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Optical telegraph

An optical telegraph is a line of stations, typically towers, for the purpose of conveying textual information by means of visual signals (a form of optical communication). There are two main types of such systems; the semaphore telegraph which uses pivoted indicator arms and conveys information according to the direction the indicators point, and the shutter telegraph which uses panels that can be rotated to block or pass the light from the sky behind to convey information.

The most widely used system was the Chappe telegraph, which was invented in France in 1792 by Claude Chappe. It was popular in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries. Chappe used the term "télégraphe" to describe the mechanism he had invented – that is the origin of the English word "telegraph". Lines of relay towers with a semaphore rig at the top were built within line of sight of each other, at separations of 5-20 mi. Operators at each tower would watch the neighboring tower through a telescope, and when the semaphore arms began to move spelling out a message, they would pass the message on to the next tower. This system was much faster than post riders for conveying a message over long distances, and also had cheaper long-term operating costs, once constructed. Half a century later, semaphore lines were replaced by the electrical telegraph, which was cheaper, faster, and more private. The line-of-sight distance between relay stations was limited by geography and weather, and prevented the optical telegraph from crossing wide expanses of water, unless a convenient island could be used for a relay station. A modern derivative of the semaphore system is flag semaphore, signalling with hand-held flags.

Etymology and terminology
The word semaphore was coined in 1801 by the French inventor of the semaphore line itself, Claude Chappe. He composed it from the Greek elements σῆμα (sêma, "sign"); and from φορός (phorós, "carrying"), or φορά (phorá, "a carrying") from φέρειν (phérein, "to bear"). Chappe also coined the word tachygraph, meaning "fast writer". However, the French Army preferred to call Chappe's semaphore system the telegraph, meaning "far writer", which was coined by French statesman André François Miot de Mélito.

The word semaphoric was first printed in English in 1808: "The newly constructed Semaphoric telegraphs (...) have been blown up", in a news report in The Naval Chronicle. The first use of the word semaphore in reference to English use was in 1816: "The improved Semaphore has been erected on the top of the Admiralty", referring to the installation of a simpler telegraph invented by Sir Home Popham. Semaphore telegraphs are also called, "Chappe telegraphs" or "Napoleonic semaphore".

Early designs
Optical telegraphy dates from ancient times, in the form of hydraulic telegraphs, torches (as used by ancient cultures since the discovery of fire) and smoke signals. Modern design of semaphores was first foreseen by the British polymath Robert Hooke, who gave a vivid and comprehensive outline of visual telegraphy to the Royal Society in a 1684 submission in which he outlined many practical details. The system (which was motivated by military concerns, following the Battle of Vienna in 1683) was never put into practice.

One of the first experiments of optical signalling was carried out by the Anglo-Irish landowner and inventor, Sir Richard Lovell Edgeworth in 1767. He placed a bet with his friend, the horse racing gambler Lord March, that he could transmit knowledge of the outcome of the race in just one hour. Using a network of signalling sections erected on high ground, the signal would be observed from one station to the next by means of a telescope. The signal itself consisted of a large pointer that could be placed into eight possible positions in 45 degree increments. A series of two such signals gave a total 64 code elements and a third signal took it up to 512. He returned to his idea in 1795, after hearing of Chappe's system.

France
Credit for the first successful optical telegraph goes to the French engineer Claude Chappe and his brothers in 1792, who succeeded in covering France with a network of 556 stations stretching a total distance of 4,800 km. Le système Chappe was used for military and national communications until the 1850s.

Development in France
During 1790–1795, at the height of the French Revolution, France needed a swift and reliable military communications system to thwart the war efforts of its enemies. France was surrounded by the forces of Britain, the Netherlands, Prussia, Austria, and Spain, the cities of Marseille and Lyon were in revolt, and the British Fleet held Toulon. The only advantage France held was the lack of cooperation between the allied forces due to their inadequate lines of communication. In mid-1790, the Chappe brothers set about devising a system of communication that would allow the central government to receive intelligence and to transmit orders in the shortest possible time. Chappe considered many possible methods including audio and smoke. He even considered using electricity, but could not find insulation for the conductors that would withstand the high-voltage electrostatic sources available at the time.

Chappe settled on an optical system and the first public demonstration occurred on 2 March 1791 between Brûlon and Parcé, a distance of 16 km. The system consisted of a modified pendulum clock at each end with dials marked with ten numerals. The hands of the clocks almost certainly moved much faster than a normal clock. The hands of both clocks were set in motion at the same time with a synchronisation signal. Further signals indicated the time at which the dial should be read. The numbers sent were then looked up in a codebook. In their preliminary experiments over a shorter distance, the Chappes had banged a pan for synchronisation. In the demonstration, they used black and white panels observed with a telescope. The message to be sent was chosen by town officials at Brûlon and sent by René Chappe to Claude Chappe at Parcé who had no pre-knowledge of the message. The message read "si vous réussissez, vous serez bientôt couverts de gloire" (If you succeed, you will soon bask in glory). It was only later that Chappe realised that he could dispense with the clocks and the synchronisation system itself could be used to pass messages.

The Chappes carried out experiments during the next two years, and on two occasions their apparatus at Place de l'Étoile, Paris was destroyed by mobs who thought they were communicating with royalist forces. Their cause was assisted by Ignace Chappe being elected to the Legislative Assembly. In the summer of 1792 Claude was appointed Ingénieur-Télégraphiste and charged with establishing a line of stations between Paris and Lille, a distance of 230 kilometres (about 143 miles). It was used to carry dispatches for the war between France and Austria. In 1794, it brought news of a French capture of Condé-sur-l'Escaut from the Austrians less than an hour after it occurred. The first symbol of a message to Lille would pass through 15 stations in only nine minutes. The speed of the line varied with the weather, but the line to Lille typically transferred 36 symbols, a complete message, in about 32 minutes. Another line of 50 stations was completed in 1798, covering 488 km between Paris and Strasbourg. From 1803 on, the French also used the 3-arm Depillon semaphore at coastal locations to provide warning of British incursions.

Chappe system technical operation
The Chappe brothers determined by experiment that it was easier to see the angle of a rod than to see the presence or absence of a panel. Their semaphore was composed of two black movable wooden arms, connected by a cross bar; the positions of all three of these components together indicated an alphabetic letter. With counterweights (named forks) on the arms, the Chappe system was controlled by only two handles and was mechanically simple and reasonably robust. Each of the two 2-metre-long arms could display seven positions, and the 4.6-metre-long cross bar connecting the two arms could display four different angles, for a total of 196 symbols (7×7×4). Night operation with lamps on the arms was unsuccessful. To speed up transmission and to provide some semblance of security, a code book was developed for use with semaphore lines. The Chappes' corporation used a code that took 92 of the basic symbols two at a time to yield 8,464 coded words and phrases.

The revised Chappe system of 1795 provided not only a set of codes but also an operational protocol intended to maximize line throughput. Symbols were transmitted in cycles of "2 steps and 3 movements."

 * Step 1, movement 1 (setup): The operator turned the indicator arms to align with the cross bar, forming a non-symbol, and then turned the cross bar into position for the next symbol.
 * Step 1, movement 2 (transmission): The operator positioned the indicator arms for current symbol and waited for the downline station to copy it.
 * Step 2, movement 3 (completion): The operator turned the cross bar to a vertical or horizontal position, indicating the end of a cycle.

In this manner, each symbol could propagate down the line as quickly as operators could successfully copy it, with acknowledgement and flow control built into the protocol. A symbol sent from Paris took 2 minutes to reach Lille through 22 stations and 9 minutes to reach Lyon through 50 stations. A rate of 2–3 symbols per minute was typical, with the higher figure being prone to errors. This corresponds to only 0.4–0.6 wpm, but with messages limited to those contained in the code book, this could be dramatically increased.

History in France
After Chappe's initial line (between Paris and Lille), the Paris to Strasbourg with 50 stations followed soon after (1798). Napoleon Bonaparte made full use of the telegraph by obtaining speedy information on enemy movements. In 1801 he had Abraham Chappe build an extra-large station to transmit across the English Channel in preparation for an invasion of Britain. A pair of such stations were built on a test line over a comparable distance. The line to Calais was extended to Boulogne in anticipation and a new design station was briefly in operation at Boulogne, but the invasion never happened. In 1812, Napoleon took up another design of Abraham Chappe for a mobile telegraph that could be taken with him on campaign. This was still in use in 1853 during the Crimean War.

The invention of the telegraph was followed by an enthusiasm concerning its potential to support direct democracy. For instance, based on Rousseau's argument that direct democracy was improbable in large constituencies, the French Intellectual Alexandre-Théophile Vandermonde commented:

"Something has been said about the telegraph which appears perfectly right to me and gives the right measure of its importance. Such invention might be enough to render democracy possible in its largest scale. Many respectable men, among them Jean-Jacques Rousseau, have thought that democracy was impossible within large constituencies.… The invention of the telegraph is a novelty that Rousseau did not expect to happen. It enables long-distance communication at the same pace and clarity than that of conversation in a living room. This solution may address by itself the objections to large [direct] democratic republics. It may even be done in the absence of representative constitutions."

