The Mechanical Telegraph

Long before the days of Morse Code or the telephone, the only way to send messages quickly was to use a mechanical telegraph system. These comprised a set of interconnected mechanical levers that were placed high up on a tower. These levers could be positioned in a number of ways with each combination either representing a letter or a code that could be looked up within a code book to reveal a more complex message. Shown here is a model of the Claude Chappe Mechanical Telegraph of 1792. The French created a national network based upon this system that covered a distance of 2,983 miles using 556 telegraph stations. Messages could be sent from Paris to Lille in 2 minutes and from Paris to Calais in less than 5 minutes.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• claude
• chappe
• claudechappe
• history
• telegraph
• telecommunications
• semaphore

[thecrowandthehawk]

This guy is definitely English. SECOND POST!!!!

[mydigitaltrends]

interesting! I never knew this. Thank you!