Telegraphy the sense of a system that can transmit arbitrary messages over arbitrary distances. Lines of signalling relay stations can send messages to any required distance, but all these systems are limited to one extent or another in the range of messages that they can send. A system like flag semaphore, with an alphabetic code, can certainly send any given message, but the system is designed for short-range communication between two persons. An engine order telegraph, used to send instructions from the bridge of a ship to the engine room, fails to meet both criteria; it has a limited distance and
Flags of the Imperial Austrian Army of the Napoleonic Wars units – IRs 9, 30 & 58 – which were then recruiting in Galicia, would have retained 1792 pattern flags. The "Lütticher Freiwillige" (or Lüttich Volunteers) were raised in 1794 by the Bishop of Lüttich (Liege), the unit's flag was diagonally divided in each quarter in yellow and black, overlaid with a white cross and the city arms. A single-pointed pennant bearing a black Doppeladler and an unknown coat of arms is said to have been captured in the 1796-7 Italy campaign, but it may be an earlier flag as it lacks a contemporary finial. This now hangs in the