How Long Does It Take to Light a Beacon?

Sower: How long do you think it takes to observe the beacon on one side of you andthen light your beacon? Well, let me ask you this question. It is going to take a second. Ten miles. Better go ten miles. Ok. So there'd be a hundred and forty beacons in between us. In order to get that distance, 14 hundred divided by ten. That's a lot of salary. This would have been the byzantine beacon system that existed in the first millennium a d they soaked heavy rope in pitch. O is there a reason that that would be better than just soaking, like, some rags in pitch? I have no idea.