ABSTRACT Richard Lovell Edgeworth’s plan to establish a permanent network of optical telegraphs across Ireland never materialized. Even so, the telegraph’s short life and literary and material afterlives merit attention, not least by scholars of Maria Edgeworth, whose participation in the scheme is under-acknowledged. This essay sketches the political and economic contexts of the Edgeworth telegraph’s development, taking into consideration Maria Edgeworth’s role in its public promotion in the years leading up to its brief establishment in Ireland, and highlighting the mediations involved in the extension of her father’s “telegraphic fame.” It suggests that the telegraph influenced Maria Edgeworth’s understanding of the transmission of character and “secret and swift intelligence” through print, but that the appearance of this technology in her tales also reflects a degree of caution about mechanical innovation and the democratization of scientific knowledge at a point of crisis in Europe. Finally, it indicates the need for further work on the Edgeworth telegraph’s colonial contexts, particularly in light of its redesign for use by the British East India Company in Bengal.

中文翻译：

---

玛丽亚埃奇沃思和电讯报

摘要 理查德·洛弗尔·埃奇沃思 (Richard Lovell Edgeworth) 在爱尔兰建立永久性光电报网络的计划从未实现。即便如此，电报的短暂生命和文学和物质来世值得关注，尤其是玛丽亚·埃奇沃思的学者，他们参与该计划的认可度不足。这篇文章概述了御剑电报发展的政治和经济背景，考虑到玛丽亚御剑在其在爱尔兰短暂成立之前的几年中在其公共宣传中的作用，并强调了在扩大她父亲的“电报名望”中所涉及的调解。” 这表明电报影响了玛丽亚·埃奇沃思对通过印刷品传达性格和“秘密而迅速的情报”的理解，但这项技术在她的故事中的出现也反映了在欧洲危机时刻对机械创新和科学知识民主化的一定程度的谨慎。最后，它表明需要进一步研究御剑电报的殖民背景，特别是考虑到它的重新设计供英国东印度公司在孟加拉使用。