![]() ![]() Using this system the time taken by a message from London to reach Portsmouth was reduced to an incredible 15 minutes. This consisted of a rectangular frame fitted with five revolving panels marked with coloured circular shapes, the unique combination of which formed different characters. The English system relied on visual contact to communicate. The immediate success of this system was soon noted by the British, who lost no time in adopting in 1792, a similar invention by Lord George Murray to link the Admiralty in London with the fleet in Portsmouth and Plymouth. In a short span of time over seven hundred signal stations were established all over the French territory, involving thousands of men in their operation. During this period the Chappeās invention was adopted by the French army as an effective means of communication between the capital and the threatened frontiers. The Chappe brothers spent the next few years experimenting on this new means of optical communication till the revolutionary wars broke out, when the newly gained ideals of republicanism in France were seriously threatened by foreign invasion. Here, along with his siblings he decided to set up shop to work on telegraphs. Following the French revolution, Claude the eldest of the two, lost his religious benefices and on 2nd November 1789 he was forced to return to his native Brulon. The invention of the mechanical semaphore is attributed to the French Chappe brothers, Claude and Ignace who while at different schools devised a pole with mechanical arms to maintain contact. ![]()
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