The amazing story of Edward Raine, instrument maker, told through his Workshop Notebook, who created an optical filament telegraph for the British Admiralty in 1817, that connected London to the coastal ports of Chatham, Portsmouth, Devonport and Falmouth. He also invented sophisticated coding and decoding machines that were used for the next thirty years, until his telegraph was replaced by an electric telegraph. He was a pioneer almost two centuries before his time.