On the Invention of the Telegraph. 313 



Forty years after, M. Amontons, an ingenious French 

 mechanic, born at Paris in 1663, and who died in 1705 at 

 the age of 42, propofed the following method : " Let there 

 be people placed in feveral ftations, at fuch a diftance from 

 one another, that by the help of a telefcope a man in one 

 ftation may fee a fignal made in the next before him : he 

 mud immediately make the fame fignal, that it may be feen, 

 by perfons in the ftation next after him, who are to commu- 

 nicate it to thofe in the following ftation, and fo on. Thefe 

 fignals may be as letters of the alphabet, or as a cypher, un- 

 derftood only by the two perfons who are in the diftant 

 places, and not by thofe who make the fignals. The perfon 

 in the fecond ftation making the fignal to the perfon in the 

 third, the very moment he fees it in the firft, the news may 

 be canfed to the greateft diftance in as little time as is ne- 

 ceffary to make the fignals in the firft ftation. The diftance 

 of the feveral ftations, which muft be as few as pofiible, is 

 meafured by the reach of a telefcope." Amontons tried this 

 method on a fmall tract of land, before feveral perfons of the 

 higheft rank at the court of France. 



Whether the telegraph be a French invention, as that nation 

 afferts *, or whether Amontons' plan for conveying intelli- 

 gence was founded on the hint thrown out by the Marquis of 

 Worcefter, we (hall not here examine; but it is certain that 

 the idea of a telegraph, upon a fimilar conftruction to thofe 

 ufed at prefent, was fuggefted by Dr. Hook towards the end 



* In Rapport general dcs 'frarjaux de la Societe Philcmatique, p. 35, the 

 author, fpeaking of the papers read befoic the fociety, fays : " Citizen 

 Chappe has at different times given you an account of his experiments, 

 and of the refult of thofe labours by which he has been able to bring the 

 telegraph to its prefent degree of perfection. At firft his difcoveries were 

 doubted, and foon after they were carried into execution it was pretended 

 that traces of this invention were to be found in the works of feveral 

 ancient authors. Experience, however, has already done juftice in regard 

 to the firft affertion ; time will do the fame in regard to the fecond; and 

 the glory of this invention will remain to its author, and to the nation to 

 ivbub he has had the honour of presenting it." 



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