[I have invited Paul to be an author of the blog so that he can directly answer your queries and comments should he so wish. I will mark them in rusty red so that they're easy to spot.]
Paul St George replies :
Ah Stephen, you invoke Makyoh topography. I could stay silent no longer. An arcane science but there are exciting links and coincidences (sufficient to drive one mad). My friends at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences have told me all about the magic mirrors and the pigtailed LEDs. Makyoh topography also uses a rather suspect semiconductor (you also know about the red Selenium herring!). Have we met?
You say about light travelling in straight lines and the problems that might cause me. What does light know of straight lines? Why do you assume that the tunnel does not follow a straight line? And if it did not? There are many ways to send light where you want it to be seen.
One of the many many rival systems used mirrors to bend light rays around corners and through obstacles. It was called Le Mondoscop.
Here is a picture of it in use:
[click image to enlarge]
This was developed for a tunnel between Paris and London. I have looked for more about this in the fabulous Musée Arts et Metiers, but I was distracted and diverted by the non-circular gears. I do know that the tunnel started at Gare du Nord.
'Le Mondoscop' was of course very limited in comparison to the Telectroscope, but would perhaps have been reasonably practical over short distances.
[Paul St George]
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