OPTICAL TELEGRAPHY. 
9 
attached to them, of which the intermediate agents may how¬ 
ever have no knowledge. In order that it may be known that 
the signal has been properly given from the summit of the 
cabin, there is placed within, at the lower part of the posts 
that support the telegraph, a repeater, which serves as handle 
for giving movement, thus at once taking and giving the figure 
which has to be formed at the upper part. 
Such is the system of Claude Chappe, which he fortunately 
got adopted, thanks to the good offices of his brother Ignatius, 
who had been appointed member of the Legislative Assembly 
in October, 1791. By the aid of his relative Delaunay, 
formerly Consul of France at Lisbon, Claude Chappe drew up 
a secret vocabulary of 9,999 words, in which each w r ord was 
represented by a number. Such were the results presented by 
Claude Chappe, on the 22nd March, 1792, to the Legislative 
Assembly, before whom he was admitted. In the speech 
which he made on this occasion he asked the Assembly that, 
if the invention should be successful, he should merely be 
recouped for the expenses of his experiment. 
The examination of his machine was referred to a com¬ 
mittee ; but it was not until the 1st April, 1793, that Eomme, 
the secretary of this committee, reported in favour of the 
adoption of Claude Chappe’s system of telegraphy. Eomme 
ended his report by asking the Assembly for a vote of the 
money necessary to establish a preliminary experimental line. 
The Convention voted the insignificant sum of 6,000 francs, at 
the same time directing the committee to appoint a commis¬ 
sion before whom the new T apparatus should be worked. The 
members of this commission were Arbogast, Daunou, and 
Lakanal, to the last of whom Claude Chappe was indebted for 
the final adoption of his telegraph by the Convention. An 
experiment made on the 12th Juty, 1793, had so distinctly 
told in favour of Chappe’s system that there was no longer 
room for hesitation. Lakanal, who had been appointed secre¬ 
tary to the commission, made a deep impression on the 
Assembly when he read his report before it, on the 26th July, 
1793. He wound up by proposing to confer on Claude 
Chappe the title of Telegraph Engineer with the stipend of a 
lieutenant of engineers, and proposing also that they should 
consider what lines of communication the Committee of Public 
