Overview
Clacks is the informal slang name for
a semaphore communications system
which claimed to be the fastest form
of long distance messaging on the
Discworld.
THE HISTORY OF CLACKS
AND THE GRAND TRUNK
SEMAPHORE COMPANY
Invented by Robert Dearheart, the
Clacks was the Discworld’s first
telecommunications system. Using a
complex semaphore system, Clacks
operators transmitted messages via
a series of shuttered lamps placed on
high towers. The messages were then
viewed via telescope from the next
tower in the line, usually around 20
miles away. The inventor went on to
found the Grand Trunk Semaphore
Company, which created a network
of towers stretching across the Sto
Plains into the Ramtops and through
the Unnamed Continent to Genua.
Later, after a somewhat underhanded
and definitely hostile takeover by a
business consortium led by a rather
ruthless financier named Reacher Gilt,
Clacks quickly became the dominant
method of messaging across much of
the Discworld.
The old postal service operated by the
Ankh-Morpork Post Office quickly
went into to decline but now, newly
appointed Postmaster Moist von
Lipwig is determined to fight back. A
challenge has been made to the Grand
Trunk Company to a race across the
continent. Who will be the first to get
their message from Ankh-Morpork