Claude Chappe (; 25 December 1763 – 23 January 1805) was a French inventor who in 1792 demonstrated a practical semaphore system that eventually spanned all of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. His system consisted of a series of towers, each within line of sight of others, each supporting a wooden mast with two crossarms on pivots that could be placed in various positions. The operator in a tower moved the arms to a sequence of positions, spelling out text messages in semaphore code. The operator in the next tower read the message through a

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

, then passed it on to the next tower. This was the first practical

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

system of the

industrial age The Industrial Age is a period of history that encompasses the changes in economic and social organization that began around 1760 in Great Britain and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-d ...

, and was used until the 1850s when

electric telegraph Electrical telegraphy is Point-to-point (telecommunications), point-to-point distance communicating via sending electric signals over wire, a system primarily used from the 1840s until the late 20th century. It was the first electrical telecom ...

systems replaced it.

Early life

Claude Chappe was born in Brûlon,

Sarthe Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...

, France, the son of Ignace Chappe, a ''contrôleur'' (

intendant An intendant (; ; ) was, and sometimes still is, a public official, especially in France, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The intendancy system was a centralizing administrative system developed in France. In the War of the Spanish Success ...

) of the Crown lands for Laval, and his wife Marie Devernay, daughter of a

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

of Laval. He was raised for church service, but lost his

sinecure A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is a position with a salary or otherwise generating income that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval church, ...

during the French Revolution. He was educated at the '' Lycée Pierre Corneille'' in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

. His uncle was the

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche (; 23 March 1722 – 1 August 1769) was a French astronomer, best known for his observations of the Transit of Venus, transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769. Early life Little is known of Chappe's early life. He was ...

, famed for his observations of the

Transit of Venus A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus is visible as ...

in 1761 and again in 1769. The first book Claude read in his youth was his uncle's journal of the 1761 trip, "Voyage en Siberie". His brother, Abraham, wrote "Reading this book greatly inspired him, and gave him a taste for the physical sciences. From this point on, all his studies, and even his pastimes, were focused on that subject." Because of his astronomer uncle, Claude may also have become familiar with the properties of telescopes. 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. 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 initially called his invention a ''tachygraph'' ("fast writer").Beyer, p. 60 However, the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

preferred to use the word ''telegraph'' ("far writer"), which was coined by French statesman

André François Miot de Mélito André François Miot de Mélito (1762–1841) was a French statesman and scholar. Life He was born at Versailles (Seine-et-Oise) on 9 February 1762. He was a high official in the war office before the Revolution, and under the Republic he even ...

. Today, in order to distinguish it from subsequent telegraph systems, the French name for Chappe's semaphore telegraph system is named after him, and thus is known as a Telegraph Chappe. Alternatively, Chappe coined the phrase ''semaphore'', from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

elements σῆμα (sêma, "sign"); and from φορός (phorós, "carrying"), or φορά (phorá, "a carrying") from φέρειν (phérein, "to bear"). In 1794, the first messages were successfully sent between

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

.French source
Tour du télégraphe Chappe
In 1794 the semaphore line informed Parisians of the capture of

Condé-sur-l'Escaut Condé-sur-l'Escaut (, literally ''Condé on the Escaut''; ) is a commune of the Nord department in northern France. It lies on the border with Belgium. The population as of 1999 was 10,527. Residents of the area are known as Condéens or Con ...

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 Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

to coordinate his empire and army. In 1805, Claude Chappe killed himself. He was said to be depressed by illness, and claims by rivals that he had plagiarized from military semaphore systems. Chappe semaphore

In 1824 Ignace Chappe attempted to increase interest in using the semaphore line for commercial messages, such as commodity prices; however, the business community resisted. From 1844, the government of France funded trials of a new system of

lines and committed to fully replacing the Chappe telegraph in 1846. Many contemporaries warned of the ease of

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

and interruption of service by cutting a wire. The extent of the French optical telegraph meant that it took some time for the replacement to be completed. The two systems existed side-by-side for about a decade. One of the last messages sent over the Chappe telegraph was news of the fall of Sevastopol in 1855.

Popular culture

The Chappe semaphore figures prominently in

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright. His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...

' ''

The Count of Monte Cristo ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' () is an adventure novel by the French writer Alexandre Dumas. It was serialised from 1844 to 1846, and published in book form in 1846. It is one of his most popular works, along with ''The Three Musketeers'' (184 ...

''. The Count bribes an underpaid operator to transmit a false message.

Memorials

Rue Chappe in the

18th arrondissement of Paris The 18th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements, or administrative districts, of Paris, the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as '' ...

, is named after Chappe. A bronze sculpture of him was erected at the crossing of

Rue du Bac The Rue du Bac () is a street in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The street, which is 1,150 m long, begins at the junction of the quais Quai Voltaire, Voltaire and Quai Anatole-France, Anatole-France and ends at the Rue de Sèvres. Rue du Bac ...

and Boulevard Raspail in Paris. As many statues displeased or offended Hitler, it was removed and melted down during the Nazi occupation of Paris, in 1941 or 1942.

References

Bibliography

* Beyer, Rick, (2003) ''The Greatest Stories Never Told'', Harper Collins, * Gerard J. Holzmann and Bjorn Pehrson,
The Early History of Data Networks
', John Wiley & Sons, * Standage, Tom, (1998) ''The Victorian Internet'', Bloomsbury Publishing,

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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chappe, Claude 1763 births 1805 deaths People from Sarthe 18th-century French inventors Suicides by drowning in France Lycée Pierre-Corneille alumni Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery History of telecommunications 1800s suicides