Optical telegraphy · Denmark 1801–1862

The Danish optical telegraph

Before electricity carried messages, Denmark sent them by eye: a chain of masts, about ten kilometres apart, each hung with flaps that a crew set to a number while the next station read it through a telescope and set it again. Pick a year, a start and a destination, write a message from the codebook and watch it cross the country. Click any station to go inside.

18 · 5FLAPS · BOARDS
≈10 kmBETWEEN MASTS
≥22 sPER SIGN
1801–62IN SERVICE
1801

The data on the line

What is documented, and what this page reconstructs

From the sources

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