Model of an Optical Telegraph

anonymous, c. 1798 - c. 1800

Model van een optische telegraaf op grondplankje. Het bestaat uit een mast met een ra. Met takels over blokken aan de ra worden twee vlerken halverwege de mast bewogen en twee boeien aan ieder uiteinde van de ra op en neer gehesen.

  • Artwork typedemonstration model
  • Object numberNG-MC-818
  • Dimensionsmodel: height 58.7 cm x width 27.8 cm x depth 18 cm, packaging capsule: height 63.5 cm x width 33.5 cm x depth 23.5 cm
  • Physical characteristicswood, brass and rope

anonymous

Model of an Optical Telegraph

Netherlands, c. 1798 - c. 1800

Provenance

…; collection Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1765-1837), 1807;1HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. F no. 3. Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, 1837;2After the death of Asmus in 1837 models from his private collection remained in the Navy Model Room in The Hague and were henceforth considered an integral part of the collection of the Department of the Navy. transferred to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-818

Entry

Model of an optical telegraph, mounted on a round pedestal.

The model consists of a mast with a yard. Two wings, attached halfway up the mast, are moved with tackles through blocks that hang from the yard; two buoys at each end of the yard can be raised or lowered.

The model is first mentioned as part of the private collection of Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837) in 1807.3HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. F no. 3. Sixty-three of these ‘Batavian’ telegraphs made up the coastal signal stations along the North Sea coast between 1798 and 1801. Both wings and balls, when fittingly sized, can be seen from great distances.

It should be noted that balls are visible from all azimuths, but wings only when seen from the side. The wings were first used by Claude Chappe (1763-1805) in 1793, whereas balls used as signalling devices can be observed on sixteenth-century Spanish maps and were probably even used much earlier. Early Dutch coast signals used fish baskets instead of balls.

Scale unknown.

Literature

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 818; 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; 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); 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; R. Korving and B. van der Herten, Een tijding met de snelheid des bliksems. De optische telegraaf in de Nederlanden (1800-1850), Alphen aan den Rijn 1997, pp. 59-68

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of an Optical Telegraph, Netherlands, c. 1798 - c. 1800', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200315915

(accessed 11 December 2025 05:19:48).

Footnotes

  • 1HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. F no. 3.
  • 2After the death of Asmus in 1837 models from his private collection remained in the Navy Model Room in The Hague and were henceforth considered an integral part of the collection of the Department of the Navy.
  • 3HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. F no. 3.