Chappe telegraph

The Chappe telegraph was a French semaphore telegraph system invented by Claude Chappe in the early 1790s.

The system was composed of towers placed every 5 to 15 kilometers. Coded messages were sent from tower to tower, with transmission being handled by tower operators using specially designed telescopes. The messages were decoded once they reached their destination city. By the mid 19th century, the network spanned several hundred kilometres and covered most major French cities as well as Venice, Mainz and Amsterdam.

The system was dismantled after the introduction of the electric telegraph. Today, about twenty Chappe towers remain, in varying states of repair.