183 
had doubtless read in the newspapers of the time references 
to this wonderful invention of the French, but he was cer- 
tainly one of the first to give the word a welcome to litera- 
ture, assuming, of course, for the moment, that the debatable 
ground of dialectal writing is literature. 
The word “telegraph,” unlike the great bulk of words, 
did not grow but was invented, and we have the testimony 
of its godfather as to the time, place, and circumstances of 
its baptism. Chappe was the inventor of an apparatus for 
the transmission of news by aerial signals, and had the usual 
difficulty of inventors. He haunted the office of the war 
minister in order to induce him to adopt the new system. 
One day whilst he was enlarging upon the advantages of 
his apparatus, which he then called tachygraphe, Miot de 
Melito observed that the word w^as badly chosen, and that 
he ought to change it to telegraphe. Chappe acknowledged 
the justness of this suggestion. Tachygraphy was a term 
that had long been used as a synonym for shorthand, whilst 
telegraph and telegraphy were quite new and fairly descrip- 
tive of the novelty. M. Maxime du Camp has given a 
very interesting account of the struggles of Chappe and of 
the genesis of his invention in the R4vue des deux Mondes, 
15 Mars, 1867; p. 464 Telegraphing by signals was known 
in an elementary fashion to the Romans. In England 
Robert Hooke invented a complicated arrangement for 
alphabetical signalling. Guillaume Amontons, who died 
in 1705, made experiments in the garden of the Luxem- 
bourg, which were witnessed by the Dauphin. Linguet, 
whilst a prisoner in the Bastille, invented a system of aerial 
signalling. Dupuis was the author of a method for the 
attainment of the same object, but he abandoned his plan 
in favour of that of Chappe. The inventor of the French 
telegraph, Claude Chappe, was born at Brulon (Sarthe), in 
1763, and was destined for the priesthood. The seminary 
to which he was sent being about three quarters of a league 
