> with the telegraphy network in the early 1800s.

Late 1700 actually, and war was indeed a key motivation for the deployment of the Télégraphe Chappe.

See "The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers"

https://www.amazon.com/dp/162040592X

Télégraphe Chappe was a semaphore system using flags. It was not an electrical telegraph, nor was it binary.