Just to push it back a bit further, revolutionary France and particularly Napoleonic France established a country-wide system of mechanical telegraph stations. They especially wanted it to warn of British naval attacks, but also for any military news.
It worked pretty well, transmitting, for example, a distance of about 200km (125mi) in about 9 minutes. The Brits would sail up and down the coast and fire on stations when they were feeling bored and mischievous.
Interestingly, Hooke (Newton's compatriot) proposed a similar system a couple of hundred years earlier, but the British military chiefs displayed their usual insight and did not take it up.
It worked pretty well, transmitting, for example, a distance of about 200km (125mi) in about 9 minutes. The Brits would sail up and down the coast and fire on stations when they were feeling bored and mischievous.
Interestingly, Hooke (Newton's compatriot) proposed a similar system a couple of hundred years earlier, but the British military chiefs displayed their usual insight and did not take it up.