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2Q& THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF TELE<mAPKS^
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
. ¦ •¦ The Word " Telegraph" (Derived Fr...
of the Louvre ; and _JViL Chappe , having received , from-the Com- , mrfctee of Public / Welfare" a message to be forwarded to Lisle ,
where the French army was then stationed , gave a known signal to Mont Martre , wMeh was the second station , to prepare . At each
station there was a watch tower , where telescopes were fixed , aneL the person on watch gave the signal of preparation . This was .
repeated all along the line , which brought each person in a state of readiness to receive the intelligence . The master at Mont Martre ?
then received letter by letter the sentence from the \ Louvre , whicli he repeated with his own machine , and this was again repeated ;
_frpm the next height with as much rapidity as- -was possible under the circumstances , until the message finally arrived at Lisle just
two minutes after leaving Paris . The upright post whieh was erected on the Louvre had at the top two transverse arms , movable ,
in all directions by a single piece of mechanism . M . Chappe invented a number of positions for these arms , which stood as signs
for the letters of the alphabet , and even these were reduced as much : as possible ; moreoveras the signs were arbitrary they could be
, changed every week , so that the sign of B for one day might be the _sigrtal for "M . the next , ——all that was necessary being that the
persons at the extremities should know the key . Two working : models of this instrument were executed at Frankfort and sent by
Mr . W . Playfair to the Duke of York , and hence the plan and alphabet of the instrument came to England .
Like all inventors , M . Chappe met with great opposition and discouragement : the people were averse to the use of telegraphs at
all . His first instrument and station were destroyed by the populace , his second shared the same fate , it was burnt to the ground ,, and M .
Chappe himself narrowly escaped with his life , for the populace threatened to burn him along with his telegraphs . Subsequently ,
as we have already shown , the subject was taken up by the French government , and his telegraph afterwards extensively used on the
continent . This description of telegraph , which was called the aerial , was
first established in England in 1795 , a line of stations being formed from the Admiralty to the sea-coastand information was
by this means conveyed from London to Dover , in seven minutes . The expense of maintaining and working the line from London to
Portsmouth was three thousand three hundred pounds per annum . We believe the last used in this country was that from Liverpool
to Holyhead , which was at work as late as 1852 , at a cost of fifteen hundred pounds a year .
tip to this period , however , as Mr . VaUance observes , telegraphiccommunication had only been a means of intercourse that was
serviceable during those portions of the twenty-four hours when the greater lightthat ruler of the daywas visibleand when clear
, , , weather admitted _uamteimrpted vision for a distance of ten miles .
It had , indeed , been proposed to remedy this disadvantage by
2q& The Rise And Progress Of Tele<Mapks^
2 Q _& THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF _TELE < mAPKS _^
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1859, page 200, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111859/page/56/
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