- Claude Chappe
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Claude Chappe 
Claude ChappeBorn December 25, 1763
Brûlon, SartheDied January 23, 1805
ParisNationality France Work Significant projects semaphore system Significant advance telecommunications Claude Chappe (December 25, 1763 – January 23, 1805) was a French inventor who in 1792 demonstrated a practical semaphore system that eventually spanned all of France. This was the first practical telecommunications system of the industrial age, making Chappe the first telecom mogul with his "mechanical internet."[1]
Contents
Life
Chappe was born in Brûlon, Sarthe, France, the grandson of a French baron. He was raised for church service, but lost his sinecure during the French Revolution. He was educated at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen.[2]
He and his four unemployed brothers decided to develop a practical system of semaphore relay stations, a task proposed in antiquity, yet never realized.
Claude's brother, Ignace Chappe (1760–1829) was a member of the Legislative Assembly during the French Revolution. With his help, the Assembly supported a proposal to build a relay line from Paris to Lille (fifteen stations, about 120 miles), to carry dispatches from the war.
Chappe's telegraph
The Chappe brothers determined by experiment that the angles of a rod were easier to see than the presence or absence of panels. Their final design had two arms connected by a cross-arm. Each arm had seven positions, and the cross-arm had four more permitting a 196-combination code. The arms were from three to thirty feet long, black, and counterweighted, moved by only two handles. Lamps mounted on the arms proved unsatisfactory for night use. The relay towers were placed from 12 to 25 km (10 to 20 miles) apart. Each tower had a telescope pointing both up and down the relay line. Chappe first called his invention the "tachygraph" which means fast writer. A friend suggested a name meaning a far writer, telegraph.[1]
In 1792, the first messages were successfully sent between Paris and Lille.[3] In 1794 the semaphore line informed Parisians of the capture of Condé-sur-l'Escaut from the Austrians less than an hour after it occurred. Other lines were built, including a line from Paris to Toulon. The system was widely copied by other European states, and was used by Napoleon to coordinate his empire and army.[3]
In 1805, Claude Chappe committed suicide in Paris by throwing himself down a well at his hotel.[4] He was said to be depressed by illness, and claims by rivals that he had plagiarized from military semaphore systems.
Demonstration of the semaphoreIn 1824 Ignace Chappe attempted to increase interest in using the semaphore line for commercial messages, such as commodity prices, however, the business community resisted.
In 1846, the government of France committed to a new system of electric telegraph lines. Many contemporaries warned of the ease of sabotage and interruption of service by cutting a wire. With the emergence of the electric telegraph, slowly the Chappe telegraph ended in 1852.[3]
Popular culture
The Chappe semaphore figures prominently in Alexandre Dumas, père's The Count of Monte Cristo. The Count bribes an underpaid operator to transmit a false message.
References
- ^ a b Beyer, p. 60
- ^ Lycée Pierre Corneille de Rouen - History
- ^ a b c French source: Tour du télégraphe Chappe
- ^ "Claude Chappe (French engineer)". Encyclopædia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/106172/Claude-Chappe. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
Bibliography
- Beyer, Rick, The Greatest Stories Never Told, A&E Television Networks / The History Channel, ISBN 0-06-001401-6
External links
- French article: Les Télégraphes Chappe, l'Ecole Centrale de Lyon
- French article: Le télégraphe aérien, in Les merveilles de la science, de Louis Figuier, t. 2, pages 20-68
- Italian article: Francesco Frasca, Il telegrafo ottico dalla Rivoluzione francese alla guerra di Crimea, in Informazioni della Difesa, n°1, 2000, Roma: Stato Maggiore della Difesa, pp. 44-51
Categories:- 1763 births
- 1805 deaths
- People from Sarthe
- French inventors
- Early telecommunications
- Inventors who committed suicide
- Suicides in France
- Suicides by drowning
- Lycée Pierre-Corneille alumni
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Claude Chappe — Nachbau auf d … Deutsch Wikipedia
Claude Chappe — (Brúlon (Francia), 25 de diciembre de 1763 París, 23 de enero de 1805). Inventor francés que en 1792 demostró un sistema práctico de telegrafía óptica que se extendió por toda Francia. Este fue el primer sistema práctico de telecomunicaciones, y… … Enciclopedia Universal
Claude Chappe — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Chappe. Claude Chappe Naissance 25 … Wikipédia en Français
Claude Chappe — Archivo:AduC 175 Chappe, Chappero (Claude, 1765 1828).JPG Claude Chappe. Claude Chappe (Brûlon, 25 de diciembre de 1763 – París, 23 de enero de 1805) fue un inventor francés. En 1792 demostró un sistema práctico de telegrafía óptica que se… … Wikipedia Español
Claude Chappe — semaphore telegraph … Inventors, Inventions
Chappe — may refer to: Claude Chappe (1763 – 1805), French inventor David Chappe (1947 2002), American screenwriter Georges Chappe (b. 1944), French cyclist Chappe (crater), lunar crater 16238 Chappe, main belt asteroid Chappe, flap of leather attached to … Wikipedia
Chappe — ist der Name von Claude Chappe (1763–1805), französischer Techniker und Geistlicher Jean Chappe (1722–1769), französischer Astronom Diese Seite ist eine Begriffsklärung zur Unterscheidung mehrerer mit demselben Wort bezeichneter Begriffe … Deutsch Wikipedia
Chappe L'aîné — Ignace Chappe Pour les articles homonymes, voir Chappe. Ignace Urbain Jean Chappe, frère aîné de Claude Chappe, naquit en 1760 à Rouen, où son père remplissait un emploi supérieur dans l administration des domaines. Biographie Après avoir étudié… … Wikipédia en Français
Chappe — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Personnalités Jean Chappe d Auteroche (1722 1769) : scientifique français Claude Chappe (1763 1805) : inventeur français du télégraphe Chappe,… … Wikipédia en Français
Chappe [2] — Chappe (spr. schapp ), 1) Ignace Urbain Jean, Neffe des Astronomen Chappe d Auteroche, geb. 1760 in Rouen, gest. 26. Jan. 1829 in Paris, studierte die Rechte, wurde Beamter beim Finanzwesen und Deputierter des Sarthedépartements in der… … Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon