Claude Chappe

Abbé Claude Chappe ( born December 25, 1763 in Brûlon, Sarthe, † January 23, 1805 in Paris by suicide ) was a French engineer and clergyman who, together with his two brothers, Abraham and Ignace 1791 by him as Tachygraf ( high-speed recorder ) designated device developed. She allowed the rapid transmission of open as well as coded messages over long distances. Between 1793 /94 since the construction of the first long-distance line from Paris to Lille ( 225 km) it was about a completely new and successfully practiced in many European countries, Telecommunications, served military and economic policy purposes mainly.

In this context led the department head in the Ministry of War, André- François Miot de Melito Comte (1762-1841), the name of a télégraphe. Advantage was that the National Convention on 19 July 1794, the property rights of authors, composers, painters and draughtsmen in their works stipulated by law.

The Chappe'sche Télégraf ( Semaphore ) consisted of a five-meter high wooden scaffold, at the upper end of a 4.62 m long and 0.35 m wide bar ( Regulator) was mounted to pivot about its center. At each end, a bar 2 m long and also pivotable arm (indicator) was attached to a counterweight in order to facilitate the setting of the mark positions.

About roles and ropes, three movable arms was adjusted so that you could make 196 different characters with word and sentence meaning. The pivotal arm were erected on high buildings. Their distance from each other was usually around 11 km. The facilities each station were telescopes to observe the set character of the neighboring stations in both directions. A character went through in a minute a distance of 135 km. With the help of lamps that were attached to the wing arms, they tried also to telegraph at night.