...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-1047

Model of an optical telegraph mounted on an octagonal foot.

The telegraph consists of a mast with three arms. The arms turn around their centre by means of a tackle. They consist of lattice work to reduce their weight; one end is black, the other end, a counterweight only, is white and open, which makes it almost invisible at a distance. Each arm can be set in six different positions. Around the foot an octagonal cabin with pointed roof has been built, exposing the interior and operating mechanism inside.

This model was formerly listed in the inventory as model number 821, but it is certainly not a model belonging to the cabin of NG-MC-822, as Obreen describes number 821 in his catalogue.¹¹J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 821. The model was allotted number 1047 by a process of elimination and the scant inventory description: ‘Dutch signpost’. The catalogue number is therefore uncertain.

Charles Depillon’s (1768-1805) telegraph was invented in 1800 and adopted by the French Navy along with Claude Chappe’s (1763-1805) telegraph. For coastal purposes, Depillon’s telegraph was much easier to use and also much cheaper to construct. However, to spare Chappe’s feelings, who was not consulted in the affair, the new telegraph was called a ‘sémaphore’ rather than a ‘télégraphe’.

The semaphores were placed on top of church towers. In 1806 the northern line was extended from France to Zeeland.

Scale unknown.

M. Jacob, Signaux de la ligne sémaphorique établie sur les côtes de l’océan, depuis Flessingue jusqu’à Baïonne, Paris 1806; M. Jacob, Signaux de la ligne sémaphorique établie sur les côtes de l’océan, depuis Anvers jusqu’à Baïonne, Paris 1812; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 821; J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1047; M. Parlange, Les signaux de la défense des côtes en Belgique, aux Pays-Bas et en Allemagne sous l’occupation française (1794-1814), The Hague/Brussels 1968; E. Ludwig, Aantekeningen betreffende de Franse Kust-Semaphoor 1806-1814, Amsterdam 1986, manuscript in RMA, folder NG-MC-810/825 (telegrafen); C.P.P. van Romburgh, De Hollandse kustbeseining. De Franse invloed op de technische en organisatorische ontwikkeling van de kusttelegrafen 1794-1813, Leiden 1989 (diss. Rijksuniversiteit Leiden); M. Marzari, Progetti per l’imperatore. Andrea Salvini ingegnere a l’arsenal 1802-1817, Trieste 1990, pp. 85-88, 98, pls. XLVII-XLVIII; H. Bakis, ‘La télégraphie sémaphorique sur le littoral français’, L’Information Historique 53 (1991), pp. 27-39; E. Ludwig, Beschrijvingen van de telegraafmodellen in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, s.l. 1992, manuscript in RMA, folder NG-MC-810/825 (telegrafen); G. de Saint Denis, ‘Télégraphes et sémaphores en Europe du nord-ouest fin XVIIIe-début XIXème siècle’, in Bicentenaire du télégraphe Chappe. Colloque international des 13-14-15 Octobre 1993 (Fédération Nationale des Associations de personnel des Postes et Télécommunications pour la Recherche Historique) 1993, pp. 181-91; C.C.P. van Romburgh, ‘De revolutionaire verreschrijver’, in H. Stevens (ed.), The Art of Technology: The Navy Model Collection in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam/Wormer 1995, pp. 30-33; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 128-31

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of an Optical Telegraph, Netherlands, 1800', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200316049