The operational costs of the telegraph in the year 1799/1800 were 434,000 francs ($1.2 million in 2015 in silver costs ). In December 1800, Napoleon cut the budget of the telegraph system by 150,000 francs ($400,000 in 2015) leading to the Paris-Lyons line being temporarily closed. Chappe sought commercial uses of the system to make up the deficit, including use by industry, the financial sector, and newspapers. Only one proposal was immediately approved—the transmission of results from the state-run lottery. No non-government uses were approved. The lottery had been abused for years by fraudsters who knew the results, selling tickets in provincial towns after the announcement in Paris, but before the news had reached those towns.

In 1819 Norwich Duff, a young British Naval officer, visiting Clermont-en-Argonne, walked up to the telegraph station there and engaged the signalman in conversation. Here is his note of the man's information:

"The pay is twenty five sous per day and he [the signalman] is obliged to be there from day light till dark, at present from half past three till half past eight; there are only two of them and for every minute a signal is left without being answered they pay five sous: this is a part of the branch which communicates with Strasburg and a message arrives there from Paris in six minutes it is here in four."

The network was reserved for government use, but an early case of wire fraud occurred in 1834 when two bankers, François and Joseph Blanc, bribed the operators at a station near Tours on the line between Paris and Bordeaux to pass Paris stock exchange information to an accomplice in Bordeaux. It took three days for the information to travel the 300 mile distance, giving the schemers plenty of time to play the market. An accomplice at Paris would know whether the market was going up or down days before the information arrived in Bordeaux via the newspapers, after which Bordeaux was sure to follow. The message could not be inserted in the telegraph directly because it would have been detected. Instead, pre-arranged deliberate errors were introduced into existing messages which were visible to an observer at Bordeaux. Tours was chosen because it was a division station where messages were purged of errors by an inspector who was privy to the secret code used and unknown to the ordinary operators. The scheme would not work if the errors were inserted prior to Tours. The operators were told whether the market was going up or down by the colour of packages (either white or grey paper wrapping) sent by mail coach, or, according to another anecdote, if the wife of the Tours operator received a package of socks (down) or gloves (up) thus avoiding any evidence of misdeed being put in writing. The scheme operated for two years until it was discovered in 1836.

The French optical system remained in use for many years after other countries had switched to the electrical telegraph. Partly, this was due to inertia; France had the most extensive optical system and hence the most difficult to replace. But there were also arguments put forward for the superiority of the optical system. One of these was that the optical system is not so vulnerable to saboteurs as an electrical system with many miles of unguarded wire. Samuel Morse failed to sell the electrical telegraph to the French government. Eventually the advantages of the electrical telegraph of improved privacy, and all-weather and nighttime operation won out. A decision was made in 1846 to replace the optical telegraph with the Foy–Breguet electrical telegraph after a successful trial on the Rouen line. This system had a display which mimicked the look of the Chappe telegraph indicators to make it familiar to telegraph operators. Jules Guyot issued a dire warning of the consequences of what he considered to be a serious mistake. It took almost a decade before the optical telegraph was completely decommissioned. One of the last messages sent over the French semaphore was the report of the fall of Sebastopol in 1855.

Sweden
Sweden was the second country in the world, after France, to introduce an optical telegraph network. Its network became the second most extensive after France. The central station of the network was at the Katarina Church in Stockholm. The system was faster than the French system, partly due to the Swedish control panel and partly to the ease of transcribing the octal code (the French system was recorded as pictograms). The system was used primarily for reporting the arrival of ships, but was also useful in wartime for observing enemy movements and attacks.

The last stationary semaphore link in regular service was in Sweden, connecting an island with a mainland telegraph line. It went out of service in 1880.

Development in Sweden
Inspired by news of the Chappe telegraph, the Swedish inventor Abraham Niclas Edelcrantz experimented with the optical telegraph in Sweden. He constructed a three-station experimental line in 1794 running from the royal castle in Stockholm, via Traneberg, to the grounds of Drottningholm Castle, a distance of 12 km. The first demonstration was on 1 November, when Edelcrantz sent a poem dedicated to the king, Gustav IV Adolf, on his fourteenth birthday. On 7 November the king brought Edelcrantz into his Council of Advisers with a view to building a telegraph throughout Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.

Edelcrantz system technical operation
After some initial experiments with Chappe-style indicator arms, Edelcrantz settled on a design with ten iron shutters. Nine of these represented a 3-digit octal number and the tenth, when closed, meant the code number should be preceded by "A". This gave 1,024 codepoints which were decoded to letters, words or phrases via a codebook. The telegraph had a sophisticated control panel which allowed the next symbol to be prepared while waiting for the previous symbol to be repeated on the next station down the line. The control panel was connected by strings to the shutters. When ready to transmit, all the shutters were set at the same time with the press of a footpedal.

The shutters were painted matte black to avoid reflection from sunlight and the frame and arms supporting the shutters were painted white or red for best contrast. Around 1809 Edelcrantz introduced an updated design. The frame around the shutters was dispensed with leaving a simpler, more visible, structure of just the arms with the indicator panels on the end of them. The "A" shutter was reduced to the same size as the other shutters and offset to one side to indicate which side was the most significant digit (whether the codepoint is read left-to-right or right-to-left is different for the two adjacent stations depending on which side they are on). This was previously indicated with a stationary indicator fixed to the side of the frame, but without a frame this was no longer possible.

The distance that a station could transmit depended on the size of the shutters and the power of the telescope being used to observe them. The smallest object visible to the human eye is one that subtends an angle of 40 seconds of arc, but Edelcrantz used a figure of 4 minutes of arc to account for atmospheric disturbances and imperfections of the telescope. On that basis, and with a 32× telescope, Edelcrantz specified shutter sizes ranging from 9 inches (22 cm) for a distance of half a Swedish mile (5.3 km) to 54 inches (134 cm) for 3 Swedish miles (32 km). These figures were for the original design with square shutters. The open design of 1809 had long oblong shutters which Edelcrantz thought was more visible. Distances much further than these would require impractically high towers to overcome the curvature of the Earth as well as large shutters. Edelcrantz kept the distance between stations under 2 Swedish miles (21 km) except where large bodies of water made it unavoidable.

The Swedish telegraph was capable of being used at night with lamps. On smaller stations lamps were placed behind the shutters so that they became visible when the shutter was opened. For larger stations, this was impractical. Instead, a separate tin box matrix with glass windows was installed below the daytime shutters. The lamps inside the tin box could be uncovered by pulling strings in the same way the daytime shutters were operated. Windows on both sides of the box allowed the lamps to be seen by both the upstream and downstream adjacent stations. The codepoints used at night were the complements of the codepoints used during the day. This made the pattern of lamps in open shutters at night the same as the pattern of closed shutters in daytime.

First network: 1795–1809
The first operational line, Stockholm to Vaxholm, went into service in January 1795. By 1797 there were also lines from Stockholm to Fredriksborg, and Grisslehamn via Signilsskär to Eckerö in Åland. A short line near Göteborg to Marstrand on the west coast was installed in 1799. During the War of the Second Coalition, Britain tried to enforce a blockade against France. Concerned at the effect on their own trade, Sweden joined the Second League of Armed Neutrality in 1800. Britain was expected to respond with an attack on one of the Nordic countries in the league. To help guard against such an attack, the king ordered a telegraph link joining the systems of Sweden and Denmark. This was the first international telegraph connection in the world. Edelcrantz made this link between Helsingborg in Sweden and Helsingør in Denmark, across the Öresund, the narrow strait separating the two countries. A new line along the coast from Kullaberg to Malmö, incorporating the Helsingborg link, was planned in support and to provide signalling points to the Swedish fleet. Nelson's attack on the Danish fleet at Copenhagen in 1801 was reported over this link, but after Sweden failed to come to Denmark's aid it was not used again and only one station on the supporting line was ever built.

In 1808 the Royal Telegraph Institution was created and Edelcrantz was made director. The Telegraph Institution was put under the jurisdiction of the military, initially as part of the Royal Engineering Corps. A new code was introduced to replace the 1796 codebook with 5,120 possible codepoints with many new messages. The new codes included punishments for delinquent operators. These included an order to the operator to stand on one of the telegraph arms (code 001-721), and a message asking an adjacent station to confirm that they could see him do it (code 001-723). By 1809, the network had 50 stations over 200 km of line employing 172 people. In comparison, the French system in 1823 had 650 km of line and employed over three thousand people.

In 1808, the Finnish War broke out when Russia seized Finland, then part of Sweden. Åland was attacked by Russia and the telegraph stations destroyed. The Russians were expelled in a revolt, but attacked again in 1809. The station at Signilsskär found itself behind enemy lines, but continued to signal the position of Russian troops to the retreating Swedes. After Sweden ceded Finland in the Treaty of Fredrikshamn, the east coast telegraph stations were considered superfluous and put into storage. In 1810, the plans for a south coast line were revived but were scrapped in 1811 due to financial considerations. Also in 1811, a new line from Stockholm via Arholma to Söderarm lighthouse was proposed, but also never materialised. For a while, the telegraph network in Sweden was almost non-existent, with only four telegraphists employed by 1810.

