A CENTURY OF THE TELEGRAPH IN FRANCE. 795 



The Convention, whicli had succeeded to the Legislative Assem- 

 bly in the meanwhile, resent the petition to the committee, but it 

 was not until the 1st of April, 1793, that the deputy Romme 

 mounted to the tribune for there to give reading of an admirable 

 report, of which the following is a little excerpt, describing briefly 

 the invention : 



" The citizen Chappe offers an ingenious means of writing in 

 the air by displaying some characters very trifling in number, 

 simple as the straight lines of which they are composed, very dis- 

 tinct between them, of a rapid execution, and sensible at great 

 distances. To this first part of his procedure he uses a stenog- 

 raphy used in the diplomatic correspondences. We have made 

 some objections to him ; he has foreseen them, and has responded 

 victoriously. He removes all the difficulties which may present 

 themselves on the land over which is directed his line of corre- 

 spondence ; a sole case resists his means : this is that of a very 

 thick fog which comes over the north, in the aqueous countries, 

 and in winter ; but outside this very rare case (which resists 

 equally all the processes known) they will have recourse momen- 

 tarily to the ordinary means. The intermediary agents employed 

 in the procedures of the citizen Chappe can not in any manner 

 betray the secret of his correspondence, because the stenographic 

 value of the signals will be unknown to them. Two verbal pro- 

 cesses of the municipality of the Sarthe attest the success of this 

 procedure in an essay which the author has made for them, and 

 permitting the author to advance with some assurance that with 

 his procedure, the dispatch which reported the news of the taking 

 of Bruxelles had been transmitted to the Convention and trans- 

 lated in twenty-five minutes." 



[That was, note, a hundred years ago. Bruxelles is six hours 

 by express from Paris. The speed of transmitting over the aerial 

 telegraph of then was much quicker than by the electric tele- 

 graph of to-day, for at present it takes much longer than half an 

 hour generally an hour to remit an ordinary telegram from an 

 office in the Belgian capital to a domicile in Paris.] 



In the same sitting the National Convention rendered a decree 

 authorizing the trials, and naming three commissaries Lakanal, 

 Daunou, and Arbogast. A violent opposition was soon mani- 

 fested, but Lakanal sustained Chappe with all his authority, and 

 the inventor could construct a veritable telegraphic line of thirty- 

 five kilometres, starting from the lake St.-Fargeau, at Mdnilmon- 

 tant. 



Finally, on the 12th of July, 1793, took place the definite trials, 

 which were for Chappe a veritable triumph. He received the 

 title of engineer-telegraphist, with the appointments attributed 

 to lieutenants of artillery. 



