Model of an Optical Telegraph for Ships

Engelbertus Lucas, 1836

Model van een optische telegraaf, op voetstuk. De paal, gemaakt van ijzer, kan een mast of vlaggestok voorstellen, waaraan de bewegende delen zijn bevestigd. Vier vierkante houten borden zijn bevestigd aan een ra, waar zij omheen kunnen draaien. Met hendels beneden kunnen zij ieder in drie standen gezet worden: rechtopstaand, horizontaal of hangend.

  • Artwork typedemonstration model
  • Object numberNG-MC-825
  • Dimensionsheight 49.5 cm x width 33.8 cm x depth 14 cm
  • Physical characteristicswood, brass and iron

Engelbertus Lucas

Model of an Optical Telegraph for Ships

Netherlands, 1836

Inscriptions

  • label, on the base:825 former inventory label

Provenance

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

Object number: NG-MC-825

Entry

Model of an optical telegraph for ships, mounted on a square pedestal.

The pole, made of iron, could represent a mast or flagpole to which the moving parts are attached. Four square wooden boards are hung on an iron yard, around which they can turn, and be moved by means of handles from below. They can each be set in one of three positions: upright, horizontal, or hanging.

This telegraph is a design by Captain Engelbert Lucas (1785-1870) that was to be used on ships.1J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 825. A similar telegraph can be seen on a drawing of the island Onrust in the Jakarta Bay and on an engraving of the Batavia harbour from circa 1850, indicating that there was telegraphic communication between the island, which at the time was a Navy yard, and the naval authorities on the mainland.

Scale unknown.

Literature

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 825; A.A. Lemmers, ‘Het oog op Onrust’, Marineblad 109 (1999), no. 6, pp. 260-69; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 128-31

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Engelbertus Lucas, Model of an Optical Telegraph for Ships, Netherlands, 1836', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200315918

(accessed 13 December 2025 18:52:00).

Footnotes

  • 1J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 825.