Rebuilding the network
The post of Telegraph Inspector was created as early as 1811, but the telegraph in Sweden remained dormant until 1827 when new proposals were put forward. In 1834, the Telegraph Institution was moved to the Topographical Corps. The Corps head, Carl Fredrik Akrell, conducted comparisons of the Swedish shutter telegraph with more recent systems from other countries. Of particular interest was the semaphore system of Charles Pasley in England which had been on trial in Karlskrona. Tests were performed between Karlskrona and Drottningskär, and, in 1835, nighttime tests between Stockholm and Fredriksborg. Akrell concluded that the shutter telegraph was faster and easier to use, and was again adopted for fixed stations. However, Pasley's semaphore was cheaper and easier to construct, so was adopted for mobile stations. By 1836 the Swedish telegraph network had been fully restored.

The network continued to expand. In 1837, the line to Vaxholm was extended to Furusund. In 1838 the Stockholm-Dalarö-Sandhamn line was extended to Landsort. The last addition came in 1854 when the Furusund line was extended to Arholma and Söderarm. The conversion to electrical telegraphy was slower and more difficult than in other countries. The many stretches of open ocean needing to be crossed on the Swedish archipelagos was a major obstacle. Akrell also raised similar concerns to those in France concerning potential sabotage and vandalism of electrical lines. Akrell first proposed an experimental electrical telegraph line in 1852. For many years the network consisted of a mix of optical and electrical lines. The last optical stations were not taken out of service until 1881, the last in operation in Europe. In some places, the heliograph replaced the optical telegraph rather than the electrical telegraph. }

United Kingdom
In Ireland, Richard Lovell Edgeworth returned to his earlier work in 1794, and proposed a telegraph there to warn against an anticipated French invasion; however, the proposal was not implemented. Lord George Murray, stimulated by reports of the Chappe semaphore, proposed a system of visual telegraphy to the British Admiralty in 1795. He employed rectangular framework towers with six five-foot-high octagonal shutters on horizontal axes that flipped between horizontal and vertical positions to signal. The Rev. Mr Gamble also proposed two distinct five-element systems in 1795: one using five shutters, and one using five ten-foot poles. The British Admiralty accepted Murray's system in September 1795, and the first system was the 15 site chain from London to Deal. Messages passed from London to Deal in about sixty seconds, and sixty-five sites were in use by 1808. Chains of Murray's shutter telegraph stations were built along the following routes: London–Deal and Sheerness, London–Great Yarmouth, and London–Portsmouth and Plymouth. The line to Plymouth was not completed until 4 July 1806, and so could not be used to relay the news of Trafalgar. The shutter stations were temporary wooden huts, and at the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars they were no longer necessary, and were closed down by the Admiralty in March 1816.

Following the Battle of Trafalgar, the news was transmitted to London by frigate to Falmouth, from where the captain took the dispatches to London by coach along what became known as the Trafalgar Way; the journey took 38 hours. This delay prompted the Admiralty to investigate further.

A replacement semaphore system was sought, and of the many ideas and devices put forward the Admiralty chose the simpler semaphore system invented by Sir Home Popham. A Popham semaphore was a single fixed vertical 30 foot pole, with two movable 8 foot arms attached to the pole by horizontal pivots at their ends, one arm at the top of the pole, and the other arm at the middle of the pole. The signals of the Popham semaphore were found to be much more visible than those of the Murray shutter telegraph. Popham's 2-arm semaphore was modelled after the 3-arm Depillon French semaphore. An experimental semaphore line between the Admiralty and Chatham was installed in July 1816, and its success helped to confirm the choice.

Subsequently, the Admiralty decided to establish a permanent link to Portsmouth and built a chain of semaphore stations. Work started in December 1820 with Popham's equipment replaced with another two-arm system invented by Charles Pasley. Each of the arms of Pasley's system could take on one of eight positions and it thus had more codepoints than Popham's. In good conditions messages were sent from London to Portsmouth in less than eight minutes. The line was operational from 1822 until 1847, when the railway and electric telegraph provided a better means of communication. The semaphore line did not use the same locations as the shutter chain, but followed almost the same route with 15 stations: Admiralty (London), Chelsea Royal Hospital, Putney Heath, Coombe Warren, Coopers Hill, Chatley Heath, Pewley Hill, Bannicle Hill, Haste Hill (Haslemere), Holder Hill, (Midhurst), Beacon Hill, Compton Down, Camp Down, Lumps Fort (Southsea), and Portsmouth Dockyard. The semaphore tower at Chatley Heath, which replaced the Netley Heath station of the shutter telegraph, is currently being restored by the Landmark Trust as self-catering holiday accommodation. There will be public access on certain days when the restoration is complete.

The Board of the Port of Liverpool obtained a Private Act of Parliament to construct a chain of Popham optical semaphore stations from Liverpool to Holyhead in 1825. The system was designed and part-owned by Barnard L. Watson, a reserve marine officer, and came into service in 1827. The line is possibly the only example of an optical telegraph built entirely for commercial purposes. It was used so that observers at Holyhead could report incoming ships to the Port of Liverpool and trading could begin in the cargo being carried before the ship docked. The line was kept in operation until 1860 when a railway line and associated electrical telegraph made it redundant. Many of the prominences on which the towers were built ('telegraph hills') are known as Telegraph Hill to this day.

Ireland
In Ireland R.L. Edgeworth was to develop an optical telegraph based on a triangle pointer, measuring up to 16 feet in height. Following several years promoting his system, he was to get admiralty approval and engaged in its construction during 1803–1804. The completed system ran from Dublin to Galway and was to act as a rapid warning system in case of French invasion of the west coast of Ireland. Despite its success in operation, the receding threat of French invasion was to see the system disestablished in 1804.

Canada
In Canada, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent established the first semaphore line in North America. In operation by 1800, it ran between the city of Halifax and the town of Annapolis in Nova Scotia, and across the Bay of Fundy to Saint John and Fredericton in New Brunswick. In addition to providing information on approaching ships, the Duke used the system to relay military commands, especially as they related to troop discipline. The Duke had envisioned the line reaching as far as the British garrison at Quebec City, but the many hills and coastal fog meant the towers needed to be placed relatively close together to ensure visibility. The labour needed to build and continually man so many stations taxed the already stretched-thin British military and there is doubt the New Brunswick line was ever in operation. With the exception of the towers around Halifax harbour, the system was abandoned shortly after the Duke's departure in August 1800.

Malta
The British military authorities began to consider installing a semaphore line in Malta in the early 1840s. Initially, it was planned that semaphore stations be established on the bell towers and domes of the island's churches, but the religious authorities rejected the proposal. Due to this, in 1848 new semaphore towers were constructed at Għargħur and Għaxaq on the main island, and another was built at Ta' Kenuna on Gozo. Further stations were established at the Governor's Palace, Selmun Palace and the Giordan Lighthouse. Each station was staffed by the Royal Engineers.

India

In India, semaphore towers were introduced in 1810. A series of towers were built between Fort William, Kolkata to Chunar Fort near Varanasi.The towers in the plains were 75 – 80 ft tall and those in the hills were 40 – 50 ft tall, and were built at an interval of about 13 km.

Van Diemen's Land
In southern Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) a signalling system to announce the arrival of ships was suggested by Governor-In-Chief Lachlan Macquarie when he made his first visit in 1811 Initially a simple flag system in 1818 between Mt.Nelson and Hobart, it developed into a system with two revolving arms by 1829, the system was quite crude and the arms were difficult to operate. In 1833 Charles O'Hara Booth took over command of the Port Arthur penal settlement, as an "enthusiast in the art of signalling" he saw the value of better communications with the headquarters in Hobart. During his command the semaphore system was extended to include 19 stations on the various mountains and islands between Port Arthur and Hobart. Until 1837 three single rotating arm semaphores were used. Subsequently the network was upgraded to use signal posts with six arms - a pair top, middle and bottom. This enabled the semaphore to send 999 signal codes. Captain George King of the Port Office and Booth together contributed to the code book for the system. King drew up shipping related codes and Booth added Government, Military and penal station matters. In 1877 Port Arthur was closed and the semaphore was operated for shipping signals only, it was finally replaced with a simple flagstaff after the introduction of the telephone in 1880.

In the north of the state there was a requirement to report on shipping arrivals as they entered the Tamar Estuary, some 55 kilometers from the main port at this time in Launceston. The Tamar Valley Semaphore System was based on a design by Peter Archer Mulgrave. This design used two arms, one with a cross piece at the end. The arms were rotated by ropes, and later chains. The barred arm positions indicated numbers 1 to 6 clockwise from the bottom left and the unbarred arm 7,8,9, STOP and REPEAT. A message was sent by sending numbers sequentially to make up a code. As with other systems the code was decoded via a code book. On 1 October 1835 it was announced in the Launceston Advertiser - "...that the signal stations are now complete from Launceston to George Town, and communication may he made, as well as received, from the Windmill Hill to George Town, in a very few minutes, on a clear day". The system comprised six stations - Launceston Port Office, Windmill Hill, Mt. Direction, Mt.George, George Town Port Office, Low Head lighthouse. The Tamar Valley semaphore telegraph operated for twenty-two and a half years closing on 31 March 1858 after the introduction of the electric telegraph. In the 1990s the Tamar Valley Signal Station Committee Inc. was formed to restore the system. The works were carried out over several years and the semaphore telegraph was declared complete once more on Sunday 30 September 2001.

