Télégraphe Chappe

CHAPPE Telegraph - an optical communication system based on special semaphores' network, invented by Frenchman Claude Chapppe. Presented for the first time in 1792, he was soon introduced throughout France.

Claude's brother, Ignace, was a deputy to the French Revolutionary Parliament. Thanks to his acquaintances, he managed to get funds to launch the relay line from Lille to Paris, this way the most important news from the front was to be delivered.