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Old February 12th 05, 08:44 AM
Conan Ford
 
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Default What if... The Roman Empire had short wave...

Forget radio, what if the Romans had thought of Semaphore? In the time of
Napoleon, semaphore towers could convey official messages from Paris to
Rome in 20 minutes. I imagine that a just-sent "The Huns are approching.
We are burning all records," would bring help faster than a guy riding a
horse as fast as possible. An elaborate system could even have had room
for a newswire type of service, where space was available, with slaves
copying down messages to be read to the masses.