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CHAPPE, CLAUDE (1763–18o5)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 854 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHAPPE, See also:CLAUDE (1763–18o5) , See also:French engineer, was See also:born at Brulon (See also:Sarthe) in 1763. He was the inventor of an See also:optical See also:telegraph which was widely used in See also:France until it was superseded by the electric telegraph. His See also:device consisted of an upright See also:post, on the See also:top of which was fastened a transverse See also:bar, while at the ends of the latter two smaller arms moved on pivots. The position of these bars represented words or letters; and by means of See also:machines placed at intervals such that each was distinctly visible from the next, messages could be conveyed through, 5o leagues in a See also:quarter of an See also:hour. The See also:machine was adopted by the Legislative See also:Assembly in 1792, and in the following See also:year Chappe was appointed ingenieur-telegraphe; but the originality of his invention was so much questioned that he was seized with See also:melancholia and (it is said) committed See also:suicide at See also:Paris in 18o5. His See also:elder See also:brother, Ignace Urbain See also:Jean Chappe (1760–1829), took See also:part in the invention of the telegraph, and with a younger brother, See also:Pierre See also:Francois, from 18o5 to 1823 was See also:administrator of the telegraphs, a post which was also held by two other See also:brothers, Rene and See also:Abraham, from 1823 to 1830. Ignace was the author of a Histoire de la telegraphie (1824). An See also:uncle, Jean Chappe d'Auteroche (1728–1769), was an astronomer who observed two transits of See also:Venus, one in See also:Siberia in 1761, and the other in 1769 in See also:California, where he died.

End of Article: CHAPPE, CLAUDE (1763–18o5)

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