telecom move back a mountain further than you might expect . While the word has become synonymous with telly broadcasting and phone communicating , it really account any communication scheme over a distance , and could includesmoke signals . These simple signals were used to convey message from " the foe is draw close " to the fact that awhale has beached itselfand can be butchered for kernel .
While some ancient culturesvaried smoke colorsto convey further information , there ’s only so much you could get across with a big ardor . One particularly cool ancient adaptation of telecom , which aimed to convey more exact meanings , was the hydraulic telegraphy , used in Ancient Greece in around 350 BCE .
The idea – think to have been invented by Aeneas of Stymphalus , a author on the war machine at the time – was simple , but neat . Each person you want to pass on with is hold a jolt of the same size , filled with the same amount of water . Inside the jar is a float rod , on which was inscribe identical substance that are useful to die along .
" In each department should be written the most patent and average event that occur in war , for example , on the first , ' Cavalry arrived in the country , ' on the second ' Heavy infantry , ' on the third ' Light - armed infantry , ' next ' Infantry and horse , ' next ' Ships , ' next ' Corn , ' and so on until we have inscribe in all the section the master contingencies of which , at the present time , there is a fairish chance in wartime , " a rendering of a contemporary account byPolybius reads .
When someone wanted to institutionalise a subject matter , they would indicate to the receiver using a attack . Then at the same time , the two would pull out a spigot and let water to drain out of the jar into the basin below ( squander not , want not and all that ) . The resolution was that the water level should be at the same summit for both participant , with the pole float to expose the same engraved message .
Centuries later in Britain , civil engineerFrancis Whishawinvented another , more complex , organization for commune data at a distance using pee . This system linked two devices via pipes , and used changes in pressure to alter water spirit level in the receiving twist , again fetch information via H2O story . Despite successful demonstrations , the idea did not take off .
