It’s also fascinating this didn’t existed 300 years sooner (with more towers because of poorer telescopes). Communication of information across a kingdom is so important
ahazred8ta
There are many places called Telegraph Hill that used to be semaphore towers.
dredmorbius
That would include the one in San Francisco, with which some readers may be familiar.
trhway
If i remember correctly the laser optical transmission tech started as a "laser visual telegraph" between 2 PARC buildings rooftops in the Stanford Research Park here.
anthk
Ah, so that's the origin of semáforo in Spanish, which the current meaning is
"traffic light". And a semaphore on programming, too.
Rygian
The word "semáforo" literally means "carrier of meaning" from the Greek σῆμα (sêma) meaning 'signal' and ‒́foro meaning 'carrier'.
The visual telegraph is just one such instance of a "carrier of meaning".
[1] https://wiki.lspace.org/Clacks
The visual telegraph is just one such instance of a "carrier of meaning".