The Invention of the Optical Telegraph

Optical telegraphs were invented more than fifty years before Bell Laboratories and Edison were born. Although this is largely forgotten, the invention of the optical telegraph lead, in the late 18th Century, to the construction and usage of the first nationwide data communication networks. The first such networks were built in France and Sweden, starting in 1793. The inventor of the French telegraph, Claude Chappe, was born in 1763. The inventor of the Swedish telegraph, Abraham Niclas Edelcrantz, was born in 1754. In this book we propose to tell their story, and discuss their inventions.