796 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The telegraph was thus finally officially founded. 



But on the 23d of January, 1805, the unfortunate Claude 

 Chappe, tortured by a cancer in the ear, committed suicide by 

 throwing himself in the pits of the hotel des tdl^graphes, rue de 

 Grenelle-Saint-Germain 103. He was aged only forty-two years. 



A Military Post, 1794. 



A stone which is still in the court of the hotel, near the central 

 post, bears this simple inscription : " To Claude Chappe." 



In 1844 the aerial network had in France a stretch of five 

 thousand kilometres, and comprised five hundred and thirty-four 

 stations. It was henceforth not to increase, because the first 

 trials of the electric telegraph were taking place in Albion, and 

 had created an immense sensation. 



An order of the 23d of November, 1844, opened an extraordi- 



