"The Post Office Letter Carriers in London are to be provided with an uniform of red coats, faced with blue, and to wear numbers."—(Times, Feb. 10, 1793.)
"There is at this time a third of the Mail Guards ill, either from the intenseness of the severe weather or from colds they have caught in the floods: their exertions were in general very great, and meritorious, in saving the Mails."—(Times, Feb. 19, 1795.)
We are here presented with the infancy of Telegraphing—which was then a marvel of the age—but which we, from our standpoint of Electricity, must fain smile at. They were mechanical contrivances placed on hills, or other eminences.
"The Telegraph.—This mode of communication is little understood here, although the invention be not a new one. The process is getting possession of heights at convenient distances, and by fire-works, in different forms, for different letters, spelling the order, or intelligence, from station, to station!"—(Times, Sept. 11, 1794.)
"The new mode of correspondence, by the help of which, the surrender of Quesnoy was known at Paris an hour after the entry of the French troops into that place, is a communication by signals, which are repeated from distance, to distance, by machines, stationed four, or five, leagues asunder. This may explain the celerity with which communications are made.
"The telegraph, now brought into use by the French, appears to have been an invention of Dr. Hooper's, and published in his Rational Recreations, in 1774. The plan of which may be seen in his 'Visual Correspondence.'"—(Times, Sept. 15, 1794.)
"The invention of the Telegraphe, does not belong alone to the French. About ten years ago, Count Possini at Rome, invented a mode of getting intelligence from Naples, in the course of an hour. The Lottery at Rome, depends upon that drawn at Naples. It differs from our Lottery, materially, for there are but six prizes, and these are the first six numbers drawn, and the remainder are all blanks. The Count, whose house is on an eminence near Rome, managed with his confederates, who were placed at certain distances, between Naples, and his estate, to have sky rockets let off, by which they had previously fixed with each other, to ascertain by such signals, any particular number, or numbers, drawn. The plan succeeded, as Tickets continued to be sold in Rome, for several hours after the drawing commenced at Naples, the account of which was always brought by the ordinary courier. By this scheme the party got about 100,000 crowns, and the plot would never have been discovered, had not the Count purchased the whole of the six prizes, which caused suspicion, and of course, excited enquiry."—(Times, Sept. 16, 1794.)
"Astley, who is always employed in the production of something new, brings out, this evening, an exhibition of the much talked of, and ingenious Machine, called the Telegraphe, at the Lyceum, in the Strand."—(Times, Sept. 19, 1794.)
"The invention of the Telegraphe, is now traced back to 1655, and particularly mentioned in a little book, then written, and published, by the Marquis of Worcester, inventor of the Steam Engine. He there gives it the name of Visual Correspondence, and calls it his own invention."—(Times, Sept. 20, 1794.)
"Experiments are now making at Woolwich with a new species of the Telegraphe, to ascertain at what distance intelligence can be conveyed by it during the night. It is composed of letters, or figures, nine feet high, cut out in a board, which is painted black in front, and strongly illuminated behind by patent lamps with reflectors; it is placed on the top of the butt against which the cannon are proved, and proper persons are stationed at Purfleet, and other intermediate places, with telescopes, to determine at what distance letters of that size are legible at night, by which means any word may be written, by a succession of letters, and intelligence may be conveyed, with astonishing celerity, during the night, by having a series of different signal-houses at proper distances between whatever places information is intended to be communicated."—(Times, Oct. 7, 1794.)