Two French brothers, Claude and Ignace Chappe invented the mechanical semaphore in 1791. They constructed chains of hilltop towers, spaced 3 to 6 miles (5 to 10 kilometres) apart, outfitted with pairs of movable arms mounted on a crossbeam. Moving the arms and tilting the crossbeam clockwise or counterclockwise produced a mechanical version of flag waving provided a sufficient number of positions to represent the numerals and letters of the alphabet. Skilled signalers were able to transmit 50 characters in one hour from Toulon to Paris. Sending the same message by horseback would have taken three to four days.

Date:
      1791
Name(s):
      Claude and Ignace Chappe
Occupation:
      inventors
Location:
      France

Additional Information:

• Visual Telegraphy
  The first telegraphs were Visual Telegraphs, they used visual signals such as smoke signals and beacons. … In 1793, a Frenchman, Claude Chappe invented the Semaphore Telegraph, which is a visual signaling system.
• Optical telegraph – Wikipedia
  The most widely used system was invented in 1792 in France by Claude Chappe, and was popular in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries. … Semaphore lines were a precursor of the electrical telegraph, which replaced them half a century later, and was also cheaper, faster, and more private.
• telegraph | Invention, History, & Facts | Britannica
  Visual telegraphs were completely replaced by the electric telegraph by the middle of the 19th century. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition …
• The Rise and Fall of the Visual Telegraph | Parisian Fields
  Nov 5, 2017 – It was a two-page item on “Napoleon’s Visual Telegraph: The First … find a history of telegraphy called The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage …
• A brief history of optical telegraph | Xoxzo Official Blog
  Dec 7, 2018 – They had been called a variety of names including the semaphore line and semaphore visual telegraph. A particular system in France named …