The Chappe telegraph supported 98 possible signals with 6 of those being reserved for service purposes (like signalling end of message), so 92 possible message signals. If you could get that to 96 then you could transmit ASCII characters using one signal from Decimal 32 to Decimal 126, and use one signal to enter the original "two signals per symbol" mode for the rest of ASCII and other symbols. Then automate it with machine vision and we'll have an 1800's style steampunk Internet.
I was about to comment similarly that this is totally a wireless telegram system!
For anyone who doesn't want to click the link, it's a visual telegram system similar to semaphore codes, or the 'clacks' in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.
And, as every communications systems, it was abused (as mentioned briefly in the WP page) by stock brockers between Paris and Bordeaux via a side channel attack.
They used it to covertly transmit swing in trading prices between the Paris stock exchange and Bordeaux. If memory serves, they used unused symbols or abused error correction, I don't remember which, but from a technical standpoint it was pretty advanced and covert.
I seem to remember they only got caught because somebody snitched them when they suddenly got veeeery good a predicting prices in Bordeaux, some 400km away from Paris.
It appears transmission speed for a symbol was on the order of magnitude of 7 meters per second, and full messages travelled 400km in 9 minutes instead of 4 days by horse.
So speed was a ginormous improvement despite low bandwidth and very high capex & opex and limited operating hours.
It operated from 1793 to 1854 in continental France.
And now I know why the option in the menu in Final Fantasy 7 for "calling" other player characters (to rearrange them / form a new party) is titled "PHS". Mystery solved, 23 years later.
I miss that SquareSoft era. The standalone Final Fantasy games were great. Still are should one forget a bit too much. Words and their context were often rich and intriguing.
Entry to an official building in FF12 featured a docent, not a receptionist or greeter or guard. Just one of many examples where Square found something a little obscure to spice the overall experience.
