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Travellers are Coming – the Optical Telegraph at the Great Belt 1801-1862

By Lars Heide

Travellers were not the only ones to cross the Great Belt. Letters had to go across, too, and most often even further. In Korsør it was practical to know when a ferry or the iceboat were leaving Nyborg. Should the postmaster hold back the stagecoach to Copenhagen? How many people would need to spend the night on Sprogø or in Korsør?

In 1801, the postal service therefore erected optical telegraphs in Korsør, på Sprogø, and in Nyborg. This happened 7 years after Claude Chappé had built the first optical telegraph line in France. The Telegraph on Sprogø was erected because it was often easier to see only half way across the strait.

Several optical telegraph systems were tested across the Great Belt, but from 1811 to 1862, a telegraph designed by first lieutenant Andreas Anton Frederik Schumacher (1782-1823) was used. By means of a codebook the telegraph operators first transformed each word into a number which was then signalled and decoded on the other side. Different numbers were marked on the telegraph by raising and lowering the plates.

To operate the optical telegraph the postal service established a special telegraph unit with their own blue uniforms.


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