Communications

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The communications system comprises the entirety of all social, economic and technical institutions, facilities or principles that are required for the creation of a communications traffic process for the purpose of moving material and non-material messages . In contrast, the transport system is used to move goods and people. Both the transport and the communications system are partially understood as part of the transport system . This is to be distinguished from the concept of communication , which in a broader sense includes any activity that, through words or writing, images or signs, conveys any idea from the outside world to human consciousness, be it an instruction or a fact, event or opinion from the past , Present or future.

The purpose of messaging is the fastest possible transmission of messages to (many) distant people.

Depending on the type of transmission, a distinction is made between acoustic, optical and message transmission by means of messengers.

In the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht, the communications troops , now known as telecommunications troops, were used for communications . The terminology is ambiguous in connection with military intelligence in the sense of a military intelligence service and military reconnaissance and therefore led to confusion with serious consequences. Therefore, the term telecommunication troops are used today for communication and military intelligence for military reconnaissance in the broadest sense.

“The news system in the German army ”, cover of the Illustrirten Zeitung from 1918, signed Karl Albrecht 18 ;
No. 3911 of June 13, 1918, war number 202

Acoustic messaging

The acoustic transmission could be done by call signs or by means of instruments (tuba, horn). The range was shorter than with optical transmission and required more relays. This type of message transmission was mainly used in the military sector.

Optical messaging

Optical means are better suited than acoustic means to convey messages over a long distance. For this purpose, fire signals were used at night and smoke signals during the day. The message was forwarded via 'relay stations' and could thus be transmitted quickly over long distances. Aeschylus already describes a transfer of this kind (Ag. 281 ff). Certain variations could be introduced by curved or steady torches, but the content of the message was always very limited. (Pol. X 43, 5 f.) Therefore an additional transmission by messenger was always necessary. The optical signs were usually only used as alarm signals. Like acoustic transmission, this type of message transmission was primarily used in the military sector.

Optical telegraphy

Later there was an optical message transmission by optical telegraphy , e.g. B. by using the winker alphabet (semaphore) by means of different positions of two flags.

As early as the 2nd century BC, Polybios (X 45 - 47) described a system of letter telegraphy.

Transmission by messenger

The public and private communications were mainly represented by the messenger and postal service.

In antiquity, important messages were sent by riders changing horses after the Battle of Issus (333 BC), for example, so the message of the defeat of the Persians in the metropolis of Babylon (Euphrates) only took a few days (probably initially through beacons optically transmitted), while the high-speed sailors to Athens and Sparta through the eastern Mediterranean needed weeks, depending on the season.

The Herald proclaimed official resolutions orally or handed them over in writing. Only the public postal system was allowed to use the Cursus publicus or the Angarium - private individuals, traders and even the nobility had to look after their own messengers.

literature

  • Gottfried Eichelmann, Werner Menzel: Technology of the news system . Transpress Verlag, Berlin 1979
  • Gottfried Eichelmann, Karl-Heinz Kleinau: Transpress Lexikon des Fernmeldewesens . Transpress Verlag, Berlin 1984
  • Erhard Lembke, Werner Menzel: Technology of the postal system . Transpress Verlag, Berlin 1985
Antiquity

Remarks

  1. ↑ General literature of antiquity. On military matters Arrian . The Roman communications system was based on similar structures. The German Johann Gustav Droysen wrote the first "scientific", historical contribution about the epochal upheavals caused by a small army in Greek Europe, the Middle East, Syria, Arabia and the Persians (Droysen, Munich 1954, First and Second Book. British Lit .: Robin Lane Fox , Düsseldorf 1974)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Riepl: The intelligence of antiquity , Leipzig 1913.