Model of an Optical Telegraph

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

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-813

Model of an optical shutter telegraph with a code table.

The telegraph consists of a rectangular wooden board with seven different sawn-out shapes that are set in one line and can be covered with brass shutters.

The code table, drawn in ink on paper, pasted on to a separate board, shows the combinations of signs for the letters of the alphabet and three punctuation marks: the comma, the colon and the full stop.

According to Obreen this telegraph is a British design.¹¹J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 813.

Scale unknown.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 813; G. Wilson, The Old Telegraphs, London 1976, pp. 11-63; E. Ludwig, Beschrijvingen van de telegraafmodellen in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, s.l. 1992, manuscript in RMA, folder NG-MC-810/825 (telegrafen)

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous or anonymous, Model of an Optical Telegraph, , 1795 - 1816', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244627