrate similarities to the recording piano
of used for many years by QRS and other roll making companies.  Lines
are drawn on a moving roll of paper, inscribing it with coded
information.

As the popularity of the telegraph increased, inventors began to look
for ways to send messages even faster, and without the need for skilled
telegraphers.

   "[In 1858, Charles] Wheatstone patented an automatic sender that
could transmit messages in Morse [Code] at very high speed from a
pre-punched tape.  This was a direct replacement for a human telegraph-
er, and it was capable of up to four hundred words per minute -- ten
times faster than the finest human operators. ...[M]essages had to be
punched onto a tape by hand before sending, but...it could be done in
advance; long messages could be punched by several operators in paral-
lel, each punching a different paragraph, and then spliced together.

   "The Wheatstone Automatic telegraph was widely compared with the
Jacquard loom, which wove cloth into a pattern determined by holes
punched in cards -- indeed, it was sometimes referred to as the
electric Jacquard.'"

The fundamental concept on which the Jacquard loom and automatic
telegraph are based, i.e., punching paper with coded information that
could be retrieved later, was also applied to the development of player
piano and other music rolls and books.

I found "The Victorian Internet" to be a fascinating book filled with
facts and anecdotes about the development of the telegraph.  I highly
recommend it.

Joyce Brite
Player Piano and Mechanical Music Exchange
http://mmd.foxtail.com/Exchange/

 [ The QRS recording piano, and many others like it, are the Morse
 [ Receiving Device multiplied 88 times!  Each key of the recording
 [ keyboard is fitted with an electric switch, such that when the
 [ piano key is depressed a current flows in the signal wire.  The
 [ on/off signals are recorded on a band of moving paper by a pencil
 [ (or pen, or inked roller) which is moved into contact with the paper
 [ by an electromagnet when the current flows in the signal wire.
 [ -- Robbie