Spain
In Spain, the engineer Agustín de Betancourt developed his own system which was adopted by that state; in 1798 he received a Royal Appointment, and the first stretch of line connecting Madrid and Aranjuez was in operation as of August 1800. Spain was spanned by an extensive semaphore telegraph network in the 1840s and 1850s. The three main semaphore lines radiated from Madrid. The first ran north to Irun on the Atlantic coast at the French border. The second ran east to the Mediterranean, then north along the coast through Barcelona to the French border. The third ran south to Cadiz on the Atlantic coast. These lines served many other Spanish cities, including: Aranjuez, Badajoz, Burgos, Castellon, Ciudad Real, Córdoba, Cuenca, Gerona, Pamplona, San Sebastian, Seville, Tarancon, Taragona, Toledo, Valladolid, Valencia, Vitoria and Zaragoza.

The rugged topography of the Iberian peninsula that facilitated the design of semaphore lines conveying information from hilltop to hilltop, made it difficult to implement wire telegraph lines when that technology was introduced in the mid 19th century. The Madrid-Cadiz line was the first to be dismantled in 1855, but other segments of the optical system continued to function until the end of the Carlist Wars in 1876.

Portugal
In Portugal, the British forces fighting Napoleon in Portugal soon found that the Portuguese Army had already a very capable semaphore terrestrial system working since 1808, giving the Duke of Wellington a decisive advantage in intelligence. The innovative Portuguese telegraphs, designed by, a mathematician, were of 3 types: 3 shutters, 3 balls and 1 pointer/moveable arm. He also wrote the code book "Táboas Telegráphicas", the same for the 3 telegraph types. Since early 1810 the network was operated by "Corpo Telegráfico", the first Portuguese military Signal Corps.

Other regions
Once it had proved its success in France, the optical telegraph was imitated in many other countries, especially after it was used by Napoleon to coordinate his empire and army. In most of these countries, the postal authorities operated the semaphore lines. Many national services adopted signalling systems different from the Chappe system. For example, the UK and Sweden adopted systems of shuttered panels (in contradiction to the Chappe brothers' contention that angled rods are more visible). In some cases, new systems were adopted because they were thought to be improvements. But many countries pursued their own, often inferior, designs for reasons of national pride or not wanting to copy from rivals and enemies.

In 1801, the Danish post office installed a semaphore line across the Great Belt strait, Storebæltstelegrafen, between islands Funen and Zealand with stations at Nyborg on Funen, on the small island Sprogø in the middle of the strait, and at Korsør on Zealand. It was in use until 1865.

In the Kingdom of Prussia, Frederick William III ordered the construction of an experimental line in 1819, but due to opposition from the defence minister Karl von Hake, nothing happened until 1830 when a short three-station line between Berlin and Potsdam was built. The design was based on the Swedish telegraph with the number of shutters increased to twelve. Postrat Carl Pistor proposed instead a semaphore system based on Watson's design in England. An operational line of this design running Berlin-Magdeburg-Dortmund-Köln-Bonn-Koblenz was completed in 1833. The line employed about 200 people, comparable to Sweden, but no network ever developed and no more official lines were built. The line was decommissioned in 1849 in favour of an electrical line.

Although there were no more government sponsored official lines, there was some private enterprise. Johann Ludwig Schmidt opened a commercial line from Hamburg to Cuxhaven in 1837. In 1847, Schmidt opened a second line from Bremen to Bremerhaven. These lines were used for reporting the arrival of commercial ships. The two lines were later linked with three additional stations to create possibly the only private telegraph network in the optical telegraph era. The telegraph inspector for this network was Friedrich Clemens Gerke, who would later move to the Hamburg-Cuxhaven electrical telegraph line and develop what became the International Morse Code. The Hamburg line went out of use in 1850, and the Bremen line in 1852.

In Russia, Tsar Nicolas I inaugurated a line between Moscow and Warsaw of 1200 km length in 1833; it needed 220 stations staffed by 1,320 operators. The stations were noted to be unused and decaying in 1859, so the line was probably abandoned long before this.

In the United States, the first optical telegraph was built by Jonathan Grout in 1804 but ceased operation in 1807. This 104 km line between Martha's Vineyard with Boston transmitted shipping news. An optical telegraph system linking Philadelphia and the mouth of the Delaware Bay was in place by 1809 and had a similar purpose; a second line to New York City was operational by 1834, when its Philadelphia terminus was moved to the tower of the Merchants Exchange. One of the principal hills in San Francisco, California is also named "Telegraph Hill", after the semaphore telegraph which was established there in 1849 to signal the arrival of ships into San Francisco Bay.

As first data networks
The optical telegraphs put in place at the turn of the 18th/19th centuries were the first examples of data networks. Chappe and Edelcrantz independently invented many features that are now commonplace in modern networks, but were then revolutionary and essential to the smooth running of the systems. These features included control characters, routing, error control, flow control, message priority and symbol rate control. Edelcrantz documented the meaning and usage of all his control codes from the start in 1794. The details of the early Chappe system are not known precisely; the first operating instructions to survive date to 1809 and the French system is not as fully explained as the Swedish.

Some of the features of these systems are considered advanced in modern practice and have been recently reinvented. An example of this is the error control codepoint 707 in the Edelcrantz code. This was used to request the repeat of a specified recent symbol. The 707 was followed by two symbols identifying the row and column in the current page of the logbook that it was required to repeat. This is an example of a selective repeat and is more efficient than the simple go back n strategy used on many modern networks. This was a later addition; both Edelcrantz (codepoint 272), and Chappe (codepoint 2H6) initially used only a simple "erase last character" for error control, taken directly from Hooke's 1684 proposal.

Routing in the French system was almost permanently fixed; only Paris and the station at the remote end of a line were allowed to initiate a message. The early Swedish system was more flexible, having the ability to set up message connections between arbitrary stations. Similar to modern networks, the initialisation request contained the identification of the requesting and target station. The request was acknowledged by the target station by sending the complement of the code received. This protocol is unique with no modern equivalent. This facility was removed from the codebook in the revision of 1808. After this, only Stockholm would normally initiate messages with other stations waiting to be polled.

The Prussian system required the Coblenz station (at the end of the line) to send a "no news" message (or a real message if there was one pending) back to Berlin on the hour, every hour. Intermediate stations could only pass messages by replacing the "no news" message with their traffic. On arrival in Berlin, the "no news" message was returned to Coblenz with the same procedure. This can be considered an early example of a token passing system. This arrangement required accurate clock synchronisation at all the stations. A synchronisation signal was sent out from Berlin for this purpose every three days. Another feature that would be considered advanced in a modern electronic system is the dynamic changing of transmission rates. Edelcrantz had codepoints for faster (770) and slower (077). Chappe also had this feature.

In popular culture

By the mid-19th century, the optical telegraph was well known enough to be referenced in popular works without special explanation. The Chappe telegraph appeared in contemporary fiction and comic strips. In "Mister Pencil" (1831), a comic strip by Rodolphe Töpffer, a dog fallen on a Chappe telegraph's arm—and its master attempting to help get it down—provoke an international crisis by inadvertently transmitting disturbing messages. In Lucien Leuwen (1834), Stendhal pictures a power struggle between Lucien Leuwen and the prefect M. de Séranville with the telegraph's director M. Lamorte. In Chapter 60 ("The Telegraph") of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (1844), the title character describes with fascination the semaphore line's moving arms: "I had at times seen rise at the end of a road, on a hillock and in the bright light of the sun, these black folding arms looking like the legs of an immense beetle." He later bribes a semaphore operator to relay a false message in order to manipulate the French financial market. Dumas also describes in detail the functioning of a Chappe telegraph line. In Hector Malot's novel Romain Kalbris (1869), one of the characters, a girl named Dielette, describes her home in Paris as "...next to a church near which there was a clock tower. On top of the tower there were two large black arms, moving all day this way and that. [I was told later] that this was Saint-Eustache church and that these large black arms were a telegraph."

In the 21st century, the optical telegraph concept is mainly kept alive in popular culture through fiction such as the novel Pavane and Terry Pratchett's "Clacks" in his Discworld novels, most notably the 2004 novel Going Postal.

title: Optical telegraph


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NYPD Blue

NYPD Blue is an American police procedural television series set in New York City, exploring the struggles of the fictional 15th Precinct detective squad in Manhattan. Each episode typically intertwines several plots involving an ensemble cast. The show was created by Steven Bochco and David Milch, and was inspired by Milch's relationship with Bill Clark, a former member of the New York City Police Department who eventually became one of the show's producers. The series was originally broadcast by ABC from September 21, 1993‚ to March 1, 2005. It was ABC's longest-running primetime one-hour drama series until Grey's Anatomy surpassed it in 2016.

