2-750-906 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

First telegraph despatch from Lyon, 4 March 1815, (1921). 'Première dépêche télégraphique de Lyon'. Message sent via French inventor Claude Chappe's (1763-1805) optical telegraph (semaphore) system, devised in 1793. Messages were converted into semaphore using movable arms on the tops of repeater towers which were placed from 12 to 25 km (10 to 20 miles) apart. The message was read through a telescope, then relayed it to the next tower. Messages sent from Paris could reach the outer fringes of the country in a matter of three or four hours. Before, it had taken despatch riders on horseback a similar number of days. Chappe's system was in use until about 1850 when electric telegraph systems replaced it. This message states that the 'emperor has arrived on the coast of France with 1600 men'. Facsimile document from "Napoleon", by Raymond Guyot, [H. Floury, Paris, 1921]