INVENTOR

Claude Chappe

1763 - 1805

Photo of Claude Chappe

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Claude Chappe (French: [klod ʃap]; 25 December 1763 – 23 January 1805) was a French inventor who in 1792 demonstrated a practical semaphore system that eventually spanned all of France. His system consisted of a series of towers, each within line of sight of others, each supporting a wooden mast with two crossarms on pivots that could be placed in various positions. The operator in a tower moved the arms to a sequence of positions, spelling out text messages in semaphore code. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Claude Chappe has received more than 378,894 page views. His biography is available in 30 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 26 in 2019). Claude Chappe is the 74th most popular inventor (up from 79th in 2019), the 910th most popular biography from France (down from 906th in 2019) and the 11th most popular French Inventor.

Claude Chappe was a French inventor who is most famous for inventing the Chappe telegraph. The Chappe telegraph was a system of semaphore that used a series of towers with movable arms to send messages.

Memorability Metrics

  • 380k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 63.66

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 30

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.89

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 1.97

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Claude Chappe ranks 74 out of 426. Before him are Jacques Piccard, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, Oleg Antonov, Josephine Cochrane, Les Paul, and George Eastman. After him are Charles K. Kao, Kōnosuke Matsushita, Jacques de Vaucanson, Alois Senefelder, Ray Tomlinson, and Bi Sheng.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1763, Claude Chappe ranks 7. Before him are Empress Joséphine, Charles XIV John of Sweden, Józef Poniatowski, Jacques Charles, Jean Paul, and Jean Victor Marie Moreau. After him are Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, Augustin Robespierre, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, Kobayashi Issa, Guillaume Brune, and Xavier de Maistre. Among people deceased in 1805, Claude Chappe ranks 6. Before him are Friedrich Schiller, Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, Luigi Boccherini, Isabelle de Charrière, and Jean-Baptiste Greuze. After him are Maria Theresa of Savoy, Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Denmark, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, Mihrişah Sultan, and Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron.

Others Born in 1763

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Others Deceased in 1805

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In France

Among people born in France, Claude Chappe ranks 910 out of 6,770. Before him are Claude Lelouch (1937), Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657), Joan the Lame (1293), René Clément (1913), Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy (1143), and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772). After him are Jean Anouilh (1910), Jean-Pierre Sauvage (1944), Stéphane Audran (1932), Antoine Galland (1646), Ivo of Kermartin (1253), and Sigismund of Burgundy (500).

Others born in France

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Among INVENTORS In France

Among inventors born in France, Claude Chappe ranks 11. Before him are Denis Papin (1647), Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752), Nicolas Appert (1749), Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (1725), Louis Renault (1877), and Louis Blériot (1872). After him are Jacques de Vaucanson (1709), Étienne-Jules Marey (1830), André-Jacques Garnerin (1769), Alphonse Bertillon (1853), Louis Le Prince (1841), and Clément Ader (1841).

French born Inventors

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