The Early History of Data Networks

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Summary: Did Napoleon have a data network? (yes he did..!)
Review: Most of us would consider the emergence of large-scale communication networks to be a twentieth-century phenomenon. The first true nationwide data networks, however, were being built almost two hundred years ago. At the turn of the 18th century, well before the electromagnetic telegraph was invented, many countries in Europe already had fully operational data communications systems, with alltogether close to one thousand network stations. This book documents the many attempts throughout history to develop effective means for long distance communications. The oldest attempts date back to millenia before Christ, and include an ingenious uses of homing pigeons, mirrors, flags, torches, and beacons. The book then shows how Claude Chappe, a French clergyman, started the information revolution in 1794, with the design and construction of the first true telegraph network in France. Included is also the first complete English translation of a remarkable document on the design of optical telegraphs that was written in 1796 by the Swedish nobleman Abraham Niclas Edelcrantz, the builder of the Swedish optical telegraph network.