NYPD Blue was met with critical acclaim, praised for its grittiness and realistic portrayal of the cast's personal and professional lives, though the show garnered controversy for its depictions of nudity and alcoholism. In 1997, "True Confessions" (Season 1, Episode 4), written by Art Monterastelli and directed by Charles Haid, was ranked number 36 on "TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time". In 2009, "Hearts and Souls" (Season 6, Episode 5), Jimmy Smits' final episode as a main cast member, ranked 30th on TV Guide's "100 Greatest Episodes of All Time".

Main cast
{{legend|#ddffdd|Main}} {{legend|#ffe3e3|Recurring}} {{legend|#DAEBFF|Guest}}

Production and crew
Produced by 20th Century Fox and Steven Bochco Productions, film production primarily took place in the greater Los Angeles area. The show did film in New York, but only for exterior shots that used New York landmarks. In the final season, the show was filmed only in Los Angeles to save money.

The series was shot on film and framed for a 16:9 ratio from the first episode, though it was not natively broadcast in HD until season 9. In 2016 the first eight seasons were remastered into a 2K resolution HD image for use in future syndication and streaming releases. The 90-minute versions of "Lost Israel, Part 2," "Honeymoon at Viagra Falls," and "Hearts and Souls" were not included in this project and are available only on the DVD releases, as standard definition 4:3 episodes. The streaming remastered editions use the 60-minute versions of those episodes.

Exterior shots of the 15th Precinct used the 9th Precinct building on East 5th Street in New York City, also used for Kojak.

 * Steven Bochco – Executive Producer/Writer
 * David Milch – Executive Producer/Writer
 * Paris Barclay – Supervising Producer/Director
 * Steven DePaul – Supervising Producer/Director
 * Matt Olmstead – Executive Producer/Writer
 * Nicholas Wootton – Executive Producer/Writer
 * Bill Clark – Executive Producer/Writer
 * Mark Tinker – Executive Producer/Director
 * Hans VanDoornewaard – Executive Producer
 * William M. Finkelstein – Executive Producer
 * Gregory Hoblit – Executive Producer/Director
 * Kathy Bates – Director
 * Leonard Gardner – Producer/Writer
 * Mike Post – Music
 * Edward Rogers – Music

The show was initially a vehicle for David Caruso. John Kelly was the main character, and the first season revolved around him and his professional and personal lives. Promotional shots for the show depicted Caruso in the foreground and other first-season characters set off behind him. Season two had the departure of John Kelly, and the show was thereafter built around an ensemble cast.

Dennis Franz, as Andy Sipowicz, a veteran New York City Police detective, evolved into the show's lead character, who increasingly assumed a mentorship role to other characters as the series progressed. His co-stars included (season two and beyond) Jimmy Smits as Det. Bobby Simone (1994–1998), Rick Schroder as Det. Danny Sorenson (1998–2001), and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Det. John Clark, Jr. (2001–2005).

Music
The show used an instrumental theme by prolific TV composer Mike Post which did not change throughout the run of the series. The theme begins with a percussion arrangement reminiscent of the sound of a New York City subway train departing a station and then proceeds to an oboe-dominated melody influenced by the Irish-American music used at NYPD ceremonies. Each episode had a cold open scene followed by the full-length theme song over the opening credits. The cold open and scene transitions used short instrumental breaks reminiscent of the main theme. As the series progressed, the musical start of the cold opens grew longer. By Season 7, each episode began with a fast-paced montage of typical Manhattan street scenes unrelated to the show's characters, scored with an increasingly complex combination of scat singing and instrumental music riffing on the main theme. The specific variations were original to each episode and were not re-used. Some especially dramatic or dialogue-free scenes were scored during particular episodes, but otherwise the main body of scenes used only limited diegetic music. A section of the main theme played again over the closing credits.

Season 1
John Kelly and Andy Sipowicz are detectives in the 15th squad. Sipowicz is the elder partner, but is an alcoholic who drinks on the job, as well as off duty, and his behavior causes doubt that the partnership will last much longer. Kelly has a genuine affection for his partner, but becomes increasingly exasperated by Sipowicz's behavior. In addition to his alcoholism, Sipowicz is a deeply negative, misogynist, homophobic bigot. In the pilot, Sipowicz is shot by a suspect he had attacked and humiliated earlier. This leads to his decision to sober up and save his job. While Sipowicz is recuperating, the squad's lieutenant, Arthur Fancy, teams Kelly with a young cop from Anticrime, James Martinez.

Kelly's personal life is as frenetic as his professional life. He is reluctantly going through a divorce from his wife, Laura, and is embarking on an affair with a uniformed cop, Janice Licalsi. To complicate matters further, Licalsi's police-officer father is on the payroll of mob boss Angelo Marino. Licalsi, in an attempt to protect her father, has been ordered to do a "hit" on Kelly. Instead, Licalsi murders Marino, and the repercussions come back to haunt both Kelly and her.

Sipowicz, meanwhile, sobers up and begins a relationship with ADA Sylvia Costas. The other detective in the squad, Greg Medavoy, a married man, embarks on an affair with the squad's new administrative aide, Donna Abandando.

Season 2
Licalsi is found guilty of the manslaughter of Marino and his driver, and is given a two-year sentence. Because of Kelly's involvement with Licalsi, and the widely held belief that he withheld evidence that could have given her a longer sentence, he is transferred out of the 15th to working as a dispatcher and subsequently chooses to leave the department altogether. He is replaced by Bobby Simone, a widower whose previous job was that of driver for the police commissioner. This does not sit well with Sipowicz, but after learning that Simone took the assignment to be present for his wife, who was suffering from cancer, Sipowicz learns to accept his new partner and eventually builds a strong friendship with him. When Sipowicz's relationship with Sylvia leads to marriage, he asks Simone to be his best man.

After an affair with a journalist whom he suspects has used information that he disclosed to her after an intimate moment to boost her career, Simone begins a relationship with another new member of the squad, Diane Russell. Sipowicz, as a recovering alcoholic, recognizes from Russell's behavior that she also has a drinking problem. After much prompting, she begins attending Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). In another storyline, due to his low self-esteem and disbelief that a woman like Donna could love him, Medavoy's relationship with her breaks down, due in no small part to Donna's visiting sister.

Season 3
At the beginning of the season, Sylvia becomes pregnant with Andy's child. A baby boy, Theo, is born towards the end of the season. This is contrasted with the fate that awaits Sipowicz's older son, Andy Jr., who announces that he plans to join the police force in nearby Hackensack, New Jersey, after being discharged from the Air Force due to an injury. Sipowicz is finally bonding with his long-estranged son when Andy Jr. is gunned down trying to help people in a bar holdup. This causes the elder Sipowicz to fall off the wagon. Simone kills Andy Jr.'s murderers in an act of self-defense while attempting to arrest them.

Bobby and Diane, who had placed their relationship on hold while she attended AA, resume seeing each other. Diane begins drinking again when her abusive father beats her mother. Her father is eventually killed, and her mother becomes the prime suspect.

James Martinez and new detective Adrienne Lesniak begin an affair, but Lesniak later breaks it off, because her last relationship with a fellow cop ended disastrously, and tells Medavoy (Martinez's partner and the squad gossip) that she is gay. After James is shot, recovers, and returns to work, and Lesniak and he get to know each other, she admits that the story she told Medavoy was a lie. Martinez later breaks up with her due to her controlling and unpleasant behavior, and Lesniak eventually leaves the squad. Medavoy leaves his wife, recognizing that she is holding him back, but it is too late to save his relationship with Donna, who leaves to take a job with Apple in California.

Seasons 4–5
During the next two seasons, a few minor cast changes are made: Donna is replaced by several PAAs, most notably by Gina Colon (played by Lourdes Benedicto), who eventually marries Martinez and is written out; and Det. Jill Kirkendall (played by Andrea Thompson) is partnered with Russell. Sipowicz's battle with prostate cancer and the up-and-down Simone/Russell relationship, which includes Russell's revelation that she had been sexually abused by her father, are prominent storylines. Also during this time, Franz won four Emmy Awards, and both Delaney and Clapp won an Emmy for supporting roles.

Seasons 6–8
Season six is a major turning point for the series, as Smits decided not to renew his contract and left the show. In episode five, "Heart and Souls", just episodes after marrying Russell, Simone dies due to an enlarged heart and a subsequent infection caused by complications from a heart transplant. Smits was replaced by Rick Schroder, as Det. Danny Sorenson.

