Model of a Cabin for Telegraph Personnel

...; collection Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1765-1837), Amsterdam, 1807;¹¹HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. F no. 4. Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, 1837; transferred to the museum, 1883

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-820

Model of a cabin for personnel of an optical telegraph.

The model is a smaller version of the cabin represented by model NG-MC-822. It is a rectangular cabin with a hipped roof made entirely out of loose panels and beams, and held together with sliding bolts. One of the short sides is provided with a bunk with lockers above and beneath it.

According to Obreen this cabin dates from 1803 and belongs to the telegraph represented by model number 819.²²J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 820. The model is first mentioned as part of the private collection of Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837) in 1807.³³HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. F no. 4.

Cabins of this type were specially designed as a kind of do-it-yourself kit for swift erection and moving.

Scale unknown.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 820; 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), p. 11; 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

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Cabin for Telegraph Personnel, Netherlands, 1803', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244634