I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 691 The Crown Prince Has Always Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

"Mr. Sharp?"

Joseph felt like he had heard this name somewhere before, so he looked at the young man who looked very nervous:
"You already have mature equipment? That's great."

Shapu stepped forward and saluted respectfully:
"It is an honor to meet you, Your Royal Highness. I did design a letter delivery device."

Joseph smiled and nodded: "Can you show it to me?"

"Of course, of course."

Shap hurriedly took out a large blueprint with great trepidation and unfolded it on the table:

"Your Highness, this is it. I call it 'remote writing'."

Shap pointed to the water tower-like object on the blueprint and introduced it:

"The main body of the device is built on a tall tower. Ah, it looks a bit like a giant clothes drying rack, but it is actually a rotating beam with a swing arm at each end."

Only then did Joseph notice that there was a T-shaped device like an antenna on the top of the "water tower".

Sharp began to get excited:
“The two swing arms can rotate to different angles and work together to create more than 90 postures.

"If we use a letter for each gesture, we can put them together to form any sentence.

"And a few kilometers away, there will be another signal tower. There will be a signalman on it, who will use a telescope to observe the swinging arm gestures on the previous tower, record them, and translate them into letters.

"Then the tower can pass the message on.

"We only need to build a signal tower every 10 kilometers - I have done a lot of experiments before, and this distance is enough to clearly see the movement of the arm - and we can quickly transmit the content of the letter to a long distance."

He looked at the Dauphin expectantly:

"Your Highness, I think this is dozens of times faster than delivering letters by horse!"

When Joseph heard "tens of times faster than horses", he suddenly remembered that he seemed to have seen in historical documents that Napoleon had people build a highly efficient optical communication mechanism. As a result, after his defeat at Waterloo, the news was transmitted back to Paris in less than two days, which immediately caused chaos and made it impossible for the emperor to return to Paris to stabilize the political situation.

It seems that this was the invention of Mr. Sharp.

Joseph immediately asked:
"Are there any signal towers built? I want to see the effect."

Berthier took two steps forward awkwardly:
"Your Highness, due to the high cost of building a signal tower, the General Staff is still evaluating the availability..."

Joseph sighed secretly. This couldn't be blamed on the General Staff. Accepting new things was always a difficult process in any era. After all, most of them might just be a waste of money.

But he was sure that Sharp's design was reasonable and feasible.

This is a very 18th century telegraph system.

Especially in war, information is even more important than cannons!

If a usable long-distance communications system could be established before the war with Britain broke out, it would give France a huge military advantage.

Joseph looked at Sharp:
“How long does it take to build a signal tower?”

The latter thought for a moment and hesitated:
"If there is sufficient funding, it will take about 20 days."

"So long?" Joseph frowned slightly.

He felt that this was just a two or three-story water tower, and with a wooden frame on top, it should be done in a week.

Sharp pointed to the swing arm on the drawing with some embarrassment and said:
“Your Highness, the signal rack requires a sophisticated pulley system and bearings, which will be difficult to make.

"Of course, once we start mass production, the speed will be much faster."

Joseph looked at the blueprint and asked casually, "How much does a signal tower cost?" "About two thousand francs, Your Highness."

Joseph couldn't help but open his mouth. So expensive? Two thousand francs is almost enough to buy a house in the suburbs of Paris.

He immediately noticed the complex pulley and swing arm system on the signal rack, estimating that half of the cost was spent on it.

"Wait," he wondered, "Why do you need such a complicated arm swing?"

Sharp patiently explained:
“Your Highness, we need to transmit 26 letters and 10 numbers. The arm must rotate at least 45 degrees to be clearly distinguishable from a distance.

"So we must have a rotatable beam and two swing arms, so that we can have more than 40 postures required. You see, this side swing arm is upward, this side is to the left, that's A. Turn it down here, and the beam is tilted 45 degrees, that's C..."

Joseph stared at the capstan on the blueprint and asked again:

"How long does it take to lay out a letter like this?"

"Once you become proficient, it will take about 5 to 8 seconds, Your Highness."

The swing arm is more than 3 meters long, and the signalman needs to turn the capstan more than ten times to drive the swing arm to turn one circle. Turning two swing arms and the crossbeam is bound to be very time-consuming.

Joseph frowned:
"This can be simplified into three fixed vertical poles with retractable tops. Signals can be transmitted using Morse code."

"Fixed vertical rods?" Sharp shook his head. "That would require 15 of them, with each retracted and extended rod representing a letter.

"By the way, what is Morse code?"

Joseph recalled that Morse code would not be invented until more than 40 years later.

He picked up a pen and drew a “-——” on the paper, saying, “The top of the vertical bar extends out to represent a ‘horizontal’, and retracts to represent a ‘dot’. Similarly, different combinations of dots and horizontal lines represent different letters. For example, this combination represents A.”

Sharp's eyes suddenly widened.

He had a very quick mind and immediately realized that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's method was feasible.

Using three vertical poles, six dots or horizontals can be made by raising and lowering twice. For the signalman, all he has to do is push and pull the handle six times, which is definitely much faster than desperately turning the capstan.

Moreover, this method only requires three hollow wooden poles, avoids any pulleys and bearings, and is estimated to cost no more than 50 francs.

He nodded excitedly:

"Your Highness, this is truly amazing! Such a simple method can solve an extremely complex problem...

“Why didn’t I think of that…

"You are simply the greatest inventor I have ever seen!"

Joseph felt a little ashamed, thinking that this was all thanks to Mr. Morse, and he was just copying it.

Sharp rolled up his blueprints:

"Your Highness, using the 'Morse Code' mode you mentioned, is that what it is called? I estimate that a signal tower can be built in about a week."

"very good!"

Joseph nodded and turned to Berthier and said:
"Please give Mr. Schaap all the support he needs to complete the test as quickly as possible."

"Yes, Your Highness."

What Joseph didn't know was that it took three years for Chap to submit his report to the French military before he received a grant of 6 francs for testing. Another year passed before construction officially began.

He shortened the process to just one afternoon.

(End of this chapter)