Claude Chappe

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Claude Chappe
How the Telegraphe Chappe works
Replica on the Litermont near Nalbach

Abbé Claude Chappe (born December 25, 1763 in Brûlon , Maine , † January 23, 1805 in Paris ) was a French technician and clergyman .

life and work

Chappe developed together with his two brothers Abraham and Ignace in 1791 what he called a tachygraf (fast writer) device. It enabled the rapid transmission of both open and coded messages over long distances. From 1793/94 onwards, since the construction of the first long-distance line from Paris to Lille (225 km), it was about a completely new communication technology that was successfully practiced in many European countries and primarily served military and economic purposes.

In this context, the department head in the Ministry of War, André-François Comte Miot de Mélito (1762–1841), introduced the designation télégraphe . It was an advantage that the National Convention on July 19, 1794 legally stipulated the property rights of authors, composers, painters and draftsmen to their works.

The Chappe'sche Télégraf ( Sémaphore ) consisted of a five-meter-high wooden frame, at the upper end of which a 4.62 m long and 0.35 m wide beam (regulator) was attached pivotably around its center. At each end of the beam there was a 2 m long and also swiveling arm (indicator) with a counterweight to make it easier to set the positions of the characters.

Three movable arms could be adjusted using pulleys and ropes so that 196 different characters could be formed with the meaning of words and sentences. The swing arm devices were erected on tall buildings. Their distance from one another was usually around 11 km. Telescopes were part of the equipment of each station in order to be able to observe the set signs of the neighboring stations in both directions. A sign covered a distance of 135 km in one minute. With the help of lamps that were attached to the wing arms, attempts were made to telegraph at night.

Chappe died by suicide on January 23, 1805 in Paris.

Honor

The "Collège Claude Chappe - Ida Grinspan " school in Paris (also) bears his name.

See also

literature

  • Guy de Saint Denis (ed.): La Télégraphie Chappe . Editions de l'Est, Nancy 1993.
  • Michael Köhler: Winged news . Claude Chappe looks over the country and introduces optical telegraphy. In: Michael Köhler: Media Pioneers. Divine messengers of modernity. Bouvier, Bonn 2004. ISBN 978-3-416-03046-5
  • Eckart Roloff : Claude Chappe: An Abbé gives the news wings and invents the optical telegraph revolution! In: Eckart Roloff: Divine flashes of inspiration. Pastors and priests as inventors and discoverers. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2010. pp. 221–234 (with information on places of remembrance, museums, streets, associations, postage stamps, etc.). ISBN 978-3-527-32578-8 . 2nd updated edition 2012 (paperback) ISBN 978-3-527-32864-2
  • Eckart Roloff: clergy with flashes of inspiration . (About Claude Chappe and Jacob Christian Schäffer.) In: Culture and Technology. The magazine from the Deutsches Museum. Issue 3/2012, pp. 48–51. ISSN  0344-5690 .

Web links

Commons : Claude Chappe  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Collège Claude Chappe - Ida Grinspan website of the school, accessed on December 28, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Chappe, Claude
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French technician and clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1763
PLACE OF BIRTH Brûlon , Maine (Province)
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1805
Place of death Paris