Abraham Niclas Edelcrantz (born Clewberg; 28 July 1754 – 15 March 1821) was a Finnish-born Swedish poet and inventor. He was a member of the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy (), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish language authority. Outside Scandinavia, it is best known as the body t ...

, chair 2, from 1786 to 1821. Edelcrantz was the librarian at

The Royal Academy of Turku The Royal Academy of Turku or the Royal Academy of Åbo was the first university in Finland, and the only Finnish university that was founded when the country still was a part of Sweden. It was founded in 1640. In 1809, after Finland became a ...

. In 1783 he moved to Stockholm to lead the Royal Theater and later work as the private secretary of the king

Gustaf III Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he s ...

.National Museum of Science and Technology, Sweden
He is known for his experiment with the

optical telegraph An optical telegraph is a line of stations, typically towers, for the purpose of conveying textual information by means of visual signals (a form of optical communication). There are two main types of such systems; the semaphore telegraph whic ...

. He inaugurated his telegraph with a poem dedicated to the Swedish King on his birthday in 1794. The message went from the Palace in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

to the King at

Drottningholm Drottningholm, literally "Queen's Islet", is a locality situated in Ekerö Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden, with 398 inhabitants in 2010. It is on the island Lovön in lake Mälaren on the outskirts of Stockholm. Drottningholm Palace, ...

He eventually developed his own system which was quite different from its French counterpart and almost twice as fast. His system was based on ten collapsible iron shutters. The several positions of the shutters formed combinations of numbers which were translated into letters, words or phrases via codebooks. The telegraph network was made up of telegraph stations positioned at about 10 kilometres from one another. In 1796 he wrote ''A Treatise on Telegraphs''. In 1797, he was elected a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

References

;Sources * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Edelcrantz, Abraham Niclas 1754 births 1821 deaths People from Turku Swedish-speaking Finns 19th-century Swedish inventors Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Members of the Swedish Academy

See also

References