Two additional critical incidents occur during season six, the heroin overdose death of PAA Dolores Mayo (played by Lola Glaudini), and the death of Costas, who is accidentally gunned down by Mayo's distraught father at the trial of the suspect accused in Mayo's death. Costas's final words to Sipowicz, "Take care of the baby", led to his initial withdrawal from the squad. Yet, his keen perceptiveness allows him to gain a confession from the suspect in Mayo's death, who had tried to buy his way out of trouble. Furthermore, Sipowicz reaches a level of understanding with PAA John Irvin (portrayed by Bill Brochtrup), whose homosexuality had been a stumbling block for Sipowicz in their interactions to that point.

The next two seasons had the continuation of Sipowicz's relationship with Sorenson (in whom Sipowicz sees a resemblance to his late son), along with more changes in the squad. Departing during this time were Kirkendall (due to her unknowing involvement in her ex-husband's dirty dealings), Martinez (following his promotion to uniformed sergeant), Fancy as squad leader (following his promotion to captain), and Russell (for a leave of absence to grieve the loss of Simone). Arriving to replace them are Det. Baldwin Jones (played by Henry Simmons), Det. Connie McDowell (played by Charlotte Ross), and Lt. Tony Rodriguez (played by Esai Morales). Also arriving in season eight was new full-time ADA Valerie Haywood (played by Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon).

At the end of season eight, Sorenson is approached by the owners of a strip club to work for them providing information. Still reeling from Russell's abruptly ending their brief affair, he accepts the offer. After reporting to Lt. Rodriguez, Sorenson goes undercover, but then goes missing, after a stripper he was seeing turns up dead in his apartment (though not by his doing). The Sorenson character was written out at the start of season nine, at Schroder's request; he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Seasons 9–12
Season nine initially tied-in with the September 11 terrorist attacks. In the "Sorenson missing" storyline, continuing from the previous season, a suspect trades immunity for a robbery and shooting in exchange for information on a buried rug in Brooklyn that turns out to contain Sorenson's dead body.

Assisting on the investigation is Officer John Clark Jr., played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar. He is promoted to detective third grade for his heroic actions in the shootout that ended with the death of the hitman who had murdered Danny and an undercover federal agent; Sipowicz is promoted to detective first grade at the same time. Fancy had previously recommended Sipowicz for first grade at the same time as Simone for a high-profile case they both worked several years earlier; while Simone was promoted, the negative incidents in his past caused the department to deny Sipowicz's promotion.

The newly minted Det. Clark becomes Sipowicz's newest (and greenest) partner. As had occurred with Simone and Sorenson, initially tension exists between Clark and Sipowicz, largely due to an old feud from years earlier involving Sipowicz and Clark's father, John Clark Sr. (Joe Spano), an average, by-the-book detective from a low crime precinct, who is enraged that his son chose to join the 15th Precinct to work with Andy. Season nine also has the introduction of Det. Rita Ortiz (played by Jacqueline Obradors). Two other actresses were first cast in roles as young, Latina detectives who were intended to be regular cast members; one was dropped in the pre-filming process over creative differences, and Vanessa Marcil made an appearance as Det. Maria Olivera in the Season 9 premiere, with the possibility of becoming a regular cast member. Producers were not convinced about Marcil, and made her character a one-time guest role, then continued casting until they hired Obradors. (Marcil did come back for another one-episode guest spot in Season 11).

The remaining four years had a continuing focus on Sipowicz as the main character, as had been the case since Simone's death. Another unlikely romance developed between Sipowicz and Connie McDowell. This came about due to her ability to stand up to Sipowicz's gruffness, and her tender relationship with Theo (played by Austin Majors). They eventually married, and after adopting McDowell's sister's baby daughter (following the sister's murder by her husband, Connie's brother-in-law), had a child of their own. The McDowell character eventually became an off-screen character in the second half of the 11th season and throughout the final season due to issues between Ross and show executives.

Rodriguez was written out halfway through the 11th season, after his IAB enemy Capt. Pat Fraker shot and nearly killed him in a drunken rage, then was acquitted; the acquittal, combined with him not making the Captain's promotion list, caused him to retire and take a lucrative job in private security. Sgt. Eddie Gibson, played by former NYPD officer John F. O'Donohue, replaced Lt. Rodriguez as Squad Commander. Gibson had previously served in the squad both on night watch and briefly on the "day tour". Haywood, after failing to convict Fraker for Rodriguez's shooting, appeared in fewer episodes and then left at the end of the 11th season. Kelly Ronson, played by Jessalyn Gilsig, replaced McDowell and appeared in a handful of episodes in the closing stretch of Season 11. Ronson was never a main-credits character and did not return in Season 12. Lt. Thomas Bale, played by Currie Graham, replaced Gibson at the start of season 12. Det. Laura Murphy, played by Bonnie Somerville, replaced Ronson.

In the final few episodes, the storylines revolved around the impending retirement of Det. Medavoy and Sipowicz's promotion to Sergeant and later assumption of command of the 15th Detective Squad. The series finale introduced two new young detectives named Quinn and Slovak, who echoed the first days of Irish-American Kelly and Polish-American Sipowicz.

Controversy
The series included more nudity and raw language than was common on broadcast television, which resulted in at least 30 of the network's affiliates—mostly in smaller markets—not running the series when it debuted, with the show airing in many of those markets on a Fox affiliate or independent station live or delayed. 29 of the affiliates eventually saw the show's ratings overrule their moral objections and began to air it by the time the third season started. WLOX in Biloxi, Mississippi was the only ABC affiliate that never aired all episodes of the series, choosing to pre-empt it with double-run syndicated sitcoms and leaving Fox affiliate WXXV-TV to run it instead.

In 2005, L. Brent Bozell III told TIME that the nudity on the series influenced him to establish the Parents Television Council, for which he served as president from 1995 to 2006. The PTC has directly criticized several episodes of the show for perceived vulgarity  and filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the use of obscene language in several episodes aired in early 2003, at the last half of the 10th season of the show, associating the series with a perceived increase in profanity and violence on prime-time television from the late 1990s to early 2000s. The FCC ruled that the language in the episodes was indecent but decided not to fine ABC, because the episodes aired before a 2004 ruling that obscenities would lead to an automatic fine. However, on January 25, 2008, the FCC fined ABC $1.4 million for the episode "Nude Awakening" (airdate February 25, 2003), due to scenes of "adult sexual nudity". The fine was ultimately rejected by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on January 6, 2011.

According to NYPD Blue: A Final Tribute, a retrospective broadcast aired the same night as the last episode, the controversy was not limited to what was on the screen. David Milch, the show's co-creator and head writer, was a controversial figure on the set during the seven years he was with the show. His working style and tendency to procrastinate or make last-minute, on-set changes contributed to a frustrating working environment for some of the cast and crew. Smits left the show when his contract ended because of it, as did Andrea Thompson. Milch cites his own alcoholism and other addictions as factors contributing to the difficult environment. His personal problems and "exhaustion" over the lengthy production of the episodes caused him to leave the series after the seventh season. In spite of the controversy, Milch is usually credited as a major creative force during the years he worked on the show; he won two Emmy Awards for his writing, shared another as executive producer, and shared in a further 10 nominations for his writing and production.

Awards and nominations
NYPD Blue has won 84 out of 285 award nominations. The series has garnered 84 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning 20 of them. Of the 20 wins, the series won the award for Outstanding Drama Series; Dennis Franz won four times for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series; Kim Delaney won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series; Gordon Clapp won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series; Shirley Knight and Debra Monk each won for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series and Paris Barclay won twice for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. It has received thirteen Golden Globe Award nominations, with David Caruso, Franz and Jimmy Smits each winning for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and the series winning Best Television Series – Drama. The series received 23 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, with Franz winning twice for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and the cast winning for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. NYPD Blue received 13 TCA Award nominations, winning once for Outstanding Achievement in Drama. Additional accolades include two Peabody Awards, the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Drama, the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Drama, and the Satellite Award for Best Television Series – Drama.

Critical reception
NYPD Blue has generally received rave reviews from leading television critics. Variety even went as far as to say that broadcast television had lost its edge after NYPD Blue was cancelled. In 2013, TV Guide placed the series at number 44 on its list of the 60 best television shows of all time, and Complex ranked it as the eighth best television drama of all time.

Home media
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the first four seasons of NYPD Blue on DVD in Regions 1, 2, and 4. All of the sets contain the original master recordings, the original ABC broadcasts, and custom-made credits. After the release of the fourth season in 2006, Fox announced that they would be reviewing the possibility of further releases, citing the lack of sales.

On October 3, 2013, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1. They have subsequently released seasons five to 12 on DVD.

In Region 2, Mediumrare acquired the rights to release the remaining eight seasons of the show on DVD in the United Kingdom.

Seasons 1-12 are available on Hulu, the American subscription video on demand service. However, the first six seasons are remastered in HD and cropped from 4:3 to 16:9, in similar fashion to The Simpsons and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All 12 seasons are also available on Amazon Prime in their original formats (as of August 2023).

In Australia and New Zealand, all twelve seasons are Streaming on Disney+. Also like The Simpsons, the first six seasons are cropped to HD 16:9. UK and Ireland Disney plus also carry all the seasons with the same format issue.

Legacy
TV reviewer and author Alan Sepinwall informally began his career by blogging recaps and analyses of NYPD Blue episodes.

Sequel
The sequel of the series was announced in October 2018. The pilot is a co-production between 20th Century Fox TV, which was behind the original series, and ABC Studios, and producers were casting its four main roles at the time of the announcement. The storyline would revolve around the murder of Andy Sipowicz, with his son Theo as a uniformed police officer who works to earn promotion to detective while investigating his father's killing.

On May 10, 2019, it was reported that the sequel's pilot would be retooled for a potential midseason pickup. On January 30, 2020, it was reported that the sequel was no longer in active development at ABC.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: NYPD Blue


text:
In Sickness and in Health

In Sickness and in Health is a BBC television sitcom that ran between 1 September 1985 and 3 April 1992. It is a sequel to the successful Till Death Us Do Part, which ran between 1966 and 1975, and Till Death..., which ran for one series of six episodes in 1981. The series includes 47 episodes, and, unlike its predecessor, all the episodes have survived and are available on DVD.

The show's theme tune was performed by Chas and Dave and two versions of the lyrics were used – the original version in Series 1 and then revised from Series 2 onward to reflect the Else Garnett character's death. The lyrics were changed again for the episodes set in Australia during the fourth series.

Cast

 * Warren Mitchell as Alfred 'Alf' Garnett
 * Dandy Nichols as Else Garnett (Series 1)
 * Una Stubbs as Rita Rawlins (Series 1–2)
 * Arthur English as Arthur (Series 1–5)
 * Eamonn Walker as Winston ('Marigold') (Series 1–3)
 * Ken Campbell as Fred Johnson
 * Eileen Kenally as Mrs Johnson (Series 1–3)
 * Gareth Forwood as The Doctor (Series 3)
 * Tricia Kelly as Mrs Johnson (Series 4–5)
 * Yvonne D'Alpra as Mrs Johnson (Series 6)
 * Harry Fowler as Harry the milkman
 * Arnold Diamond as Mr Rabinsky (Series 1–4)
 * Carmel McSharry as Camille Hollingbery (Series 1–6)
 * Patricia Hayes as Min Reed (Series 2–5)
 * Irene Handl as Gwenneth (Series 2–3)
 * Renu Setna as Mr Kittel (Series 2–3)
 * Fanny Carby as The Barmaid (Series 3–5)
 * Vas Blackwood as Pele (Series 4)
 * Hugh Lloyd as Harry Carey (Series 4–6)
 * Pat Coombs as Mrs Carey (Series 4–6)
 * James Ellis as Michael (Series 6)

Series 1 (1985)
This comedy series debuted in 1985 and took the former Till Death Us Do Part characters Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell) and his wife Else (Dandy Nichols) from their Wapping house to a lower-class one-level flat in West Ham. Else now uses a wheelchair due to Nichols' real-life ill health.

The council sends a black, gay man named Winston (Eamonn Walker), to do the housework and help care for Else. Despite Alf's dual prejudices against Winston, eventually the two become used to one another, and Winston takes Alf to watch his beloved West Ham United. Nevertheless, Alf gives Winston the nickname "Marigold".

Alf and Else's daughter Rita (Una Stubbs) now lives with her husband Mike in his home town of Liverpool and often visits her parents, although Mike does not appear (as Tony Booth had no interest in reprising the role). Usually, Alf is seen drinking with his friend Arthur (Arthur English) in the local pub.

Although his beloved Conservative Party has returned to power, Alf is not happy with Margaret Thatcher being Prime Minister because, according to him, "a woman's place is in the home". He is also unhappy about Else needing to use a wheelchair and the fact he has to push her around everywhere and that, after a lifetime of hard work and paying contributions to the Welfare State, he has to fight the social security system for a decent living allowance.

Across the road lives Fred Johnson (Ken Campbell), a man stubborn like Alf, with whom he rarely gets along. When angry, Johnson bumps his head on the wall. His wife (first played by Eileen Kennally, from Series 1 to 3, then by Tricia Kelly in Series 4 and 5, and Yvonne D'Alpra in Series 6) suffers from anxiety. Much of the comedy surrounding the Johnsons is based on Mrs. Johnson's sympathy towards Alf, often letting him walk all over them and much to the anger of Mr. Johnson.

Series 2 (1986)
The first series ended on 13 October 1985 and was very popular in the ratings. On Boxing Day a Christmas special was aired, which was also successful. On 6 February 1986 Dandy Nichols died, aged 78.

When Dandy Nichols died, the decision was taken to continue the series, as the ratings and audience appreciation had been excellent. By the first episode of series two, her character has died of natural causes. Left alone after all the other mourners have gone home, Alf, the belligerent old curmudgeon who always treated his wife appallingly, gently touches the handle of her (now empty) wheelchair and sobs "Silly old moo!". However, Alf quickly discovers his state pension has been cut (along with entitlement to other social security benefits) as a result of Else's death. The lyrics of the theme tune (performed by Chas and Dave) were changed to reflect this: Now my 'ol darlin, they've laid her down to rest And now I'm missing 'er with all me heart But they don't give a monkeys down the DHSS And they've cornered half me pension for a start So it won't be very long until I'm by her side Cos I'll probably starve to death that's what I'll do For richer or for poorer – Bloody poorer that's a fact! That's 'cos in sickness and in health I said "I do" In sickness and in health I said "I do" In series two, Carmel McSharry became a permanent member of the cast playing Mrs Hollingbery, a gossipy, Catholic pensioner who lives in the flat upstairs. She did make an appearance in the first series but this was very low-key, and she had not been named as Mrs Hollingbery either yet. Alf and Mrs Hollingbery don't get on at first but later become close. The roles of the Johnsons increased, and several recurring characters were added including Mr Rabinsky (a tightfisted Jew), Mr Kittel (Renu Setna) a Muslim shopkeeper, Winston's cousin, and the milkman. Alf's crazy former neighbour Min Reed (Patricia Hayes) also returns for one episode, along with her sister Gwenneth (Irene Handl).

Series 3 (1987)
During the third series, Rita divorces Mike and moves back to London to marry a doctor (although Una Stubbs did not appear in the show after series two). Eamonn Walker also left at the end of series three. Three characters from the 1970s Till Death Us Do Part also made a comeback - Mrs. Carey and her henpecked husband Wally (Pat Coombs and Hugh Lloyd, although Wally was now named Harry). Min also returns for an appearance, along with her sister Gwenneth who makes her second and final appearance in the series, as Handl died later that year.

Series 4 (1989)
Alf gets a new lodger, Pele, and Mrs Hollingbery starts to get closer to Alf. Eventually, Alf begins courting her and they are soon engaged. Mrs Hollingberry learns that as a couple, they can purchase their house for £20,000. Later in the series, with Arthur in tow, they travel to the Outback to meet her wealthy long-lost brother Ricky (John Bluthal) so they can get his blessing on their engagement and provide them the money towards the purchase of the house. Alf soon comes to blows with her brother and they have a fight at a drinks party to celebrate his engagement to Mrs Hollingberry. Ricky expels them and sends them back to London with their plans in disarray.

Series 5 (1990)
Series five was broadcast in 1990. These episodes focused on the build-up to Alf and Mrs. Hollingberry's big day which would end in disaster when the pair fall out at the altar over the revised terms and conditions of the ceremony. Alf objecting to the removal of the "I obey" clause by the wife. Just as she rejects and abandons him in the church, Alf is reminded by Fred that he has had a "lucky escape", to which Alf angrily replies, "What do you mean? I could have watched the bloody football!!".

Series 6 (1992)
In 1992, after over a year off the air, the sitcom returned for the sixth and final series of seven episodes in which Alf discovers a ton of banknotes and becomes very rich. During the final series, Arthur did not appear, due to Arthur English suffering from ill health, and so Alf gained a new friend, the Irishman Michael (played by James Ellis). Tricia Kelly departed, so Mrs. Johnson runs off with another woman. The character did briefly appear in this series, but was portrayed by Yvonne D'Alpra (the third person to play the role). The last episode aired on 3 April 1992.

Cancellation
On 29 September 1993, despite talks about the 7th series going forward, the show got axed by the BBC due to Alf's behaviour.

After the cancellation
Warren Mitchell would continue to perform as Alf Garnett on special occasions; this meant on stage in front of a live audience, and similarly to an invited audience consisting largely of celebrities and public figures.

In 1997, a number of special shows were arranged for Granada Television, in which Alf would be in his front room in the company of Mrs Hollingberry or in the pub with a drinking partner. The material was written by Johnny Speight and Alf now grumbles about the Labour Party being returned to power under Tony Blair.

After Johnny Speight's death in 1998, Warren Mitchell decided that he no longer wanted to play Alf.

International versions
In 1991 a Dutch version of the series, In voor en tegenspoed ("In good times and in bad"), debuted on Dutch TV. According to the end credits only the first 12 episodes are based on Speight's original scripts. Two more series of episodes were written by Paul-Jan Nelissen and Marc Nelissen. The Dutch Alf Garnett is called Fred Schuit (played by Rijk de Gooyer). He lives in Amsterdam, supports AFC Ajax, drinks jenever for medicinal reasons, and does not trust a TV-set unless it is made in Eindhoven. The series was awarded two Awards of the Dutch Academy.

