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19th-century demonstration of the semaphore. Credit for the first successful optical telegraph goes to the French engineer Claude Chappe and his brothers in 1792, who succeeded in covering France with a network of 556 stations stretching a total distance of 4,800 kilometres (3,000 mi).
A replica of one of Claude Chappe's semaphore towers (optical telegraph) in Nalbach, Germany. The history of telecommunication began with the use of smoke signals and drums in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. In the 1790s, the first fixed semaphore systems emerged in Europe.
The word telegraph (from Ancient Greek: τῆλε 'at a distance' and γράφειν 'to write') was coined by the French inventor of the semaphore telegraph, Claude Chappe, who also coined the word semaphore. [2] A telegraph is a device for transmitting and receiving messages over long distances, i.e., for telegraphy. The word telegraph alone ...
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. [6] Alternatively, Chappe coined the phrase semaphore , [ 7 ] from the Greek elements σῆμα (sêma, "sign"); and from φορός (phorós, "carrying"), [ 8 ...
1792 – Claude Chappe establishes the first long-distance semaphore telegraph line. 1831 – Joseph Henry proposes and builds an electric telegraph. 1836 – Samuel Morse develops the Morse code. 1843 – Samuel Morse builds the first long-distance electric telegraph line.
A replica of a Chappe telegraph tower (18th century). A 'semaphore telegraph', also called a 'semaphore line', 'optical telegraph', 'shutter telegraph chain', 'Chappe telegraph', or 'Napoleonic semaphore', is a system used for conveying information by means of visual signals, using towers with pivoting arms or shutters, also known as blades or paddles.
In 1837, the British inventors William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone obtained a patent for the first commercially viable telegraph. [21] By the 1840s, with the combination of the telegraph and Morse code, the semaphore system was replaced. [22]
The Chappe telegraph was a French semaphore telegraph system invented by Claude Chappe in the early 1790s. The system was composed of towers placed every 5 to 15 kilometers. Coded messages were sent from tower to tower, with transmission being handled by tower operators using specially designed telescopes.