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Semaphores

 
Author elsslots
Admin
#1 | Posted: 18 Apr 2011 18:27 
I just visited the Port Arthur Historic Site (AUS), and one of the features there is the historical semaphore system. I think there may be other WHS that have or had one, but cannot think of any that I have seen myself (only a broader link to the Varberg Radio Station). Who knows of a WHS that can be linked to semaphores?

Author Solivagant
Partaker
#2 | Posted: 19 Apr 2011 02:35 | Edited by: Solivagant 
Semaphore is a form of "Optical Telegraphy" of which there were different systems/"codes". I suspect that many WHS cities, ports – and indeed "Forts" if used as late as the 18th/19th centuries will have a tower or some building described as a "Signal Station". I wonder also if some lighthouses (for which we already have a connection) were so used? Given the possibility of such multiple locations there might need to be some requirement for physical remains to be in place of such signal stations - unless, perhaps, the site was of particular "historic significance" in the development of telegraphy? We also need to exclude simple railway signals which are a form of "semaphore"!

I don't know what sort of remains are extant at Port Arthur – I cannot find any reference in either the AB evaluation nor the very large Nomination File

St Georges Bermuda contains the "Western Redoubt and Fort St George (on the western side). The latter is the older of the two, being on the site of a watchtower erected in 1615. It went through several stages of rebuilding and modification in the 1790s, 1820s, and 1870s. Much of the structure is intact. The keep houses the Bermuda Harbour Radio, continuing the tradition of a signal station at this point." (AB Eval).

The Louvre (Banks of Seine) was used in a significant development of Optical Telegraphy/Semaphore. The French optical telegraph pioneer (An alternative name for the technique is "Chappe Telegraph") Chappe used one of its towers as the transmitter for his "Tachygraphe" (later called "Telegraphe Arien") in the 1790si. Nothing externally visible remains of the device – but the Tower does, which should meet any requirement for "remains"!

Valletta - The Governors Palace has a signal tower located above it. This link indicates that it was used for semaphore although it wasn't Malta's most important semaphore tower http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=91143&FORM=ZZNR2

Drottningholm figured in early optical telegraph experiments/services by Edelkrantz - "In 1794 he inaugurated his telegraph with a poem dedicated to the Swedish King on his birthday. The message went from the Palace in Stockholm to the King at Drottningholm .". Karlskrona was part of Sweden's military telegraph system in the same era. I cannot, however, find any information on where the signal stations were exactly within these 2 sites -perhaps the first "deserves" a connection without specific remains?

Another possibility is to define the Connection more widely as "Telegraph Systems". This would allow non optical forms of telegraphy and include Varburg.

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 Semaphores

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