shutter telegraph chain
- noun
- Archaic
:
cadena de telégrafo de obturador
- In the early nineteenth century, the British navy used a shutter telegraph chain to send urgent messages along the coast.
Examples
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The operation of a shutter telegraph chain required skilled operators to decode and relay signals quickly.
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With the invention of the electric telegraph, the shutter telegraph chain became obsolete.
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The shutter telegraph chain was revolutionary in its time.
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Many historians study the shutter telegraph chains used in the 19th century.
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In the early nineteenth century, the British navy used a shutter telegraph chain to send urgent messages along the coast.
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The operation of a shutter telegraph chain required skilled operators to decode and relay signals quickly.
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With the invention of the electric telegraph, the shutter telegraph chain became obsolete.
Synonyms
A line of towers with moving panels that send messages by sight over long distances
A way to send visible messages over long distances using towers with moving arms
A tower with moving arms that shows messages to people far away
A system that sends messages over long distances using towers with moving arms or lights
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase names a descriptive device: a telegraph that uses shutters arranged in a chain of stations. A B1 learner who knows 'shutter' (a pivoting cover), 'telegraph' (a message-sending system) and 'chain' (a series) can plausibly infer it refers to a networked shutter-based signaling system rather than an idiomatic meaning.
Etymology
Shutter telegraph chain comes from an old signaling system with a line of towers, each having moving shutters that opened and closed in simple patterns. Operators on each tower watched the next and passed on the signals so the message moved along like links in a chain. So the name describes a way of 'sending messages' quickly over long distances.
