Friday, October 7, 2011

EUROPA CEPT 1979 - Finland- - Post & Telecommunications2.5.1979


The stamp on the right on the FDC is a letter of Queen Christina to Per Brahe in 1638 about establishing a postal servive. The stamp on the left depicts an Optical Telegraph 1796, Map of Grisslehamn-Signilskär-Eckerö telegraph line. These were issued on 2.5.1979
In 1638, Queen Christina of Sweden issued an order starting regular mail service from Stockholm via Åland to Turku. This route was called the Mail Route, and it traversed both sea and land. From Turku, the route continued east as the King's Road all the way to St. Petersburg. The Mail Route is still a living, historic route that tours nine municipalities in Åland and has many exquisite experiences waiting for the traveller. Diverse natural landscapes, beautiful scenery and historical monuments can be found along the road, many parts of which still follow the original 15th century mail route.
Edelcrantz's Shutter Telegraph Systems
Along with the usual ways of communication a special, telegraphic system existed in Sweden from 1794 - the optical telegraph. It was invented by the Swedish poet and scientist Abraham Niclas Edelcrantz, a Royal Counsellor, and consisted of ten shutters, arranged in a pattern that could be easily read off at a distance. The arrangement of the shutters formed what today is called a binary system with 10 signal elements - a predecessor of moden data signal systems. The optical telegraph envisaged a network of linking stations. A signal was successively repeated from one station to the next until the office of destination was reached.
Soon telegraph circuits linking castles and fortresses in the neighbourhood of Stockholm were set up and the system was extended to Grisslehamn and Åland. Subsequently telegraph circuits were introduced between Gothenburg and Marstrand, at Helsingborg and between Karlskrona and its fortresses. Sweden was the second country in the world, after France, to introduce an optical telegraph network.
This nice FDC was given to me by my dear friend Pia.

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