DVD releases

 * Series 1: 9 June 2008
 * Series 2: 22 September 2008
 * Christmas Specials: 3 November 2008
 * Series 3: 23 March 2009
 * Series 4: 13 July 2009
 * Series 5: 12 July 2010
 * Series 6: 13 September 2010
 * The Complete Collection: 13 September 2010

title: In Sickness and in Health


text:
John Costello

John Costello may refer to:

 * John Costello (baseball) (born 1960), American baseball pitcher
 * John Costello (English footballer) (1890–1915), English footballer
 * John Costello (historian) (1943–1995), British military historian
 * John A. Costello (1891–1976), Taoiseach of Ireland
 * John M. Costello (1903–1976), U.S. Representative from California
 * John Costello (Medal of Honor) (1850–?), U.S. Navy sailor and Medal of Honor recipient
 * John Costello (pastoralist) (1838–1923), Australian pastoralist
 * John W. Costello (born 1927), American attorney and politician in Massachusetts
 * John Costello (Gaelic footballer), Gaelic football player from County Laois
 * John P. Costello (1947–2010), U.S. Army general

title: John Costello


text:
Dandy Nichols

Dandy Nichols (born Daisy Sander; 21 May 1907 – 6 February 1986) was an English actress best known for her role as Else Garnett, the long-suffering wife of the character Alf Garnett who was a parody of a working class Tory, in the BBC sitcom Till Death Us Do Part.

Early life and career
Born Daisy Sander in Fulham, London, she started her working life as a secretary in a London factory. Twelve years later, after drama, diction and fencing classes, she was spotted in a charity show by a producer, who offered her a job in his repertory theatre company in Cambridge. During her early career on stage she acted under the name Barbara Nichols but later changed it to Dandy, her childhood nickname.

When the Second World War broke out, she returned to office work but later undertook a six-week tour with ENSA. When the war was over, she returned to the theatre and also began appearing in films: usually comedies and almost invariably as a maid or charlady. The latter role she took on in the music video "Goody Two Shoes" by Adam Ant.

Her successes in theatre include the Royal Court Theatre and Broadway productions of Home. Her big screen debut was in Hue and Cry, in 1947, followed with performances in Nicholas Nickleby, The Fallen Idol, The Winslow Boy, The History of Mr Polly, Scott of the Antarctic, Mother Riley Meets the Vampire and Dickens' The Pickwick Papers.

Till Death Us Do Part
Dandy Nichols's best-known role was Else Garnett in the landmark series Till Death Us Do Part, where she played the long-suffering wife of the character Alf Garnett who was a parody of a working class Tory. The part was originally played in the pilot episode for the series (as part of the BBC's Comedy Playhouse) by future EastEnders actress Gretchen Franklin. However, when it was commissioned as a series, Franklin was unable to break her contract for a West End play and Nichols was cast.

Dandy's role seemed, at first, almost negligible: spending the best part of one early episode reading the telephone book as Alf embarked on another of his tirades. However, Else proved to be a perfect foil for Alf, and could put him down effortlessly with a withering look or cutting remark. Perhaps her finest hour – in an episode shown by the BBC in tribute to Dandy in 1986 – was when, in 1974, Else took a leaf out of Prime Minister Edward Heath's book and went on a "three-day week", forcing Alf to fend for and feed himself on her days off.

In the original scripts, Alf was to refer to his wife as a "silly cow". This was firmly vetoed by BBC Head of Comedy Frank Muir, who thought this was inappropriate. Nichols said that it was "a lot of silly fuss about a silly moo" which was overheard by script writer Johnny Speight and became the series' most enduring catchphrase.

In Sickness and in Health
Till Death Us Do Part came to an end in 1975 but was revived in 1981, entitled Till Death..., and again in 1985. Dandy agreed to appear, but had been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and had to use a wheelchair. Her illnesses were written into the scripts, and the series was appropriately renamed In Sickness and in Health.

The series continued after her death, with Alf left on his own.

Film career
She appeared in numerous films, which included Carry On Doctor, Ladies Who Do, The Holly and the Ivy, The Vikings, the Beatles' film Help!, Georgy Girl, Doctor in Clover, The Birthday Party, The Bed Sitting Room, O Lucky Man!, Confessions of a Window Cleaner and Britannia Hospital amongst others.

Later years
After her role in Till Death Do Us Part, Nichols found work in television, notably playing opposite Alastair Sim in William Trevor's production of The Generals Day. She made appearances in Flint, The Tea Ladies and Bergerac. On stage, she appeared in Ben Travers's comedy Plunder, as well as playing alongside Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John Gielgud in David Storey's Home, in both London and on Broadway.

Personal life
Dandy Nichols was married to the newspaper editor Stephen Bagueley Waters in 1942, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1955.

Her poor health led to a fall in her flat and she died three days later of pneumonia and heart disease on 6 February 1986 aged 78 at the London Hospital, Whitechapel.

Partial filmography
Source: • Hue and Cry (1947) - Bit Part (uncredited)

• The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947) - Mantalini's Employee (uncredited)

• The Winslow Boy (1948) - Miss Hawkins (uncredited)

• The Fallen Idol (1948) - Mrs. Patterson

• Woman Hater (1948) - Mrs. Burrell

• Here Come the Huggetts (1948) - Aunt Edie Hopkins

• Scott of the Antarctic (1948) - Caroline

• The History of Mr. Polly (1949) - Mrs. Johnson

• Now Barabbas (1949) - Bit Part

• Don't Ever Leave Me (1949) - Mrs. Marshall

• Your Witness (1950) - Waitress

• Tony Draws a Horse (1950) - Mrs. Smith

• Dance Hall (1950) - Mrs. Crabtree

• The Clouded Yellow (1950) - Ernie's Mother on Train (uncredited)

• White Corridors (1951) - Char

• High Treason (1951) - Woman Scrubbing Porch Step (uncredited)

• Women of Twilight (1952) - Third Landlady (uncredited)

• The Happy Family (1952) - Ada

• Emergency Call (1952) - Barmaid

• Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952) - Mrs. Mott

• The Pickwick Papers (1952) - Lady at Ball (uncredited)

• The Holly and the Ivy (1952) - Neighbour

• Street Corner (1953) - Mrs. Furness - Neighbour (uncredited)

• Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953) - Mrs. Clarke

• The Wedding of Lilli Marlene (1953) - Mrs. Harris (uncredited)

• Adventure in the Hopfields (1954) - Mrs. Harris

• Time Is My Enemy (1954) - Mrs. Budd - Charwoman

• The Crowded Day (1954) - Charwoman

• Mad About Men (1954) - Nurse Carey's Landlady (uncredited)

• The Glass Cage (1955) - Woman with Child (uncredited)

• Where There's a Will (1955) - Maud Hodge

• The Deep Blue Sea (1955) - Mrs. Elton

• A Time to Kill (1955) - Waitress (uncredited)

• Lost (1956) - Mrs. Gamble (uncredited)

• Not So Dusty (1956) - Mrs. Clark (Nobby's wife)

• The Feminine Touch (1956) - The Ward Maid

• Yield to the Night (1956) - Mrs. Price

• Tiger in the Smoke (1956) - Stall Attendant (uncredited)

• Town on Trial (1957) - Mrs. Wilson (uncredited)

• Doctor at Large (1957) - Lady in Outpatients Dept.

• Carry On Sergeant (1958) - (uncredited)

• The Strange World of Planet X (1958) - Mrs. Tucker

• The Vikings (1958) - Bridget

• A Cry from the Streets (1958) - Mrs. Jenks (uncredited)

• Crooks Anonymous (1962) - Mrs. Cundall

• Don't Talk to Strange Men (1962) - Molly

• Ladies Who Do (1963) - Mrs. Merryweather

• Act of Murder (1964) - Maud Peterson

• The Leather Boys (1964) - Mrs. Stanley

• The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965) - Tom's Landlady, and off-screen voice

• The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) - Orphanage Superintendent

• Rotten to the Core (1965) - Woman in Cemetery (uncredited)

• Help! (1965) - Neighbour,(uncredited)

• The Early Bird (1965) - Woman Flooded by Milk

• Doctor in Clover (1966) - Patient with Kidney Stones

• Georgy Girl (1966) - Hospital Nurse

• How I Won the War (1967) - First Old Lady

• Carry On Doctor (1967) - Mrs. Roper

• The Birthday Party (1968) - Meg Bowles

• Till Death Us Do Part (1969) - Else Garnett

• The Bed Sitting Room (1969) - Mrs Ethel Shroake

• First Love (1970) - Princess Zasekina

• The Alf Garnett Saga (1972) - Else Garnett

• O Lucky Man! (1973) - Tea Lady / Neighbour

• Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974) - Mrs. Lea

• Three for All (1975) - Henrietta

• Britannia Hospital (1982) - Florrie

• The Plague Dogs (1982) - Phyllis (voice)

title: Dandy Nichols