A turn of Cap is optical means of communication by semaphore on distances of several hundred kilometers developed by Claude Chappe in 1794.
- Communiquer on long distances is not a recent problem. Between the speed of the horse to the gallop and the beginnings of the electric Telegraph, Claude Chappe developped at the point a clever communication system of air telegraph during the Revolution. The “turns of Cap” was capped with a mobile chechmate visible with the binocular of the tower close, distant of approximately 25 km. The line Paris - Lille was thus operational since 1794 and made it possible for example to transmit messages between these two cities in only six hours.
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In 1844, 534 turns square the French territory connecting on more than 5.000 km the most important agglomerations. In 1845, the first line of telegraph electric is installed in France between Paris and Rouen, ringing the knell of the Turns of Cap.
Partly restored and functional a Chappe tower is to approximately 1,5 km of the village of Annoux in the Yonne. It belonged to the Paris-Lyon-Marseilles line. The telegraphists knew 6 functional signs and were subjected to a very severe mode of presence.
Another perfectly given in state and functional calculus is with the top of the village of Saint-Marcan in Ille-et-Vilaine. It belonged to the line Paris - Brest. One can also quote that of Saverne on the line Paris - Strasbourg.
Evocation in the literature
One of the episodes of the novel of Alexandre Dumas the Count of Assembles-Cristo brings into play the Chappe telegraph. It corresponds to chapters LX and especially LXI: the Count of Assembles-Cristo corrupts the employee of one of the turns which compose the line of Paris in Spain and makes him carry out other signs that those of the dispatch sent from Spain; he results from it in Paris a short stock exchange panic where its Danglars enemy loses a large sum. This passage is for Dumas the occasion to describe enough in detail the operation of a line of Chappe telegraph.
Related articles
External bonds
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the Telegraphs Cap (Web site of the central School of Lyon)
- the telegraph Cap
- the telegraph Cap in Louis Fig tree, '' wonders of science '', T. 2 (on gallica)
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the tower of Saint-Marcan (Ille-et-Vilaine)
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