Chapter 274 Chap "Telegram"
"Mr. Burns, Betty, I need you to refine such a feasible plan for me."
In the lord's office, Paul Talking about a picture hanging on the wall. Also sitting in the room were Guy Burns, Betty Dias, Ladi Setia and others.
The content of the picture hanging on the wall is of a stone tower, which looks like a guard tower, but what is strange is that there is a strange device standing on the top of the tower.
That is a wooden frame, with two bent "arms" extending out of the wooden frame.
Guy Burns asked with great interest: "What novel invention is this of yours?"
"Oh! This is a great thing, or a great system."
"I call him - [Emergency Reporting Station], or [Rocker Arm Signaling System], used to transmit emergency messages."
"Your Majesty, if I haven't guessed If you are wrong, you are trying to use the two [arms] on the wooden frame to make different shapes to convey different messages."
"Aha! Burns, you are really mine. Friend! Yes, this invention was inspired by beacon fire, but as you know, the amount of information that beacon fire can convey is too limited, so I thought of the semaphore, and after a slight improvement, it became like this. Each shape represents a letter or a number, and then combined they form a complete sentence or paragraph.”
Paul introduced his "invention" without a blush or a heartbeat: "We build such emergency reporting stations at certain distances, called [base stations], where specialized personnel are stationed waiting to receive signals from other emergency reporting battles. . Starting from the first station, the information is passed on one by one like a baton until it reaches the final station. "
"In the past, because of the limited vision of human eyes, such a system was built. The system is a bit unrealistic, but with the telescope, it is completely feasible. We only need to establish a few emergency stations to transmit information over a long distance."
Burns was impressed. : "This is really an amazing invention."
Did Paul invent this? Of course not. The real inventor of this [optical telegraph] was the Frenchman Claude Chap.
In northern France in 1791, Claude Chape and his brothers designed a "telegraph" system for optically transmitting information over long distances. They successfully transmitted a sentence 16 kilometers in 4 minutes. In addition, it was much faster than the stagecoaches and ships used at that time.
This is a system that relies entirely on manual operation. The signalman stationed inside moves the indicating arm according to specific rules. Every time the indicating arm of the signal tower moves into a shape, it means that a signal has been sent. Different signal stations play Just pick up the dragon and the message will be passed on.
Compared to a real telegraph, the efficiency of information transmission is very "touching". A skilled operator can output up to 3 signals per minute. According to statistics, a complete message at that time consisted of an average of 36 signals, which meant that even if the best operators were used throughout the system, the system could only deliver 0.083 messages per minute. If it is windy or rainy or the operator is in a bad mood, whether the message can be sent out depends on luck.
However, even with this alarming signaling system, the information transmission efficiency was enough to beat the human transmission of the same era.
It developed into an industry and served government enterprises in peacetime. By 1840, France had built a 5,000-kilometer communication network and 356 base stations. A total of thousands of such "telegraph" towers were built throughout Europe. It can be regarded as the first generation of information highway.
In Alexandre Dumas's novel "The Count of Monte Cristo", the Count bribed the telegraph operator to send out wrong messages, causing Danglars to lose money in speculation, and then deposited himself in Danglars Bank. All the money was withdrawn and Danglars was unable to pay and ended up bankrupt.
Paul was very fortunate that the language system of this world was an alphabetic script similar to Latin. If it were like cuneiform, it would be really urgent. "Burns, I need you to set up an operating device so that the operator can easily swing the rocker arm into different shapes."
Burns stood up and asked Paul Bowed: "I am honored to be able to participate in your great invention."
"Haha, it is our great invention."
Paul corrected him with a smile, and then he turned to the education director Betty: "As for you, master of linguistics, I need you to design a coding system-what shapes represent what letters or numbers. Ladi, you are also a knowledgeable scholar. I hope you can help."
Ladi nodded and responded: "Yes, Lord Grayman!"
Betty pursed her lips and said nothing. With her appearance, she looked quite different now.
Her reaction made Paul feel strange. He didn't seem to offend her much recently.
Business matters, Paul continued to give instructions: "There are also some very important aspects, such as how to judge the start and end of a piece of information, and how to verify the integrity of a piece of information. The other is [congestion control], which As an analogy, when carriages are coming from different directions at an intersection, how should they be allowed to pass smoothly?"
"In addition, we call ordinary encoding [plain text], which can be used. Transmitting some insensitive information that does not involve confidentiality, but sensitive information must be re-encrypted on the basis of plain text, or encrypted. I don't want the enemy's spies to do nothing and just stay near our base station every day to figure it out. What confidential information are we passing on? "
Seeing that the lady in charge still didn't respond, Paul said doubtfully:
"Uh... I said Betty, Burns is mainly responsible for the design of operating devices. His work focus is still on the development of new spinning machines. So I want you to be responsible for the overall construction of the system. How long do you think it will take to build a line from Hufulan Port to Huxin Town and then to Butua?"
Betty, or Erin, brow? Finally he moved, thought for a while and then replied: "This requires experimentation, Lord Earl. You must first determine the optimal distance between the two [base stations] through experiments, and then determine the quantity, select the route, and estimate the cost... In addition, there are Including the training of personnel, it also takes time. "
"I will tell Director Ford immediately that the construction of the emergency reporting station system will be the first priority of expenditures!"
First few. After the salt riots broke out in Tiananmen, Paul felt that the current spread of news was too slow. After the rocker signal system is completed, Huxin Town will be able to sense the disturbances in the territory in a relatively timely manner, and orders issued by the Lord's Mansion can be quickly communicated to the local area.
The means of transmitting information is related to whether a regime can effectively control the territory under its rule.
“I am eager to build the entire system running through Arda, Baierding and northern Emden within half a year.”
Irene raised her eyebrows and said: “I will I am working towards this goal, but the premise is, Lord Earl, that the affairs officers of the Government Affairs Council will not treat me as the female supervisor as nothing. If everyone treats me as nothing, things will not work. "
Ha. ! Paul knew why the education director lost his temper. It was because she was not notified of the emergency meeting held after the riot.
(End of this chapter)