Editing Claude Chappe

{{short description|Late 18th-century French inventor}}
{{redirect|Tachygraph|the device used for recording vehicle data|Tachograph}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox engineer
|image = AduC 175 Chappe (Claude, 1765-1828).JPG
|image_size  =
|caption = Claude Chappe
|name = Claude Chappe
|nationality = French
|birth_date = 25 December 1763
|birth_place = [[Brûlon]], [[Sarthe]], France
|death_date = {{death-date and age|23 January 1805|25 December 1763}}
|death_place = [[Paris]], France
|education =
|spouse =
|parents =
|children =
|discipline =
|institutions =
|practice_name =
|significant_projects = [[semaphore line|semaphore system]]
|significant_design =
|significant_advance =[[telecommunications]]
|significant_awards =
}}

'''Claude Chappe''' ({{IPA|fr|klod ʃap|lang}}; 25 December 1763 – 23 January 1805) was a French inventor who in 1792 demonstrated a practical [[semaphore line|semaphore system]] that eventually spanned all of [[France]].  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]], then passed it on to the next tower. This was the first practical [[telecommunications]] system of the [[industrial age]], and was used until the 1850s when [[electric telegraph]] systems replaced it.

==Early life ==
[[File:Télégraphe Chappe - tour Jonquières 7.JPG|thumbnail|left|A [[Chappe telegraph]] tower, in [[Narbonne]], in the south of France.]]
Claude Chappe was born in Brûlon, [[Sarthe]], France, the son of Ignace Chappe, a ''contrôleur'' ([[Intendant (government official)|intendant]]) of the [[Crown lands of France|Crown lands]] for [[Laval, Mayenne|Laval]], and his wife Marie Devernay, daughter of a [[physician]] of Laval. He was raised for church service, but lost his [[sinecure]] during the [[French Revolution]]. He was educated at the ''[[Lycée Pierre Corneille (Rouen)|Lycée Pierre Corneille]]'' in [[Rouen]].<ref name="LyCo6">{{cite web|url=http://lgcorneille-lyc.spip.ac-rouen.fr/spip.php?article6|title=Lycée Pierre Corneille de Rouen - The Lycée Corneille of Rouen|website=lgcorneille-lyc.spip.ac-rouen.fr|access-date=1 May 2018}}</ref>

His uncle was the [[astronomer]] [[Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche]], famed for his observations of the [[Transit of Venus]] 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/cscie129/papers/Early_History_of_Data_Networks/The_Early_History_of_Data_Networks.html|title=The Early History of Data Networks|website=people.seas.harvard.edu|access-date=1 May 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170401225210/http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/cscie129/papers/Early_History_of_Data_Networks/The_Early_History_of_Data_Networks.html|archive-date=1 April 2017}}</ref>

He and his four unemployed brothers decided to develop a practical system of semaphore relay stations, a task proposed in antiquity, yet never realized.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.computer-timeline.com/timeline/claude-chappe//|title=Claude Chappe|access-date=8 May 2024}}</ref>

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.
[[File:Télégraphe Chappe 1.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Chappe's telegraph]]
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&nbsp;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").<ref name ="beyer">Beyer, p. 60</ref> However, the [[French Army|Army]] preferred to use the word ''telegraph'' ("far writer"), which was coined by French statesman [[André François Miot de Mélito]].<ref>Le Robert historique de la langue française, 1992, 1998</ref> Today, in order to distinguish it from subsequent telegraph systems, the [[French Language|French]] name for Chappe's semaphore telegraph system is named after him, and thus is known as a [[Telegraph Chappe]].<ref name ="tour"/> Alternatively, Chappe coined the phrase ''semaphore'',<ref>''Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions & Discoveries of the 18th Century'', Jonathan Shectman, p. 172</ref> from the [[Greek language|Greek]] elements σῆμα (sêma, "sign"); and from φορός (phorós, "carrying"),<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary''.</ref> or φορά (phorá, "a carrying") from φέρειν (phérein, "to bear").<ref>''Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.</ref>

In 1794, the first messages were successfully sent between [[Paris]] and [[Lille]].<ref name="tour">French source: [http://www.saintefoyleslyon.fr/index.php?rubrique=142 Tour du télégraphe Chappe] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928210813/http://www.saintefoyleslyon.fr/index.php?rubrique=142 |date=28 September 2011 }}</ref> In 1794 the semaphore line informed Parisians of the capture of [[Condé-sur-l'Escaut]] 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]] to coordinate his empire and army.<ref name ="tour"/>

In 1805, Claude Chappe [[Suicide|killed himself]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/106172/Claude-Chappe|title=Claude Chappe (French engineer)|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=7 August 2009|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625025421/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/106172/Claude-Chappe|archive-date=25 June 2009}}</ref> He was said to be depressed by illness, and claims by rivals that he had plagiarized from military semaphore systems.
[[File:Chappe semaphore.jpg|thumb|upright|Demonstration of the 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 [[electric telegraph]] lines and committed to fully replacing the Chappe telegraph in 1846. Many contemporaries warned of the ease of [[sabotage]] 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 [[Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855)|fall of Sevastopol]] in 1855.<ref>Holzmann, Gerard J.; Pehrson, Bjorn, ''The Early History of Data Networks'', pp. 92–94, John Wiley & Sons, 1995 {{isbn|0818667826}}.</ref>

==Popular culture==
The Chappe semaphore figures prominently in [[Alexandre Dumas]]' ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]''. The Count bribes an underpaid operator to transmit a false message.

==Memorials==
[[File:Statue de Chappe à Paris.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue de Chappe à Paris]]
Rue Chappe in the [[18th arrondissement of Paris]], is named after Chappe.<ref>Booking.com, [https://www.booking.com/hotel/fr/studio-sacre-coup-de-coeur.en-gb.html Sacré Coup de Cœur - Studio], accessed 22 January 2023</ref> A bronze sculpture of him was erected at the crossing of [[Rue du Bac, Paris|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.messynessychic.com/2016/01/07/where-the-statues-of-paris-were-sent-to-die/|title=Where the Statues of Paris were sent to Die|date=7 January 2016|website=messynessychic.com|access-date=1 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180319083007/http://www.messynessychic.com/2016/01/07/where-the-statues-of-paris-were-sent-to-die/|archive-date=19 March 2018}}</ref>

==See also==
*{{Interlanguage link multi|Chappe code|fr|3=Code Chappe}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Beyer, Rick, (2003) ''The Greatest Stories Never Told'', Harper Collins, {{ISBN|0-06-001401-6}}
* [[Gerard J. Holzmann]] and Bjorn Pehrson, ''[http://spinroot.com/gerard/hist.html The Early History of Data Networks]'', John Wiley & Sons, {{ISBN|0818667826}}
* Standage, Tom, (1998) ''The Victorian Internet'', Bloomsbury Publishing, {{ISBN|978-1-62040-592-5}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110317051817/http://chappe.ec-lyon.fr/ French article: ''Les Télégraphes Chappe'', l'Ecole Centrale de Lyon]
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k24675w French article: Le télégraphe aérien, in ''Les merveilles de la science'', de Louis Figuier, t. 2, pages 20–68]
* [http://www.difesa.it/InformazioniDellaDifesa/periodico/IlPeriodico_AnniPrecedenti/Documents/Il_telegrafo_ottico_dalla_Rivoluz_224Crimea.pdf 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]

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{{Telecommunications}}

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