The Victorian Internet Read Free Page B

ANNOUNCED THAT THE NATIONAL CONVENTION HAS JUST AUTHORIZED
     HIS COMMITTEE OF GENERAL SECURITY TO PUT SEALS ON THE PAPERS OF THE DEPUTIES") along the line one way, and nine minutes to
     send an equally nondescript reply back again. But the experiment was a success; the committee members, and Lakanal in particular,
     were highly impressed.
    Two weeks later Lakanal addressed the convention in glowing terms on the potential of this great new invention, and how wonderful
     it was that it had been invented by a Frenchman. "What brilliant destiny do science and the arts not reserve for a republic
     which, by the genius of its inhabitants, is called to become the nation to instruct Eu­rope," he gushed. Much of his enthusiasm
     seems to have stemmed from the potential application of the telegraph in holding the newly founded French Republic together,
     by ensuring that the central government in Paris could keep a firm grip on the provinces. At any rate, following his speech,
     the construction of a fifteen-station line from Paris to Lille, about 13o miles to the north, was proposed. Chappe was put
     on a government salary, complete with the use of a horse.
    The Paris-Lille line, the first arm of the French State Telegraph, started operation in May 1794, and on August 15 it was
     used to report the recapture of a town from the Austrians and Prussians within an hour of the battle's end. As the French
     army advanced north into Holland, further victories were reported via the telegraph, and the government's appreciation for
     Chappe's invention grew. By 1798, a second line had been built to the east of Paris as far as Strasbourg, and the Lille line
     had been extended to Dunkirk.
    Napoleon Bonaparte, who seized power in 1799, was a firm believer in the telegraph; he ordered further extension of the network,
     including the construction of a line to Boulogne in preparation for an invasion of England. He also asked Abraham Chappe,
     Claude's younger brother, to design a telegraph capable of signaling across the English Channel. (A successful prototype was
     built and tested between Belleville and Saint-Martin-du-Tertre, the two stations on the original experimental line, the distance
     between which was roughly equivalent to the shortest distance across the Channel. The station on the French side was later
     installed in Boulogne, but Napoleon's plans for the invasion never materialized, so neither did the British station.) In 1804,
     Napoleon ordered the construction of a line from Paris to Milan, via Dijon, Lyons, and Turin. This was to expand the network
     farther than ever before.
    Lakanal's prediction had by this time come true, and France had indeed become "the nation to instruct Eu­rope." Recognizing
     the military value of the telegraph, the governments of other European countries, notably Sweden and Rritain, had quickly
     copied Chappe's design or adopted variations upon it. In Britain, the Admiralty ordered the construction of a line of telegraph
     towers in 1795 to facilitate communication between London and the ports of the south coast during the war with France. The
     British telegraph was designed by George Murray, a clergyman and amateur scientist, and it consisted of six wooden shutters,
     each of which could be opened or closed to give sixty-four possible combinations (since 64 = 2X2X2X2X2X2 = 2 6 ). Soon, telegraph towers were springing up all over Europe.
    T HE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM was rightly regarded as a technological wonder of its time. An entry in the 1797 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica strikes a note of technological optimism that sounds familiar today: "The capitals of distant nations might be united by chains
     of posts, and the settling of those disputes which at present take up months or years might then be accomplished in as many
     hours." The author of the encyclopedia entry also suggested that it might be worth opening up the network to paying customers:
     "An establishment of telegraphs might then be