Recommended reading:
Wolfgang Schivelbusch: The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century
Wolfgang Schivelbusch: A vasúti utazás története-a tér és az idő iparosodása a 19. században – A tér és az idő iparosodása a 19. században, Napvilág Kiadó, 2008

In 1792, Claude Chappe built a long chain of signaling towers in France. Semaphors imitating human arms were installed on the top of the towers, which could be observed using telescopes from the neighboring towers. By 1793, the 15 towers, each 13km apart, formed a chain of 190km long. 11 years later by 1804 the system was extended to a 370km long semaphor-chain between Paris and Dijon. The experienced staff transmitted messages extremely efficiently: several hundred messages were distributed daily, with a the average speed of 30 minutes of delivery time.



Five years before Chappe the Hungarian Jozef Chudy (Pressburg (Bratislava/Pozsony), June 14, 1753 – Pest, March 4, 1813) invented the firs optical and acoustic telegraph. Chudy is the composer of the first hungarian language opera: Pikkó hertzeg és Jutka Perzsi. In 1787 Chudy publishes a 15 page long booklet describing his invention (Beschreibung eines Telegraphs, welcher im Jahr 1787 in Preßburg in Ungarn ist entdeckt worden [Description of a Telegraph Discovered in 1787 in Pressburg, Hungary]).
Chudy’s optical system was a device with five separate light elements arranged side by side, or with one light source behind a construction with five openable shutters. With the on and off states of these lights 32 combinations are possible. Each combination mean a letter of the alphabet: OOOOI stands for the letter A, OOOIO means B, OOIOO is C, etc. The start of the message can be signalled by opening all the five shutters simultaniously. By adding another two lights, arranged above and under the 5 main ones, punctuation and upper and lower cases can be signalled.
For the acoustic telegraph Chudy proposed two versions. In the first system two easily distinguishable high and low notes substitute the lamps’ on and off states. The notes can be played on drums, bells or any musical instrument. In the second system Chudy proposed to use one note. Here, the two values are a single sound and two sounds substituting the lamps’ on- and off state. This system has the advantage that no musical instrument is required, but much louder gunshots could be used instead


Chudy wasn’t able to find sponsors to develop his system, thus both his invention and name are fairly known today. Some years later Chudy tried to draw attention to his invention by composing a one-act opera: Der Telegraph oder die Fernschreibmaschine (The Telegraph or, the Tele-typewriter). The premiere was on the 3rd of January, 1796. (Compositions by Chudy have not survived.)
Similar visual signaling systems were replaced by wired, later wireless telegraph, the use of morse-code, than telefax.

For the production of long cables a flexible insulator is required – this was the gutta-percha latex.
Gutta-percha latex is biologically inert, resilient, and is a good electrical insulator with a high dielectric strength. Scientifically classified in 1843, it was found to be a useful natural thermoplastic. In 1851, 30,000 long cwt (1,500,000 kg) of gutta-percha was imported into Britain. During the second half of the 19th century, gutta-percha was used for myriad domestic and industrial purposes, and it became a household word. In particular, it was needed as insulation for underwater telegraph cables, which, according to author John Tully, led to unsustainable harvesting and a collapse of the supply.
Western inventors discovered the properties of gutta-percha latex in 1842, although the people of its Malayan habitat had used it for many applications for centuries. Allowing this fluid to evaporate and coagulate in the sun produced a latex which could be made flexible again with hot water, but which did not become brittle, unlike rubber prior to the discovery of vulcanization.
By 1845, telegraph wires insulated with gutta-percha were being manufactured in the UK. It served as the insulating material for early undersea telegraph cables, including the first transatlantic telegraph cable.



In 1873, when installing the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph connection, the cable was tested at the same time as laying it. They used the high-resistance semiconductor, selenium. Accidentally they discovered its sensitivity to light, the photosensitivity.
1887 – Marconi wireless telegraph
1893 – Reginald A. Fessenden Pitsburghben brodcasts sound using a Marconi telegraph, which was received by several rather surprised telegraph operators serving on nearby ships
1893 – Tivadar Puskás launches the telephone newspaper “Telefon Hírmondó” in Budapest
1894 – Marconi introduces wireless radio, two years later the wireless telegraph.
1912 – USA Broadcasting Act >>> introduces the non-military use of radio broadcast
1923 – first permanent radio broadcast station launches in Berlin
1924 – Budapest: 250 watt broadcasting station launches at Csepel
1926 – BBC has been founded in Great Britain
1938 – on October 30th The War of the Worlds radio drama goes on air with the direction of Orson Welles; the alien invasion of Martians caused a widespread panic among listeners