While unlocking the new Zeefarer story, I came across a storylet that made me ponder the existence and use of telegraphy in the Neath. The storylet suggests that one can receive telegrams in London from the Surface (in this case, Austria), but this is one of the few times that telegrams have been mentioned in Fallen London.
In reality, the first commercial electric telegrams were used on British railways in the 1830s, and by the 1890s (when Fallen London is currently set) the technology was quite mature, with undersea telegraph cables crisscrossing the oceans. The storylet I linked to above suggests that Fallen London could be linked to the Surface by telegraphic cables running up the Cumaean Canal, but I haven’t seen anything else to suggest that is the case or that such easy communication with the Surface is possible. Within the Neath itself, I imagine that the Treachery of Maps (not to mention monsters) would make it difficult to run cables beneath the Zee, but surely the Great Hellbound Railway would find it useful to have telegraphic links to the various stations along the London-Hell line.
Aside from the new Zeefarer content (which mentions telegrams several times), has anyone come across any other mentions of telegrams or telegraphic technology in Fallen London or Sunless Sea? So far all I have is this and this.
Solution: spike the telegraphic cable posts into the ceiling. Then get a really long cable to snake from the ceiling all the way down to the city. Maybe coil it around one of the many spires of the bazaar or something.
Same solution for across the ocean- ceiling, snake cable down, done. Never mind all the bats that could chew them up, or the denizens of the ceiling, or really anything else that could go wrong; All might be well?
Telegram does not necessarily have to refer to a message received in London with an electric telegraph machine. There could be a cable running through the canal, with a telegraph station there printing telegrams to be shipped the rest of the way, where the cables can’t run.
Alternately there were non-electrical telegraph systems used historically, like semaphore - perhaps in the Fallen London these are used to extend the telegraph network into the Neath? Probably the Neath is too dark for a flag based system but a mirror-and-lamp setup could work.
Either way, telegraphs must be more awkward and expensive than on the surface or they would be a lot more prominent in Sunless Sea.
Actually come to think of it are there any examples of telegrams between two locations in the Neath? If not that would support the station at the canal theory
[quote=Mercytrader]Telegram does not necessarily have to refer to a message received in London with an electric telegraph machine. There could be a cable running through the canal, with a telegraph station there printing telegrams to be shipped the rest of the way, where the cables can’t run.
Alternately there were non-electrical telegraph systems used historically, like semaphore - perhaps in the Fallen London these are used to extend the telegraph network into the Neath? Probably the Neath is too dark for a flag based system but a mirror-and-lamp setup could work.
Either way, telegraphs must be more awkward and expensive than on the surface or they would be a lot more prominent in Sunless Sea.
Actually come to think of it are there any examples of telegrams between two locations in the Neath? If not that would support the station at the canal theory[/quote]
Worth noting that it has been a fair few years since Sunless Sea. It’s possible that the telegraph cables are a relatively recent development.
I assume the telegraph office knew to put the full stop after the initial as standard practice, rather than Felton paying extra for it after using “STOP” throughout the actual message.